Pudsey

Pudsey is a town in the county of West Yorkshire, England, between Bradford and Leeds. It is geographically and officially part of Leeds despite originally being separate.

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 merged with Farsley and Calverley in 1937, and in 1974 became part of the Leeds Metropolitan District.

The name Pudsey occurs in the Domesday book, 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.
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Public Transport

There is a rail station in Farsley known as New Pudsey. It is on the Caldervale Line between Leeds and Bradford Interchange. It was built to replace the two original stations in Pudsey (Pudsey Lowtown and Pudsey Greenside) but its situation a mile away from Pudsey 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 1959and most of the infrastructure was removed, although roadworks on the centeral reservation of Stanningley bypass uncovered some of the tracks in October 2005.

Public transport in Pudsey is now 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.
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Present

Over recent years Pudsey has lost a number of retailers, including both video rental shops, an antiques shop, the electrical store and the photo shop. All these shopfronts are currently standing empty (as of July 2006).

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.

The 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.