The Historical Society for Leeds and District
Founded 1889
A Brief Chronology of Leeds
| 8th Century | |
| AD 731 | Bede makes first mention of 'Loidis' |
| 11th Century | |
| 1069 | Leeds escapes the Harrying of the North; Bramley, Beeston etc destroyed |
| 1086 | Leeds Mentioned in Domesday Book |
| 1089 | Ralph Paynel gives property including the Parish church to Holy Trinity, York |
| 12th Century | |
| 1152 | Kirkstall Abbey founded |
| 1155 | Knights Templar take over Newsam |
| 1185 | First fulling mill in England recorded at Temple Newsam |
| 13th Century | |
| 1207 | Maurice Paynel grants Leeds a charter |
| 1258 | Market operating in Leeds |
| 14th Century Top of the page | |
| 1341 | Market operating on a Monday |
| 1322 | Mention of the first bridge over River Aire - probably one since 11th century |
| 15th Century Top of the page | |
| 1469 | Woollen industry well established in Leeds |
| 16th Century | |
| 1539 | Kirkstall Abbey dissolved |
| 1552 | Leeds Grammar School established |
| 1560 | First map of Leeds |
| 17th Century Top of the page | |
| 1615 | Moot Hall built in Briggate |
| 1624 | John Harrison builds new grammar school |
| 1626 | King Charles I grants charter |
| 1634 | John Harrison builds St John's Church |
| 1643 | Battle of Briggate; Parliamentary victory |
| 1645 | Bubonic plague kills 1325 people |
| 1661 | Second charter gives Leeds a mayor |
| 1663 | Farnley Wood Plot to overthrow Charles II |
| 1684 | Market moved from Leeds Bridge to Briggate |
| 1694 | George Sorocold constructs water supply in Leeds |
| 18th Century Top of the page | |
| 1711 | New Moot Hall opened |
| 1715 | Ralph Thoresby publishes Ducatus |
| 1718 | Leeds Mercury founded |
| 1745 | Mob attacks John Wesley in the town |
| 1754 | Leeds Intelligencer, now Yorkshire Post, founded |
| 1755 | Street lighting introduced |
| 1758 | First railway act establishes Middleton Railway |
| 1767 | Joseph Priestley becomes minister at Mill Hill Chapel |
| 1768 | Leeds Library founded |
| 1770 | Act passes to allow Leeds and Liverpool Canal to be built |
| 1771 | Leeds Infirmary opens on Infirmary St. |
| 1775 | White Cloth Hall built in the Calls |
| 1777 | Assembly Rooms opened |
| 1781 | John Wesley preaches to over one thousand people in the town |
| 1792 | John Marshall moves his flax mill from Adel to Holbeck |
| 1792 | Benjamin Gott commenced building his mill at Bean Ing |
| 19th Century Top of the page | |
| 1801 | Edward Baines purchases the Leeds Mercury and makes regular use of editorials |
| 1812 | Matthew Murray's steam engines begin operating on Middleton Railway |
| 1816 | Leeds and Liverpool Canal completed |
| 1819 | Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society established |
| 1822 | Joshua Tetley buys Sykes's Brewery |
| 1832 | Cholera epidemic strikes in Leeds |
| 1832 | Leeds granted 2 members of Parliament - John Marshall jun and T B Macaulay elected |
| 1834 | First railway from Leeds runs to Selby |
| 1835 | Municipal Reform Bill gives town new corporation - George Goodman first mayor |
| 1841 | New Parish Church opens |
| 1842 | Chartists 'Plug Riots' in town |
| 1847 | Typhus epidemic in Leeds |
| 1847 | Armley Jail opened |
| 1847 | First synagogue opened |
| 1848 | Some 2000 die in cholera epidemic |
| 1848 | Leeds Moral and Industrial Training School opened - will eventually become St James's |
| 1858 | Queen Victoria opens Town Hall |
| 1861 | Corn Exchange opened |
| 1868 | New Infirmary on Great George Street opened |
| 1871 | Leeds School Board formed |
| 1871 | First horse trams introduced |
| 1873 | Bewerley Street, the first School Board purpose-built school opened |
| 1874 | Yorkshire College of Science - eventually to become Leeds University - opened |
| 1878 | John Barran opens Moorish-Venetian style ready-made clothing factory in Park Square |
| 1878 | First shopping arcade opened - Thornton's Arcade |
| 1881 | Gladstone heard by a crowd of 30,000 in Coloured Cloth Hall |
| 1884 | Michael Marks opens stall in Leeds market |
| 1889 | Thoresby Society founded |
| 1889 | Headingley sports ground developed |
| 1890 | Yorkshire Evening Post established |
| 1893 | Leeds becomes a city |
| 1897 | Mayor becomes a Lord Mayor |
| 20th Century Top of the page | |
| 1903 | City Square opened |
| 1903 | Leeds Daily News becomes Yorkshire Evening News |
| 1904 | Leeds University established |
| 1904 | New St Anne's Cathedral opened |
| 1908 | Mrs Pankhurst addresses mass meeting of suffragettes on Woodhouse Moor |
| 1911 | Children strike in Leeds schools |
| 1916 | Battle of the Somme - estimated virtually every street in Leeds lost one man killed |
| 1924 | 2LS begins broadcasting from Leeds |
| 1925 | Montague Burton's is the largest and most popular clothing factory in Europe |
| 1926 | General Strike - serious rioting in Vicar Land and Duncan Street |
| 1931 | Leeds and Bradford take over Yeadon airport |
| 1933 | Civic Hall opened by George V |
| 1933 | BBC opens Boradcasting House on Woodhouse Lane |
| 1941 | Worst air raid on Leeds - 60 killed |
| 1945 | Alice Bacon [Lab] elected as city's first woman MP |
| 1959 | Trams cease to operate in the city |
| 1961 | Leeds Triennial Music Festival established |
| 1965 | Parking meters introduced in city |
| 1965 | Leeds Civic Trust established |
| 1965 | ASDA begins operations at Cross Gates |
| 1970 | Leeds Polytechnic formed |
| 1974 | Leeds becomes a metropolitan borough |
| 1978 | Opera North based at the Grand Theatre |
| 1981 | Riots in Chapeltown |
| 1981 | Radio Aire begins broadcasting |
| 1982 | Queen opens Henry Moor Sculpture Gallery |
| 1983 | BBC TV ends the Good Old Days at City Varieties after 30 years |
| 1985 | Concord Multi-Faith Resources Centre opened |
| 1990 | West Yorkshire Playhousee opened |
| 1991 | Census shows 6% of population from ethnic minority groups |
| 1992 | Polytechnic becomes Leeds Metropolitan University |
| 1996 | Leeds one of the hosts for European Football Championships |
| 1998 | Super bus lanes introduced |
| 1998 | European Union funds experiment in car sharing on Stanningley Road |
| 21st Century Top of the page | |
| 2001 | Super tram service announced |