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Armley

ARMLEY, a chapelry, in the parish of St. Peter, liberty of the borough of Leeds, W. riding of York, 2½ miles (W. by N.) from Leeds; containing 5676 inhabitants. This chapelry comprises 939a. 1r. 18p.; the soil is tolerably fertile, and excellent building-stone abounds; the surface is boldly undulated, and from the east side, looking towards Headingley, the scenery is picturesque. Armley House is a noble mansion of the Ionic order, situated in an extensive and richly-wooded park. The old Hall, anciently the residence of the Hoptons, lords of the manor, is now a farmhouse. The village is situated on the west side of the river Aire, and extends for a considerable distance along the acclivities of the vale: the Leeds and Liverpool canal passes in a direction nearly parallel with the river, and also the new road from Stanningley to Leeds, completed in 1836. The inhabitants are employed in extensive woollen-mills. The chapel, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, and originally erected in the reign of Charles I., was rebuilt in 1835, at an expense of £1000, of which £300 were granted by the Incorporated Society, and the remainder raised by subscription; it contains 930 sittings. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Leeds, with a net income of £204, and a glebe-house. A Sunday evening lecture was established in 1841, and is supported at the sole expense of Mr. Gott; the lecturer has a liberal income, and a commodious house. The Dean and Chapter of Oxford receive a tithe rent-charge of £30. There are places of worship for Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, and Methodists of the New Connexion. Almshouses for 12 poor widows, and a national schoolroom for 500 children, were erected near the chapel in 1832, by the late Benjamin Gott, Esq.; they form a handsome range of buildings in the Elizabethan style. Above the village is a lofty eminence named Giant's hill, on which are the remains of some works supposed to have been a Danish fort; there were some others on two eminences called the Red and White War hills, but they were destroyed in the formation of the canal.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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