The Early Years

In prehistoric times, around 4000BC, large areas of marsh & boggy ground and vast areas of oak and birch forests dominated the region in which Leeds is situated. Around 500BC settlers had probably cleared the woodland near to the site of Leeds Bridge to create farmland.

As time passed the central area would have become surrounded by open farmland as the trees were cleared for grazing, building and fuel.

An indication of the antiquity of Leeds as a settlement is the name. Those concerned with the derivation of place names generally agree that the area that The Venerable Bede called Loidis in his 'Ecclesiastical History' was the region we now know as Leeds.
The word Leeds was originally a two-syllable word that may have been pronounced Lee-Dis. The word has also survived in the names of two villages on the outskirts of Leeds, Ledsham and Ledston. It is possible that the word came from the pronunciation of the British name of the river and/or the people living by the river.

As very little hard evidence is available for the time any attempt at the history of very early Leeds will make extensive use of, 'possibly', 'probably' and 'maybe'. However, informed guesswork together with known facts does give us an insight into the earliest times of Leeds.

In 1838 during the demolition of the Parish Church tower the remains of at least five stone crosses were found. They dated from the ninth and tenth centuries. There is very little doubt that the crosses belonged to an earlier church on the site.

In the seventh century Christianity was attempting to re-establish itself across Europe. At the time stone crosses were used as religious centres prior to churches being built. We can discount the Leeds crosses being used as temporary churches as by the eighth-ninth century churches had been well established. The crosses therefore must have been for another purpose. It is highly likely that they were memorial crosses to prominent people who believed Leeds to be a sufficiently distinguished place to be buried.

St Cadroe died in 976AD. In the eleventh century 'Life of St Cadroe' it is suggested that in the tenth century Leeds was an important settlement on the borders of three kingdoms. To the north was the British kingdom of Strathclyde, to the east the Norse/Danish kingdom of York and to the south the kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons.
In the story the saint visits the king of Strathclyde. He then requires to visit King Eric in York. The British king has the saint escorted to Leeds where he is handed over to a nobleman for safe passage to York.

If Leeds was considered a place where people of importance chose to spend their rest in eternity and where a king might hand over an honoured guest then clearly it was a place of some consequence.

By the time of the Norman Conquest Leeds was a sizeable farming village centred around the bridge over the river. To the west was the manor house reached by travelling on the Buhr Lane. To the east was the parish church reached by travelling on the Kirk Gate (road to the church). A little way to the north was the York road. From the village to the York road one would have travelled on the Bridge Gate (the road to the bridge). Today Briggate is still the major thoroughfare in Leeds.