LeedsArticle Free Pass Leeds, urban area, city, and metropolitan
borough, metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, historic county
of Yorkshire, England. It lies along the River Aire about 30
miles (48 km) northeast of Manchester. The coal and iron ore
deposits in the locality, a plentiful supply of soft water from
the Aire’s tributaries, and the city’s excellent transportation
links through the Pennines helped make it the industrial capital
of Yorkshire. It is the largest city in Yorkshire and one of
Britain’s major cultural centres. Leeds originated as an Anglo-
Saxon township on the north bank of the Aire. It grew as a local
market centre and was incorporated in 1626. By then the town was
a cloth-finishing centre for a wide area where domestic weaving,
introduced by 14th-century Flemish weavers, was pursued. By the
16th century Leeds was able to challenge the supremacy of York
and Beverley in the woolen-manufacturing trade. With the
Industrial Revolution and development of the local coalfield,
the woolen indu