In transcribing the following passage from the Internet Archive online version I have expanded abbreviations and added paragraphing, links, and subtitles. — George P. Landow
Postal Services
Receiving post-offices are at Holbeck, Hunslet, Hyde-Park-Corner, Kirkstall-Road, Marsh-Lane, North-Street, New Wortley, Park-Lane, and Sheepscar; and pillar or postal letter boxes are at about forty places.
Banks
The banks, till recently, were five,—the Brancn of the Bank of England, the Leeds Bank, the Yorkshire Bank, Beckett’s Bank, and Williams’ Bank; but two others, the Leeds and County Bank and the Leeds and Northern Bank, both limited, have been added; and the Discount Bank, with offices of four banks, has been established in Park-row.
Hotels
Some of the chief hotels are the Great Northern Railway, the Midland Railway, Winder’s Gt. Northern, the White Horse, the Bull and Mouth, the Albion, the Golden Lion, the Griffin hotel, Andrew’s Temperance, and Beecroft’s Temperance. The Great Northern Railway hotel is at the Central r. station; and was built in 1865-9, at a cost of about £22,500. The Midland Railway hotel stands close to the Midland r. station; was built in 1862; and is in the renaissance style, of deep red brick with stone dressings.
Newspapers
Four newspapers are published,—the Leeds Mercury, established in 1719; the Leeds Intelligencer, established in 1754; the Leeds Times, established in 1833; and the Leeds and West Riding Express. The Mercury passed into the proprietorship of the senior Edward Baines in 1801; has, since his own time, been conducted by members of his family; became a daily paper in 1361; and is now issued from a new and elegant edifice. The Leeds Intelligencer became a daily paper in 1366, and is now called the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer.
Markets
Weekly markets ore held on Tuesday and Saturday; a fair for cattle and sheep, on every alternate Wednesday; a fair for horses, on 10 and 11 July; a fair for horses and cattle, on 3 and 9 Nov.; and fairs for leather on the third Wednesday of Jan., April, July, and Oct., and on the first Wednesday of March, June, Sept., and Dec.
Woolen and Cotton Manufacturing and Other Industries
The great woollen manufacture, which ramifies to the extremities of the kingdom, is concentrated principally in Leeds and its neighbourhood as in a focus. The cloth manufacture is not confined to any one kind, but includes all kinds; it produces fabrics equal to the best which were formerly produced in the west of England, and which seemed at one time to be producible only there; it produces also such varieties, from superfine to coarse, from broad to narrow, and from the shawl to the blanket, as place all descriptions in one mart before the buyer; ana it has undergone every improvement, for quality, for adaptation, and for price, which experience and science could suggest. In 1855, this manufacture was carried on, within the borough, in 102 works, employing 10,350 persons; and, at the census of 1861, the manufacture itself and occupations akin to it employed, within-the registration districts of Leeds and Hunslet, the following numbers of males and females of 20 years and upwards:
- the woollen cloth manufacture, 3,313 m. and 1,236 i in Leeds, 4,426 m and 2,070 f. in Hunslet;
- the worsted manufacture, 102 m. and 67 f. in L,—132 m and 101 f. in H.;
- the stuff manufacture, 386 m and 44 f. in L.,—112 m. and 79 f. in H.;
- the carpet and rug manufacture, 103 m and 8 f. in L.,—57 m and 11 f. in H. ; wool and woollen dyeing, 135 m. in L, 114 m. in H.;
- other occupations akin to these, 209 m. and 8 L in L.,—103 m. and 121 in H.
Woollen cloth goods to the value of from £6,000,000 to £7,000,000, a-year are turned out of the Leeds warehouses. The spinning and the weaving of fiax are more extensive than in any town of the three kingdoms excepting Belfast, and employ nearly 12,000 persons. The cotton manufacture employs about 170 adults; and the silk manufacture, about 245.
The making of locomotive engines, stationary engines, machinery, tools, and other iron products, employs about 8,000 persons. The leather manufacture is carried on in very large tanneries, and employs about 706 adults in the Leeds registration district, and about 323 in that of Hunslet. Tobacco is sent from nine large factories, to the extent of paying about £400,000of duty a-year. Glass-making also is prominent; and many other departments of manufacture and trade employ considerable numbers of the people. A tract of coal-field, around the town, supplies it well with fuel; contains 83 collieries; and produced, in 1860, an output of 2,459,500 tons.
The town enjoys rich facilities of conveyance, to all points near and far, either by carriers, by coaches, by omnibuses, by the Aire navigation, by the canals, or by the network of railways; it is a warehousing town under the Inland bonding act of 1880; and it has a chamber of commerce in Park-row, and a custom-house in Hunslet-lane.
Bibliography
Wilson, John M. (John Marius). The imperial gazetteer of England and Wales: embracing recent changes in counties, dioceses, parishes, and boroughs: general statistics: postal arrangements: railway systems, &c.; and forming a complete description of the country. 8 vols. Edinburgh: A. Fullarton, 1870.Internet Archive online version of a copy in the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Web. 17 September 2022.
Last modified 16 September 2022