Pudsey

Photo of Pudsey Parish Church

For other uses, see Pudsey (disambiguation).

Pudsey is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, between Bradford and Leeds. It merges with the Leeds urban area, but is still counted as a separate town by the census.

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 member.

History

Formerly within the wapentake of Morley and Calverley Parish, Pudsey became a Municipal borough in 1889. Despite always being joined to Leeds as an urban area, it avoided being taken into Leeds. 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 Leeds Metropolitan District.

The name Pudsey occurs in the Domesday book as "Podeschesaie", but in the early 6th century Pudsey and the neighbourhood appear to have been the centre of the considerable Kingdom of Elmet, which retained its independence for more than 200 years after other more petty kingdoms had been subdued by the Saxons.

The town was famous in the 18th and 19th centuries for its wool manufacture, and, more recently, for cricket. Yorkshire and England cricketers Sir Len Hutton, Herbert Sutcliffe, Ray Illingworth and Matthew Hoggard all learnt to play in Pudsey.

File:Pudsey Resident.jpg

Typical Pudsey resident

Public Transport

Photo of New Pudsey Station

There is a small railway station known as New Pudsey. It is on the Caldervale Line between Leeds and Bradford Interchange and was built to replace Pudsey's two original stations - Pudsey Lowtown and Pudsey Greenside - which were both destroyed in the late 1960s by the Beeching Axe along with the Stanningley-Laisterdyke-Bradford GNR loop serving them. However, New Pudsey's situation over a mile away from the town centre makes it impractical for commuters.

The Leeds-Pudsey tram 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.

Public transport in Pudsey has always been dominated by the bus, although there are no late night services to and from Leeds. Late night revellers have little choice but to make their way home in taxis.

Present

Over recent years Pudsey has lost a number of retailers, including video rental shops, an antiques shop, the electrical store and the photo shop. Most of these shopfronts (with the exception of the photo shop, which has been quickly converted into a hairdresser's and one of the video stores which is now a betting shop) currently stand empty. It was made public that Somerfields in the centre of the town would be closed soon after opening. Although this went ahead, it became a Kwik Save once more after a company with ties to Kwik Save bought it.

There is a superb park in Pudsey; features include Pets Corner (Chipmunks always a good bet with kids), aquarium, bird houses, tropical greenhouse and a large play area for the kids.

A positive development in Pudsey has been the introduction of a monthly farmers market with a range of stalls selling meat, fish, dairy produce, organic fruit and vegetables, delicatessen and craftware.

Plans for a £2million covered bus station in Pudsey, to replace the current array of individual bus stands, have been given the go ahead.[1]

Pudsey Carnival

Each year in May the annual Carnival takes place at Queens Park. The events kicks off at 12noon with a parade through the town centre and continues throughout the afternoon with stalls, events and a fair.

Ginger Presence

Within Pudsey there lurks many creepy people with ginger hair. An example of these is Samuel Benson (pictured below)

File:Fghnmyu65udssfdyf.jpg

Will the gingers take over?

External Links

• Pudsey.com Pudsey Online Community Website.
• Pudsey Civic Society
• BBC Children in Need
• Pudsey Carnival

Location

• Wikimapia

53°47′N 1°40′W