Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

On Tuesday last, a poor Man, residing at Wortley near Leeds, but belonging to the Township of West Ardsley, took his wife and five children to the latter place, in a hackney coach, for the purpose of procuring parochial relief. They left the coach at a distance from the Overseer’s House, proceeded thither on foot, and were relieved in the most liberal manner, and after taking some refreshment at the Inn where the coach waited for them, they returned home in that handsome and comfortable vehicle.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

I guess this anecdote, repeated in other papers, was grist to the mill of those who sought to reform the Tudor system of parochial social security, and a royal commission was set up just over three years later. But was it true?

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601 (3) W/G ·
• English Poor Laws (2) W/G ·
• Hackney carriage (2) W/G ·
• 📌Leeds (249) W/G ·
• Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 (4) W/G ·
• Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws 1832 (1) W/G ·
• West Ardsley (1) W/G ·
• Wortley, Leeds (4) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

I guess this anecdote, repeated in other papers, was grist to the mill of those who sought to reform the Tudor system of parochial social security, and a royal commission was set up just over three years later. But was it true?

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Similar

1 January 1891: Eleven snowflake girls are burnt to death during a school entertainment at Upper Wortley (Leeds)

14 July 1663: Leeds borough returns for the hearth tax, designed to pay for the household of Charles II

20 April 1631: Quoting Elizabeth I’s 1572 Vagabonds Act, justices of the peace in Thirsk order a crackdown on a variety of layabouts

3 April 1852: Brickfield workers from Wortley (Leeds) bring Henry Denny, curator of the Leeds Museum, some huge “unchristian” bones

15 October 1838: Apologies from “imprisoned” Huddersfield workers are read to the great Chartist rally on Peep Green (Hartshead Moor), accusing middle-class radicals of betrayal

18 August 1812: Lady Ludd leads bread rioters through the streets of Leeds

12 April 0627: In a triumph for his Kentish wife, Edwin of Northumbria is baptised on Easter Sunday by Paulinus, in the latter’s wooden oratory on the site of York Minster

6 April 1821: At the opening of the hall of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, the surgeon Charles Turner Thackrah bids the town repay its debt to knowledge

11 November 1918: George Ellison of Richmond Hill, Leeds, is the last British soldier to be killed in action in the First World War

7 November 1959: The last tram scheduled in Leeds, no. 181 or 187, runs from Cross Gates to Kirkgate or Swinegate

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

An alternative version:

The last tram in Leeds was No. 187 and ran from Cross Gates to Swinegate. For further reading see J. Soper, Leeds Transport 1953–1974, 4 (Leeds, 2007) (Thoresby Society 2021)

Unless I can find an interesting and accurate source – probably in the local press – this item will disappear.

More stuff:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5tRHEAAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PA17&dq=leeds%20tram%201959&pg=PA17#v=onepage&q=leeds%20tram%201959&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Uvg6AwAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PT256&dq=leeds%20tram%201959&pg=PT256#v=onepage&q=leeds%20tram%201959&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uSkwEAAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PA45&dq=leeds%20last%20tram&pg=PA45#v=onepage&q=leeds%20last%20tram&f=false

On the 62nd anniversary of the last tram running in Leeds, Government suggests new tram system for Leeds as a compensation for abandoning HS2 to Leeds! The Trust have been involved in trying to get trams back for over 30 years. Could it finally be happening?!! pic.twitter.com/VBTZzAmOec

— Leeds Civic Trust (@LeedsCivicTrust) November 7, 2021

Sixty years since the last Leeds Tram – a commemoration

http://www.sct61.org.uk/gallery/trams/ld181b

On the 7th November 1959, the last tram to run in Leeds entered the depot after its final journey. This tram came from Cross Gates, Temple Newsam and Halton. Fares varied between 1d (< 1p) and 6d (approx 3p). Trams in Leeds had run since 16th September 1871! #LeedsLibrariesCHT pic.twitter.com/nweAUbZJ8n

— Leeds Libraries (@leedslibraries) March 23, 2021

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=F5t5AgAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PA49&dq=leeds%20tram%201959&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q=leeds%20tram%201959&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5tRHEAAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PA17&dq=leeds%20tram%201959&pg=PA17#v=onepage&q=leeds%20tram%201959&f=false

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