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The name Leeds derives from the old Brythonic word Ladenses meaning "people of the fast-flowing river", in reference to the River Aire that flows through the city. This name originally referred to the forested area covering most of the Brythonic kingdom of Elmet, which existed during the 5th century into the early 7th century
Bede states in the fourteenth chapter of his Ecclesiastical History, in a discussion of an altar surviving from a church erected by Edwin of Northumbria, that it is located in ...regione quae vocatur Loidis (Latin, "the region which is called Loidis").
The name Leeds has also been explained as a derivative of Welsh lloed, meaning simply 'a place'
From the Middle Ages Leeds has not only had terrible slum conditions but a wool town, and by the 19th century progress to become a ready-made town.
After the First World War the slums were torn down and decent modern housing built. There are some impressive buildings including the railway station, the Corn Exchange built in 1861 and the Mechanics Institute built in 1865.
The town is served by two waterways – the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the Aire and Calder Navigation. The canal was built between 1770 and
- Type:
- Landmark