History of Leeds - Woollen Cloth Trade

Woollen Cloth Trade

Weaving was introduced into West Yorkshire in the reign of Edward III, and Cistercians, such as at Kirkstall, were certainly engaged in sheep farming. Leland (date) records the organised trading of cloth on the bridge over the Aire, at the foot of Briggate, at specified times and under set conditions. The traded woollen cloth was predominantly of home manufacture, produced in the villages and settlements surrounding Leeds. (Bradford, by contrast, was the centre of the worsted cloth trade.) There was, however, a fulling mill at Leeds by 1400, and cloth dying may also have been an early centralised activity. Before the time of Defoe's visit to Leeds, cloth trading outstripped the capacity of the bridge, and moved instead to trestle tables in up to two rows on each side of Briggate. Defoe mentions that at this time Leeds traders went all over the country, selling cloth on credit terms; and that an export trade existed. Ralph Thoresby was involved in the establishment of the first covered cloth market, when with others he secured the permission of the 3rd Viscount Irwin, holder of Manor of Leeds, to erect the White Cloth Hall. The fact of Wetherby having erected a trading hall in 1710 was almost certainly a driver of change. The new hall opened on 22 May 1711, and lasted for 65 years before being removed to a new site in the Calls, and later at the time of the railways to the present trading hall. In 1758 a coloured or mixed cloth hall was built near Mill Hill - a quadrangular building 66 yards (60 m) by 128 yards (117 m), with capacity for 1800 trading stalls, initially let at 3 guineas per annum, but later trading at a premium of £24 per annum. The hall was pulled down in 1899 to make way for the new General Post Office; the last White Cloth hall in 1896 to make way for the Metropole Hotel.