Leeds
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Leeds. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a manufacturing town of England, in Yorkshire, on the river Aire, which here becomes navigable and is crossed by eight bridges. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal communicates with the Aire, which again gives water communication with Hull, etc. The town extends 446 for about 7½ miles from E. to W. and about 7 from N. to S. Among the most B conspicuous of the public buildings is the town hall, a massive stone building of the Corinthian order, considered one of the finest municipal buildings in the kingdom. The chief educational institution is the Yorkshire College for science, on technology, and medicine, affiliated to the dencics Victoria University, Manchester. Leeds Redonda possesses a public park of 300 acres. Nevis (w Leeds has been for generations the chief Virgin I seat of the woolen manufacture of Yorkconfedera shire. In the wholesale clothing trade ment, wit several thousand hands are employed, as Federal L also in steel works, iron foundries, rolling presidency mills, tool and machine factories. The The capital boot and shoe factories, the leather trade, ne Leeward and the cloth-cap trade also employ large he chio numbers of men and women, and there olasses. are extensive color printing works, to- LE FAN bacco manufactories, chemical and glass fanil pe works, works for making drainage pipes, and novel fire-bricks, terra cotta, pottery, etc. г. 28, 1314 Nearly 100 collieries are worked in the (1863); "Uncle Silas" (1864); "Guy district. The history of Leeds extends staff of the over more than 1,200 years, the town bebecomin ing mentioned under the name of Loid rst won or Loidis by the Venerable Bede as the adbrig C capital of a small British kingdom about 616. In the neighborhood is the fine nos next ruin of Kirkstall Abbey. Pop. (1917) 417,051.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a large manufacturing city of Yorkshire. It is situated on both sides of the Aire. It has water communication with the sea by way of the Humber and is connected by canal with Liverpool. It is the center of a rich coal and iron district. There are the usual public buildings and municipal improvements. The river is spanned by eight bridges. The city has been noted for generations as the seat of the woolen manufactures of Yorkshire. Iron foundries, steel works, manufactures of tools, machinery, boots and shoes , and clothing have been added. Locomotives, tobacco, printed cloth, chemicals, glass, tiling, and pottery add to the population and business of the city. The region is noted for the production of flax. It is the most important seat of the English linen industry. The factories are on a large scale. A single room in one of the linen establishments is said to occupy over two acres. Leeds ranks with Sheffield, Manchester, and other large manufacturing cities in importance. The population for 1908 is given by the Statesman's Year Book at 477,107. See England
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's still described the "Yorkshire College for science, technology, and medicine, affiliated to the Victoria University, Manchester" — but that college had in fact received its own royal charter in 1904 as the University of Leeds, now one of Britain's largest, with tens of thousands of students. The woollen trade that both accounts call the city's defining industry, along with the "nearly 100 collieries" of the surrounding district, has effectively vanished: Yorkshire's deep coal mining ended in 2015, and Leeds today lives on banking, law, insurance, retail and medicine rather than cloth. The population has grown from the 477,107 of 1908 to roughly 790,000 in the modern city district, making Leeds one of the largest urban areas in England. Kirkstall Abbey and the Corinthian town hall of 1858 both still stand, the latter still commonly called one of the finest municipal buildings in the country.
Written for this edition, 2026.