Place:Leeds (metropolitan borough), West Yorkshire, England

Watchers
NameLeeds (metropolitan borough)
TypeDistrict municipality
Coordinates53.8°N 1.549°W
Located inWest Yorkshire, England     (1974 - )
Also located inYorkshire, England    
See alsoLeeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, Englandcounty borough which the district municipality absorbed in 1974
Contained Places
Cemetery
Holbeck Cemetery ( 1857 - )
Lawnswood Cemetery ( 1874 - )

NOTE: This page refers to the Metropolitan Borough of Leeds which came ito existence in 1974, at the same time that West Yorkshire replaced the West Riding of Yorkshire. References to the earlier municipal borough of Leeds will be found separately and may be of more interest to the ordinary family historian.


The Districts of Leeds Metropolitan Borough established 1974

  1. Morley Municipal Borough
  2. Pudsey Municipal Borough
  3. Aireborough Urban District
  4. Horsforth Urban District
  5. Otley Urban District
  6. Garforth Urban District
  7. Rothwell Urban District
  8. Tadcaster Rural District (parts)
  9. Wetherby Rural District (part)
  10. Wharfedale Rural District (part)
Image:Leeds1974.png
the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The City of Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Garforth, Guiseley, Horsforth, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, Rothwell, Wetherby and Yeadon. It has a population of, making it technically the second largest city in England by population behind Birmingham, since London is not a single local government entity. It is governed by Leeds City Council.

The current city boundaries were set on 1 April 1974 by the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, as part a reform of local government in England. The city is a merger of eleven former local government districts; the unitary City and County Borough of Leeds combined with the municipal boroughs of Morley and Pudsey, the urban districts of Aireborough, Garforth, Horsforth, Otley and Rothwell, and parts of the rural districts of Tadcaster, Wharfedale and Wetherby from the West Riding of Yorkshire.

For its first 12 years the city had a two-tier system of local government; Leeds City Council shared power with West Yorkshire County Council. Since the Local Government Act 1985 Leeds City Council has effectively been a unitary authority, serving as the sole executive, deliberative and legislative body responsible for local policy, setting council tax, and allocating budget in the city, and is a member of the Leeds City Region Partnership. The City of Leeds is divided into 31 civil parishes and a single unparished area.

Research Tips

Leeds office of the West Yorkshire Archives Service (WYAS) includes archives for the whole of the area now in Leeds Metropolitan Borough
Address: West Yorkshire Joint Services, Nepshaw Lane South, Morley, Leeds LS27 7JQ
Telephone: +44 (0)113 393 9788
Email: leeds@wyjs.org.uk
  • British History Online (Victoria County Histories) do not cover the West Riding of Yorkshire
  • GENUKI has a page on all three ridings of Yorkshire and pages for each of the ecclesiastical parishes in the county. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. The list is based on a gazetteer dated 1835 and there may have been a number of alterations to the parish setup since then. However, it is worthwhile information for the pre civil registration era. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. There is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date and the submitter is very firm about his copyright. This should not stop anyone from reading the material.
  • The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851 which gives the registration district and wapentake for each parish, together with statistics from the 1851 census for the area.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time, Yorkshire West Riding, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72.
  • The above three maps indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc., but for a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.
  • Yorkshire has a large number of family history and genealogical societies. A list of the societies will be found on the Yorkshire, England page.
  • In March 2018 Ancestry announced that its file entitled "Yorkshire, England: Church of England Parish Records, 1538-1873" has been expanded to include another 94 parishes (across the three ridings) and expected it to be expanded further during the year. The entries are taken from previously printed parish registers.

The following information comes from a blog named Canada's Anglo-Celtic Connections. It was published 16 Feb 2017:

  • A list of 24 area cemeteries under the care of Leeds City Council. Sixteen of these cemeteries date from the 19th century.
  • Ancestry has a database for Beckett Street Cemetery, 1845-1987 with 187,851 entries. International subscription necessary.
  • Records for the Leeds General Cemetery, at St George's Fields near Woodhouse Moor, which operated from 1835 to 1969 with 97,146 burials. The cemetery is now converted to a park.
  • Findmypast carries a database for 10,270 burials at Holbeck Cemetery, 1895-1921.
  • Deceased Online has a small database for Bagley Lane Burial Ground taken from the records of removal of graves and tombstones from disused and closed burial grounds and cemeteries. This list is from The National Archives (TNA) where it forms file RG37.
  • Lawnswood Cemetery 4,727 burials provided by FindAGrave.
  • The Yorkshire Indexers have some Leeds and District monumental inscription transcriptions amongst many others.
  • Don't overlook the 151,579 entries for Leeds in the National Burial Index, available through Findmypast.
  • Find information on Jewish burials at Farnley Cemetery in Leeds.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at City of Leeds. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.