Pudsey
Encyclopedia
Pudsey is a market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

 in West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, England. Once an independent town, it was incorporated into the metropolitan borough
Metropolitan borough
A metropolitan borough is a type of local government district in England, and is a subdivision of a metropolitan county. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts, however all of them have been granted or regranted...

 of the City of Leeds
City of Leeds
The City of Leeds is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Leeds City Council, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. The metropolitan district includes Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Garforth, Guiseley, Horsforth, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, Rothwell,...

 in 1974, and is located midway between Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

 and Leeds
Leeds City Centre
Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, England. It is within the Leeds Central parliamentary constituency, represented by Hilary Benn as MP since a by-election in 1999...

 city centres. It has a population of 32,391.

Pudsey constitutes the areas of Fartown, Troydale, Littlemoor, Lowtown, Uppermoor and Chapeltown. There is also the village of Fulneck
Fulneck Moravian Settlement
Fulneck Moravian Settlement is a village in Pudsey in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1744. It is named after Fulneck , the German name of a town in Northern Moravia, Czech Republic....

, the district of Stanningley
Stanningley
Stanningley is a district of Pudsey, West Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately west of Leeds city centre on the original main road from Leeds to Bradford...

 and part of the district of Tyersal
Tyersal
Tyersal is a village east of Bradford and west of Leeds and has a population of 2,605 according to Bradford Community Statistics Project.The district is split between both City of Bradford metropolitan borough and Pudsey in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough.Tyersal joined Bradford in 1882...

.

Pudsey has given its name to "Pudsey Bear", the mascot of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's annual fundraising marathon Children in Need
Children in Need
Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...

. It also lends its name to the local parliamentary constituency of Pudsey
Pudsey (UK Parliament constituency)
Pudsey is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...

, of which it is a part.

History

The name Pudsey occurs in the 1086 Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 as "Podechesaie" and "Podechesai", but in the early 6th century Pudsey and the neighbourhood appear to have been the centre of the considerable Kingdom of Elmet
Elmet
Elmet was an independent Brythonic kingdom covering a broad area of what later became the West Riding of Yorkshire during the Early Middle Ages, between approximately the 5th century and early 7th century. Although its precise boundaries are unclear, it appears to have been bordered by the River...

, which retained its independence for more than 200 years after other more petty kingdoms had been subdued by the Angles
Angles
The Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...

.

The town was famous in the 18th and 19th centuries for its wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

 manufacture, and, from the 19th century, for cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

. Yorkshire and England cricketers Sir Len Hutton
Len Hutton
Sir Leonard "Len" Hutton was an English Test cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England in the years around the Second World War as an opening batsman. He was described by Wisden Cricketer's Almanack as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket...

, Herbert Sutcliffe
Herbert Sutcliffe
Herbert Sutcliffe was an English professional cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England as an opening batsman. Apart from one match in 1945, his first-class career spanned the period between the two World Wars...

, Ray Illingworth
Ray Illingworth
Raymond Illingworth, CBE is a former English cricketer, cricket commentator and cricket administrator. He was one of only nine players to have taken 2,000 wickets and made 20,000 runs in First class cricket, and the last one to do so...

 and Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...

 all learned to play in Pudsey. One of the 19th century Yorkshire cricketers John Tunnicliffe
John Tunnicliffe
John Tunnicliffe was an English, first-class cricketer, who played in 472 first-class matches for Yorkshire County Cricket Club.-County career:...

 was born in Lowtown.

During the Industrial Revolution Pudsey was said to be one of the most polluted areas of the UK due to its position within a slight valley and between the two industrial cities of Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 and Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

. As a result whichever way the wind blew Pudsey would become covered in thick soot. The temperature inversion created by being in a valley led to the soot becoming trapped leading to dense smogs in the area. This is believed to have led to jokes that Pigeons in Pudsey park flew backwards in order to keep the soot out of their eyes.

Governance

Formerly within the wapentake of Morley
Morley, West Yorkshire
Morley is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies approximately south-west of Leeds city centre. Together with Drighlington, Gildersome, Churwell, Tingley and East/West Ardsley, the town had a population of 47,579 in...

 and Calverley
Calverley
Calverley is a village in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England, on the A657 road, midway between Leeds city centre and Bradford...

 Parish, Pudsey became a Municipal Borough
Municipal borough
Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...

 in 1889. For many years, despite being joined to the Leeds conurbation, it avoided being made part of Leeds County Borough
County borough
County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in...

. In 1937 the Farsley
Farsley
Farsley is a commuter town in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England 6 miles to the west of Leeds city centre, and 4 miles east of Bradford. It was formerly in the municipal borough of nearby Pudsey....

 and Calverley
Calverley
Calverley is a village in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England, on the A657 road, midway between Leeds city centre and Bradford...

 urban district
Urban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....

s were added to Pudsey. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....

, it became part of the metropolitan borough
Metropolitan borough
A metropolitan borough is a type of local government district in England, and is a subdivision of a metropolitan county. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts, however all of them have been granted or regranted...

 of the City of Leeds
City of Leeds
The City of Leeds is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Leeds City Council, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. The metropolitan district includes Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Garforth, Guiseley, Horsforth, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, Rothwell,...

