Historical Holbeck
This page of the history section looks in more detail at the Holbeck area and the people and personalities who made this place revolutionary.
Holbeck was once a tiny weavers village with a small stream meandering through which provided the limited community with a source of clean drinking water. Holbeck derives its name from two sources; Hol meaning sunken hollow or lying in a natural hollow and Becc which is an ancient term for a small rivulet. Effectively its name is dervived from the Hol Beck which runs trhough its centre and joins the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.
During the Industrial Revolution Holbeck's foundries and mills manufactured machinery, steam engines, cloth and equipment for companies across the world. The area was home to three of the greatest innovators of the time: Colonel Thomas Harding, John Marshall and Mathew Murray.
Not only did these men change the face of industry in Britain but they left behind a rich architectural legacy, including Italianate towers and an Egyptian temple, together with uniquely styled mills and foundries.
However, from the late 1800s, Holbeck's world importance in engineering steadily declined leaving behind landmark buildings that today form an impressive monument to a bygone age.
There are 33 listed buildings within the Holbeck Urban Village conservation boundary, including one Grade I, two Grade II* buildings, all waiting to welcome today's generation of innovators in the high value creative and digital media sector.
Find out more about the key instigaotrs of the Industrial Revolution in Leeds:
