ANNALS OF YORKSHIRE. K B LEEDS. A. D. 1770 Leeds and in 1777. LEEDS, the largest and most populous town in Yorkshire, is, it need scarcely be said, the chief seat of the woollen manufacture. It is a parish (St. Peter) and liberty, in the West-riding of the county, comprising the market town and borough of Leeds, which has a separate jurisdiction, though locally in the wapontake of Skyrack. Its situation is peculiarly favourable for trade and commerce. The river Aire, which passes through the town, towards its southward boundary, is navigable from the Humber up to the town, and the Leeds and Liverpool canal, constructed in 1777, Liverpool joins the Aire, and opens a direct line of navigation between Hull Canal and Liverpool, and the principal towns in the kingdom. This projected canal, for which the first act was obtained in 1770, was not completed to Liverpool till 1816. The whole length is 128 miles, the average breadth, 72 feet, and the depth 5 feet; the number of locks from Leeds to the summit is 44, and the rise 411 feet 4 inches, and the number of locks from the summit to Liverpool, 47, and the fall 433 feet 3 inches. It communicates with the Ribble by the Douglas navigation, and a branch from Wigan to Leigh connects it with the Bridgewater canal. The Aire and Calder Navigation Company have extensive ranges of warehouses and a commodious wharf, from which boats pass to Goole. From what has already been observed, it will be seen that this town, placed in the middle of that fine line of inland navigation, which extends here without interruption across the island, is equally open to the eastern and western seas, having an easy communication with the great depots of commerce that have arisen on the opposite shores of the kingdom, with Hull on the one hand, and Liverpool on the other. In the first and second charters of incorporation, it is stated that the borough is co-extensive with the parish, but at present, it A. D. Extent of the comprises the several townships of Armley, Beeston, Bramley, 1080-1086 Chapel Allerton, Farnley, Headingley-cum-Burley, Holbeck, Hunslet, Leeds, Potternewton, Wortley, respectively within the parish of Leeds; the several hamlets of Coldcotes, in the township of Seacroft; Osmondthorpe, Skelton, Thornes, in the township of Temple Newsam, in the parish of Whitkirk; and also a portion of Borough. the township of Cookridge, in the parish of Adel. The extent of the borough from Stanningley, in the township of Bramley, on the west, to Wike-bridge, in the township of Temple Newsam, on the east, is 7 miles and 2 furlongs; and from Slippin-gate, in the township of Chapel Allerton, on the north, to New-hall wood, in the township of Beeston, on the south, 7 miles and 3 furlongs. The circumference is 32 miles and 1 furlong, and its superficial contents are about 20,516 acres. In addition to this area, there are 800 acres of road and waste lands, which will make the grand total superficial contents of the borough, 21,470 acres. century. Leeds appears from Domesday book, compiled between the years 1080 and 1086, to have been rather a large farming village than a considerable town; and at that period, the whole population, Population Pan (including Holbeck) did not amount to more than 300, and the entire parish to about three times that number. In 1533, it was described as "Ledis, two miles lower than Christal abbay, on Aire river, is a praty market, having one paroche churche, reasonably well buildid, and as large as Bradeford, but not so quik as it." Time, the grand producer, as well as the destroyer, has effected a marvellous revolution both in the place and the population. It may safely be said that the town is now twice as large as it was in 1820, while the out-townships have contributed in a very material degree to the present importance of the borough. The number of At the pre- the inhabitants, according to the last census, was 171,805, of whom sent day, 101,331 are in the township, and 70,474 in the out-townships. The soil of the parish is a coarse strong clay, of which excellent bricks are made. This covers a finer stratum, which is made into an inferior kind of earthenware. Lower still, is a thin bed of clay, of which fire bricks, equal to any in England, are manufactured. This is found in the neighbourhood of Wortley, where another kind of clay abounds, much used in the making of tobacco pipes. It is unnecessary to observe that Leeds and its suburbs are plentifully supplied with that chief element of national wealth and prosperity, as well as of individual comfort-coal. The quarries in the neighbourhood furnish stone of an excellent quality, large quantities of which are forwarded daily to distant parts of the country. 1851. Its great antiquity. Historians uniformly agree that Leeds is a place of great antiquity. It is supposed to have been the site of a Roman station, an opinion corroborated to some extent by the discovery of traces of a Roman road, and other ancient remains in the vicinity. The name of the town is conjectured by some to be derived from the British Caer Loid Coit-a town in a wood. Others believe it to have |