.

Pudsey forms part of the Pudsey parliamentary constituency
Pudsey (UK Parliament constituency)
Pudsey is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...

, along with Farsley
Farsley
Farsley is a commuter town in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England 6 miles to the west of Leeds city centre, and 4 miles east of Bradford. It was formerly in the municipal borough of nearby Pudsey....

, Calverley
Calverley
Calverley is a village in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England, on the A657 road, midway between Leeds city centre and Bradford...

, Horsforth
Horsforth
Horsforth is a town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England, lying to the north west of Leeds. It has a population of 18,928....

 and Guiseley
Guiseley
Guiseley is a small town in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Situated south of Otley and Menston, it is a suburb of north west Leeds. At the 2001 census, Guiseley together with Rawdon had a population of over 21,000. The A65, which passes through the town, is the...

. The MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

  is Stuart Andrew
Stuart Andrew
Stuart James Andrew is the Conservative Member of Parliament for the Pudsey constituency in West Yorkshire, England. He grew up in the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales, and later attended Ysgol David Hughes in Menai Bridge....

.

Present

There are several recreational parks in Pudsey, the largest is Pudsey Park; features include Pets Corner, aquarium, bird houses, tropical greenhouse, a "Pudsey Bear" (made of vegetation) and a large play area for children. The park hosts the new West Leeds Country Park Visitor Centre. There is also Queens Park where the Pudsey carnival is held once a year.

Pudsey's market operates on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday and has recently been refurbished. Pudsey has also seen the introduction of a monthly farmers' market
Farmers' market
A farmers' market consists of individual vendors—mostly farmers—who set up booths, tables or stands, outdoors or indoors, to sell produce, meat products, fruits and sometimes prepared foods and beverages...

 with a range of stalls selling meat, fish, dairy produce, organic fruit and vegetables, delicatessen and craft-ware.
Pudsey town centre has many amenities and a shopping centre which include many high street chain stores and independent retailers. In keeping with many affluent areas it has its fair share of banks and estate agents. Following the closure of Kwik Save
Kwik Save
Kwik Save was a discount supermarket chain in the United Kingdom until 2007. Its stores were small to medium sized high street supermarkets, mainly located in areas with below average incomes...

 supermarkets across the country, Pudsey's store has been bought by Sainsbury's. Until the administration of the group, Pudsey had a Woolworths
Woolworths Group
Woolworths Group plc was a listed British company that owned the high-street retail chain, Woolworths, as well as other brands such as the entertainment distributor Entertainment UK and book and resource distributor Bertram Books...

 situated on Church Lane. It is now a B&M Home Bargains
B & M
B&M Retail Ltd is a retail chain of discount stores operating in the United Kingdom since 1976....

 store.

There are three high schools situated in the Pudsey boundary: Crawshaw, Priesthorpe and Pudsey Grangefield, which is currently undergoing an extensive redevelopment programme which sees a whole new state-of-the-art school building constructed adjacent to the current site. The front grammar school building, opened in 1911 and a prominent landmark of Pudsey, will be converted into flats and not demolished, unlike the rest of the school, due to its listed building status.

Pudsey's historic town hall is benefiting from a new, energy-efficient lighting project to highlight its most interesting features. The multi-coloured lights can be changed to offer 255 different scenes.

During the Easter weekend 2009, the Pudsey Business Forum launched the Pudsey Shop Local campaign. The campaign is to encourage local residents to shop more in Pudsey Town Centre. As part of this campaign they have launched a directory of all local shops.

There are many community groups working for the benefit of Pudsey, and their aim is simply to make their town a more attractive and interesting place to visit. One of these groups, established in 2002 is Pudsey in Bloom.

Pudsey is also now home to an established Indian Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...

 and minority Hindu and Muslim community.

Pudsey's business community have recently introduced a Loyalty Scheme, aimed at local shoppers. The loyalty scheme, believed to be the first of its kind in the country, encourages shoppers to collect stamps from a number of local shops within the scheme. Once enough stamps are collected on a card it can be submitted for a monthly draw, where the winner receives vouchers that they can spend in any of the participating shops. There are currently 50 retailers taking part in the scheme.

Public transport

There is a small railway station known as New Pudsey
New Pudsey railway station
New Pudsey railway station is in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, on the Caldervale Line from Leeds City to Bradford Interchange, Halifax, Huddersfield, Manchester Victoria, and Blackpool North...

. It is on the Caldervale Line
Caldervale Line
The Caldervale Line is a railway route in Northern England between the cities of Leeds and Manchester as well as the seaside resort of Blackpool...

 between Leeds and Bradford Interchange and was built to replace Pudsey's two original stations — Pudsey Lowtown and Pudsey Greenside — which were both closed in 1964 by the Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...

 along with the GNR
Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)
The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity as a constituent of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway....

