Pudsey | |
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Pudsey Town Hall |
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Pudsey shown within West Yorkshire | |
Population | 22,408 (2011) |
OS grid reference | SE223334 |
• London | 170 mi (270 km) SE |
Metropolitan borough | |
Metropolitan county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | PUDSEY |
Postcode district | LS28 |
Dialling code | 0113 |
Police | West Yorkshire |
Fire | West Yorkshire |
Ambulance | Yorkshire |
EU Parliament | Yorkshire and the Humber |
UK Parliament | |
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 city centre and Leeds city centre. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 22,408.
The borough of Pudsey consists only of addresses with an LS28 postcode, specifically Calverley, Farsley, Pudsey and Stanningley. Addresses with an LS28 postcode use the Leeds 0113 telephone prefix. It also lends its name to the local parliamentary constituency of Pudsey, of which it is a part.
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. 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.
Around 1775 a cache of a 100 silver Roman coins, many predating the time of Julius Caesar, was found on Pudsey Common at a place known as "King Alfred's Camp" by Benjamin Scholfield of Pudsey.
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.