Industrial Leeds (19 photos)

The Industrial Leeds collection highlights one of the most important events that helped to make Leeds the city it is today, the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution impacted upon Leeds and the surrounding area, due to the developments during the period. The transport links which developed at the time supported the Industry within Leeds through the rivers, roads and railways transporting raw materials to the mills and exporting the products to the ports to be exported to Europe and the Americas. The most known mill by far is Armley Mills which was the largest woollen mill in the world during the Industrial Revolution. The mill that can be seen today was built by Benjamin Gott in 1805 to 1807. The Leeds Industrial Museum is housed in Armley Mills and demonstrated the impact that these industries had on Leeds. The mills of Leeds became known as the Dark, Satanic Mills due to the poor working conditions, the accidents and deaths of mill workers who got caught in the machinery and the prevalent risk of fires within the mills. We invite you to share your memories of Leeds’ Industrial past below the images in the collection.