 Pudsey Loop serving them. However, New Pudsey is situated over a mile away from the town centre making it somewhat impractical for commuters especially as there is no bus that links the station with the town centre, although the #16 frequent bus service between Pudsey and nearby Farsley passes within 500 yards of the station. However, the location of the station near to the junction of the main Leeds to Bradford road with the Ring Road provides easy access for those travelling to the station by car. There is a large car park adjacent to the station.

There are several pubs and clubs in and around the town centre. There is the Butchers Arms, The Farmers, The Masons Arms, The Shamrock, The Junction, The World's End pub and the Troydale Recreational Club, which is out of the town centre.

Pudsey is now served by a number of First
First Leeds
First Leeds is one of the bus companies serving the area of West Yorkshire, England. It forms part of FirstGroup, a company operating transport services across the British Isles and in North America...

 and Arriva
Arriva Yorkshire
Arriva Yorkshire is a division of Arriva which operates bus services around West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire and the southern areas of North Yorkshire in England.-History:Arriva Yorkshire was formed as a combination of mergers of previous...

 bus services that run through to Leeds city centre
Leeds City Centre
Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, England. It is within the Leeds Central parliamentary constituency, represented by Hilary Benn as MP since a by-election in 1999...

 and other areas of the city, Bradford and other surrounding towns. The 4 FTR service runs regularly to the Leeds city centre from Waterloo via the town centre and Swinnow
Swinnow
Swinnow is a housing estate in west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is sited between Bramley and Pudsey on the west side of the outer areas of Leeds.-History:...

. There are also bus services that run between Leeds, Bradford and Halifax
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Halifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...

 along Stanningley
Stanningley
Stanningley is a district of Pudsey, West Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately west of Leeds city centre on the original main road from Leeds to Bradford...

 Road, which is 10 minutes walk from Pudsey town centre.

Plans for a £2 million covered bus station in Pudsey, to replace the current array of individual bus stands, have been given the go ahead. Work on the new bus station started in December 2009. It has since been completed.

The Leeds-Pudsey tram route via Armley
Armley
Armley is a district in the west of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It starts less than a mile from Leeds city centre. Like much of Leeds, Armley grew in the industrial revolution and had several mills, one of which is now the Armley Mills museum...

 and Bramley
Bramley, Leeds
Bramley is a district in west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is an old industrial area and home to a lot of 19th century architecture alongside 20th century council housing in the east and private suburban housing to the west. It has its own railway station which is on the Caldervale and...

 was opened in the early 20th century; it was closed in 1938 and most of the infrastructure was removed, although roadworks on the central reservation of Stanningley Road uncovered some of the tracks in October 2005. Like the rest of West Leeds, Pudsey was never included in the original planning for the Leeds Supertram
Leeds Supertram
The Leeds Supertram was a proposed light rail/tram system in Leeds and West Yorkshire in England.-Initial proposals:Proposals for the reinstatement of trams or a light rail system in Leeds which were withdrawn in 1959 have been ongoing since the 1970s with various plans for varying light rail...

, subsequent plans such as that for trolley buses, a revised tram scheme or tram-trains have also failed to include West Leeds.

Sport

The England cricket captain Sir Len Hutton
Len Hutton
Sir Leonard "Len" Hutton was an English Test cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England in the years around the Second World War as an opening batsman. He was described by Wisden Cricketer's Almanack as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket...

 was born in nearby Fulneck
Fulneck Moravian Settlement
Fulneck Moravian Settlement is a village in Pudsey in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1744. It is named after Fulneck , the German name of a town in Northern Moravia, Czech Republic....

 and was called "the man from Pudsey". Another England cricket star, Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...

, was born in the area and snooker star Danny Fowler
Danny Fowler
Danny Fowler born in Pudsey, West Yorkshire is an English former professional snooker player. In the 1993 World Championship, Fowler played the defending two-time World Champion Stephen Hendry in the first round but lost 1–10....

 was born in the same area.

Pudsey has one of the region's most popular and well-known running clubs, Pudsey Pacers. The club meets every Tuesday and Thursday at 7 pm at the town's Leisure Centre. The club organises the annual Pudsey 10k Challenge, widely regarded as one of the most challenging 10k races; it attracts around 450 runners.

In 1985, Pudsey Judo Club was established at the town's leisure centre. Having grown and developed, Pudsey Judo Club has recently found a new home in Farsley, and has attained the highly coveted Bronze Clubmark Award. It is recognised across Yorkshire and Humberside as a centre of excellence.

Cultural references

In The Meaning of Liff
The Meaning of Liff
The Meaning of Liff is a humorous dictionary of toponymy and etymology, written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, published in the United Kingdom in 1983, and the USA in 1984....

a Pudsey is defined as "The curious-shaped flat wads of dough left on a kitchen table after someone has been cutting scones out of it."
Toward the beginning of the Monty Python episode "You're No Fun Anymore", the two characters, Mr and Mrs Samuel Brainsample can be seen walking along the platform of New Pudsey Station.
Pudsey is also mentioned frequently in the Michael Palin TV series Ripping Yarns.

Location grid




External links

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