Pudsey

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Coordinates: 53°47′49″N 1°39′47″W / 53.797°N 1.663°W / 53.797; -1.663

Pudsey
Pudsey Parish Church
Pudsey Parish Church
Pudsey is located in West Yorkshire
Pudsey

 Pudsey shown within West Yorkshire
Population 32,391 
OS grid reference SE223334
Metropolitan borough City of Leeds
Metropolitan county West Yorkshire
Region Yorkshire and the Humber
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town PUDSEY
Postcode district LS28
Dialling code 0113
01274
Police West Yorkshire
Fire West Yorkshire
Ambulance Yorkshire
EU Parliament Yorkshire and the Humber
UK Parliament Pudsey
List of places
UK
England
Yorkshire

Pudsey is a market town in West Yorkshire, England. Once independent, it was incorporated into the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in 1974. It is located midway between Bradford and Leeds city centres. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 32,391.[1]

Pudsey consists of: the town centre and the areas of Fartown, Troydale, Littlemoor, Lowtown, Uppermoor and Chapeltown. There is also the village of Fulneck, the district of Stanningley, nearby town of Farsley, and part of Tyersal.

Although the town centre of Pudsey is in the LS28 postcode area, parts of it are in the LS13 postcode area, and also in the Bradford postcode areas of BD3 and BD4.

Most of Pudsey's phone numbers use the 0113 Leeds prefix, although some houses towards the Tyersal and Thornbury direction use the 01274 Bradford prefix.

Pudsey has given its name to "Pudsey Bear", the mascot of the BBC's annual fundraising marathon Children in Need. It also lends its name to the local parliamentary constituency of Pudsey, of which it is a part.

Contents

History [edit]

The place-name Pudsey is first recorded in the Domesday Book as Podechesaie and Podechesai, in 1086. Its etymology is rather uncertain: it seems most likely to derive from a putative personal name *Pudoc and the word ēg meaning 'island' but here presumably referring metaphorically to an 'island' of good ground in moorland. Thus the name would mean 'Pudoc's island'. Other possibilities have been suggested, however.[2] In the early sixth century the district was in the Kingdom of Elmet, which seems to have retained its Celtic character for perhaps as many as two centuries after other neighbouring kingdoms had adopted the cultural identity of the Angles.

The town was famous in the 18th and 19th centuries for wool manufacture, and, from the 19th century, for cricket. Yorkshire and England cricketers Sir Len Hutton, Herbert Sutcliffe, Ray Illingworth and Matthew Hoggard all learned to play in Pudsey. A 19th century Yorkshire cricketer, John Tunnicliffe, was born in Lowtown.

During the Industrial Revolution Pudsey was one of the most polluted areas of the UK due to its position in a slight valley between the two industrial cities of Leeds and Bradford. As a result whichever way the wind blew Pudsey became covered in thick soot. The temperature inversion created by the valley led to the soot becoming trapped leading to dense smogs. 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 [edit]

Pudsey Town Hall

Formerly within the wapentake of Morley and Calverley Parish, Pudsey became a Municipal Borough in 1889. For many years, despite being joined to the Leeds conurbation, it avoided being made part of Leeds County Borough. In 1937 the Farsley and Calverley urban districts were added to Pudsey. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, it became part of the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds.

Pudsey forms part of the Pudsey parliamentary constituency, along with Farsley, Calverley, Horsforth and Guiseley.[3] The MP is Stuart Andrew.[4]

Present [edit]

The World's End public house

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. Jason Phelan a well known footballer in the yorkshire region took charge of the local under 8's Pudsey Juniors team using his playing abilities to improve grassroot football.

Pudsey's market operates on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday[5] and has recently been refurbished.[6] Pudsey has also seen the introduction of a monthly farmers' market with a range of stalls selling meat, fish, dairy produce, organic fruit and vegetables, delicatessen and craft-ware.[7]

Central Pudsey street map.

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 supermarkets across the country, Pudsey's store was bought by Sainsbury's.[8] Until the administration of the group, Pudsey had a Woolworths situated on Church Lane. It is now a B&M Home Bargains store.

There are three high schools situated in the Pudsey boundary: Crawshaw, Priesthorpe and Pudsey Grangefield, which has been rebuilt as 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[9] 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.[10]

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.[11]

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.[12]

The community website This is Pudsey, which is run by local residents aims to bring the community together by organising many events during the year and to help promote the local businesses, groups and organisations, everyone is welcome to become apart of the website and are welcome to use the Pudsey Community Forum, where residents can have there say on things that matter in the community.

