What's happening in Beeston, Belle Isle, Cottingley, Holbeck, Hunslet, Middleton and Stourton
John Blenkinsop was a Mining Engineer and Steam Locomotive designer who was born at Felling, near Gateshead, County Durham. When he was old enough he was apprenticed to his cousin, John Straker, the Coal Viewer for Charles John Brandling’s Felling Colliery. Brandling lived at Tilling, County Durham; and he married
The public water supply was not really suitable for brewing beer until the 1860s when Leeds Corporation began to bring supplies from the Washburn Valley north of Otley, but beer was to remain a major item in most domestic budgets for at least the first half of the 19th century.
The Elmore Copper Works, or as it was known locally, Elmore’s, was originally established at the end of the 1880s with the works being built on the Haigh Park Estate between Stourton and the River Aire. This land was formerly part of Rothwell Haigh in the Parish of Rothwell and
Burials had previously been carried out in local Parish Church grounds but with the coming of the Industrial Revolution even things in the Church grounds were about to change. By the late 18th century with the vast increase in the urban population of the Parishes most churchyards had become extremely
Henry Rowland Marsden was born on 20 July 1823 in Edwin Street, Holbeck and was the son of John and Maria Marsden (nee Halton). His father had left the Army some two years before, after serving for ten years in the 90th Foot Regiment. However soldiers’ pay was poor and
Education for working class children was definitely not a priority, they were expected to contribute to the family income by working, begging, or stealing. Factory owners sometimes provided facilities to educating the children working for them and these children became known as half-timers – half a day working and half
The Leeds Steel Works became one of the largest iron and steel works in Yorkshire. It occupied an area of around 25 acres (10 hectares) between Balm Road and Pepper Road in Hunslet and lying alongside the Midland Railway line. Its perimeter extended to just over one mile and at
Over the years Leeds has had its fair share of riotous acts like many of the other major cities. These were mainly seen as a way to change poor conditions of one kind or another while others were against industrial progress where mills and factories were attacked because new machinery
Prior to the passing of several local Turnpike Acts between 1740 and 1760 for the improvement of the highways, the roads around Leeds were in a deplorable condition, being nothing more in most cases than a narrow slip of rough flagstones leading across a common with deep ruts on either
Walk down Lower Briggate, cross Call Lane at the traffic lights then turn left and walk east for a few paces and there on your right is a nondescript back street going down to the River Aire. This is Pitfall Street, at the bottom of the street but clear of