Chartered Surveyors Leeds West Yorkshire

Approximate Population: 761,100

The name “Leeds” is thought to be derived from “Loidis”, a word of Celtic origin. Bede wrote: “…regione quae vocatur Loidis” — region known as Loidis. This root also survives in the nearby place names of Ledston and Ledsham. Leeds was mentioned as “Ledes” in the Domesday Book of 1086, after which the name evolved into “Leedes” and finally “Leeds”.
The 1866 map of Leeds.

Leeds was an agricultural market town in the Middle Ages, and received its first charter in 1207. In the Tudor period Leeds was mainly a merchant town, manufacturing woollen cloths and trading with Europe via the Humber estuary. The population grew from 10,000 at the end of the 17th century to 30,000 at the end of the 18th. At one point nearly half of England’s total exports passed through Leeds. At the time of the Industrial Revolution Leeds grew rapidly and the population rose to over 150,000 by 1840. The city’s industrial growth was helped by the building of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699, Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816 and the railway in 1848.

In 1893 Leeds was granted city status. The industries that developed in the Industrial Revolution included making machinery for spinning, machine tools, steam engines and gears as well as other industries based on textiles, chemicals, leather and pottery. Coal was extracted on a large scale and the Middleton Railway, the first successful commercial steam locomotive railway in the world, transported coal from Middleton colliery into the centre of Leeds.