Pudsey is also now home to an established Indian Sikh 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.[13]

Public transport [edit]

New Pudsey railway station
Pudsey Park - opened in October 1889

There is a small railway station known as New Pudsey railway station. It is on the Caldervale Line between Leeds and Bradford Interchange and was built to replace Pudsey's two original stations — Pudsey Lowtown railway station and Pudsey Greenside railway station — which were both closed in 1964 by the Beeching Axe along with the GNR Pudsey Loop[14] 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 No.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 including: the Butcher's Arms, the Crown Inn, the Farmer's, the Mason's Arms, the Shamrock Inn, the Crossed Shuttle, 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, Centrebus and Arriva bus services that run through to Leeds city centre 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. There is also a No.72 bus service that runs between Leeds and Bradford along Stanningley Town Street and Bradford Road, which is 10 minutes walk from Pudsey town centre. The No.508 bus service to Halifax is a further 5 minutes walk up Bradford Road, to near the junction with Old Road.

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.[15] It has since been completed.

The Leeds-Pudsey tram route via Armley and Bramley 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, subsequent plans such as that for trolley buses, a revised tram scheme or tram-trains have also failed to include West Leeds.

Sport [edit]

The England cricket captain Sir Len Hutton was born in nearby Fulneck and was called "the man from Pudsey".[16] Raymond Illingworth, another former England cricket captain, was born in Pudsey as was the England fast bowler Matthew Hoggard and the snooker star Danny Fowler. For over a hundred years the Yorkshire County Cricket Club had at least one player who came from the old Borough of Pudsey. The England opening batsman Herbert Sutcliffe attended Pudsey School and learnt his cricket with the Pudsey St Lawrence and Pudsey Britannia cricket clubs.

Pudsey has one of the region's most popular and well-known running clubs, Pudsey Pacers.[17] The club meets every Tuesday and Thursday at 7 pm at the town's Leisure Centre.[18] The club organises the annual Pudsey 10k Challenge,[19] widely regarded as one of the most challenging 10k races;[20] it attracts around 450 runners.

In 1985, Pudsey Judo Club[21] 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 [edit]

In The Meaning of Liff 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."[22] 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 railway station. Pudsey is also mentioned frequently in the Michael Palin TV series Ripping Yarns.

Location grid [edit]


 Farsley
Thornbury Armley
  Pudsey  
Drighlington

References [edit]

  1. ^ Office for National Statistics : Census 2001 : Urban Areas : Table KS01 : Usual Resident Population Retrieved 2009-08-26
  2. ^ Victor Watts (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), s.v. PUDSEY.
  3. ^ UK Polling Report: Pudsey
  4. ^ "BBC NEWS – Election 2010 – Pudsey". BBC News. 
  5. ^ Pudsey Market
  6. ^ Yorkshire Evening Post, Pudsey Market refurbishment
  7. ^ BBC Leeds, Pudsey Farmers Market
  8. ^ "Sainsbury's at Kwik Save site". Yorkshire Evening Post. 2007-10-03. 
  9. ^ PGS History by Les Barnes
  10. ^ Yorkshire Evening Post, Town Hall lights
  11. ^ Pudsey Shop Local website
  12. ^ Pudsey in Bloom Blog
  13. ^ http://www.shopinpudsey.co.uk
  14. ^ Pudsey was originally served by a short branch line running from Stanningley to Pudsey Greenside opened on 1 April 1878 by the Great Northern Railway. Fifteen years later the line was extended through a tunnel to Laisterdyke railway station, the original curve from Stanningley closed, and another (90°) curve to Bramley railway station opened forming the Pudsey Loop. The town had two stations on this Bramley-Laisterdyke-Bradford loop — Pudsey Lowtown and Pudsey Greenside — conveniently located at either end of the town centre, and both closed on 15 June 1964 as a result of the Beeching Axe.[1]
  15. ^ WYMetro Pudsey bus station
  16. ^ p158, John Kay, Ashes to Hassett, Sidgewick & Sons, 1951
  17. ^ Pudsey Pacers
  18. ^ Pudsey leisure centre
  19. ^ BBC Leeds, sport in Pudsey
  20. ^ Runners world
  21. ^ http://pudseyjudo.webs.com
  22. ^ The Meaning of Liff, by Douglas Adams & John Lloyd, Pan Books Ltd, 1983, ISBN 0-330-28121-6.

External links [edit]


The town of Pudsey, England
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