Leeds began as a Saxon village

Published: 05/29/2010

Leeds began as a Saxon village long time ago. By the time of the Domesday Book (1086) it had a population of around 200 only. By the standards of the time it was quite a large village around and other were much smaller.

Then in 1207 the Lord of the Manor, Maurice De Gant, founded a new town at Leeds. At that time trade and commerce were increasing in England and many new towns were founded.

First the Lord of the Manor created a new street of houses west of the existing village and he divided the land into plots for building. Then craftsmen built houses and paid rent to the Lord for the land. The new street was called Brigg Gata (gata is an old word for street and brigg is an old word for bridge so it was the bridge street). Soon the town of Leeds was flourishing.

In Medieval Leeds there were butchers, bakers, carpenters and blacksmiths. However the main industry in Leeds was making wool. In Leeds wool was woven then fulled. That means it was pounded in a mixture of water and clay to clean and thicken it. Wooden hammers worked by watermills pounded the wool. Afterwards it was dyed.

In Medieval Leeds there was a weekly market. There were also 2 annual fairs in Leeds. In the Middle Ages fairs were like markets but they were held only once a year. People would come from all over Yorkshire to buy and sell at a Leeds fair.

However many of the people in Leeds made a living from farming. The little town probably had a population of around 1,000 people. It would seem tiny to us but settlements were very small in those days. A typical village had only 100 or 150 inhabitants. Having said that, in the Middle Ages, Leeds was a small and relatively unimportant town.