The historical travel writings and maps which reference Leeds have been unveiled in a new website documenting a vision of Britain through time.
The site, which boasts to be "the largest collection of historical British travel writing on the web" has a Leeds section which allows a unique insight into the perception of the city from a number of viewpoints in time.
In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Leeds like this:
"Leeds.-- parl. and mun. bor., par., and township, E. div. West-Riding Yorkshire, on river Aire, 25 miles SW. of York, 42½ NE. of Manchester, and 164½ NW. of London by rail - township, 2736 ac., pop. 160,019; bor. and par., 21,572 ac., pop. 309,119; 10 newspapers. Market-days, Tuesday and Saturday. Lord Clarendon, in his History of the Rebellion (written in 1642), refers to Leeds as being one of three "very populous and rich towns, depending wholly upon clothiers."
I'd fully recommend visiting the Vision of Britain through time Leeds section and having a browse here. Tell me what you found in comments below.
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