East Ardsley is a village in the

City of Leeds Leeds, also known as the City of Leeds, is a metropolitan borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in West Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Gar ...

metropolitan borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of districts of England, local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan distr ...

, in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England. East Ardsley forms part of the Heavy Woollen District and sits within the Rhubarb Triangle.

Etymology

The name ''Ardsley'' is first attested in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 as ''Erdeslau'' and ''Eadeslauue'', apparently primarily with reference to what is now East Ardsley as opposed to West Ardsley. The first element of the name comes from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

personal name A personal name, full name or prosoponym (from Ancient Greek ''prósōpon'' – person, and ''onoma'' –name) is the set of names by which an individual person or animal is known. When taken together as a word-group, they all relate to that on ...

''Eard'', a nickname form of longer names like ''Eardwulf'', in the

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

form ''Eardes'' ('Eard's'). The second element comes from Old English ''hlǣw'' ('hill, mound'). Thus the name once meant 'Eard's hill' or 'Eard's mound'. The name first appears with the element ''east'' in 1459, in the forms ''Est Ardeslaw'' and ''East Ardeslawe''.Harry Parkin, ''Your City's Place-Names: Leeds'', English Place-Name Society City-Names Series, 3 (Nottingham: English Place-Names Society, 2017), pp. 16–17.

Location

Historically part of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

, it is south of

Leeds city centre Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is roughly bounded by the Leeds Inner Ring Road, Inner Ring Road to the north and the River Aire to the south and can be divided into several quarters. A ...

and north of the

City of Wakefield Wakefield, also known as the City of Wakefield, is a Local government in England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status and a metropolitan district in West Yorkshire, England. Wakefield, the largest settl ...

. Being between several towns, East Ardsley has become a dormitory village. The village is about above sea level and is more widely known than its neighbour West Ardsley. Although it is in the City of Leeds metropolitan district, the village is in Wakefield's WF3 postcode district and its telephone numbers have both the 0113 Leeds and 01924 Wakefield dialling code. In 1931 the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

had a population of 4961. On 1 April 1937 the parish was abolished and merged with Morley and Stanley. East Ardsley was part of Ardsley Urban district 1894–1937, which also included Tingley and West Ardsley, and was then part of Morley

Municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

1937–1974. The village is still classed as part of Morley in the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, but it is not governed by Morley

Town Council A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities. Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions. Republic of Ireland In 2002, 49 urban district councils and 26 town commissi ...

. East Ardsley sits in the Ardsley and Robin Hood ward of Leeds City Council – which elects three city councillors – and the Leeds South West and Morley parliamentary constituency.

History

East Ardsley once had a diverse economy, including agriculture, textiles, railways and coal-mining. Its coal mine closed in 1968 – the same year that the nearby Middleton pit closed. On the site of the old pit head now stands the headquarters of Sharp Business Systems, the UK arm of

Sharp Corporation is a Japanese electronics company. It is headquartered in Sakai, Osaka, and was founded by Tokuji Hayakawa in 1912 in Honjo, Tokyo, and established as the Hayakawa Metal Works Institute in Abeno-ku, Osaka, in 1924. Since 2016, it is majority o ...

, which supplies and services photocopiers. The village had many co-op departments all of which are now closed. The old coop on Thorpe Road changed hands to become Moorknoll Upholstery and after that, Restyle fitness. More recently the property is now occupied by The Mulberry House Beauty Salon. Amblers Mill is at the crossroads of the A650 Bradford Road, Westerton Road and Common Lane. The building has ceased textile production and now houses Country Baskets. In 2007 the former railway sidings site started to be redeveloped for housing. The owners of the Country Baskets wholesaler were both killed in a helicopter accident on Saturday 26 January 2008. The M62 and M1 motorways intersect near here. The main A650 road from Wakefield to

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

also goes through the village. The Bay Horse Pub, a long-standing and historical part of East Ardsley can be found on Bradford Road. The village was also formerly served by Ardsley railway station. The entertainer Ernie Wise was brought up in East Ardsley.

Notable people

* Ernie Wise (born 1925), comedian * Eric Fisk (born 1931), first-class cricketer * Terry Durham (born 1936), artist and poet

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in West Yorkshire City of Leeds