Exactly, just goes to prove you can polish a turd

Not really.

Leeds has always been a big, relatively affluent and successful city - built as much on its very long held position as a financial centre as anything else.

Wakefield has been more heavilly reliant on different industries that have long since been in decline.

That is not really true. Leeds is a relative recent success story and has only grown big in the last 160/170 years as the industrial revolution took hold. Prior to the 1800 it was nothing more than a village and dwarfed by all it's neighbours and in particular Wakefield which had been the administrative capital of the region since the 14th century, prior to that Pontefract held the dominant position in the region. Town's like Bradford and Leeds grew very large during the late 19th and early 20th century prior to WW11. The order of the region changed over this period and Wakefield and other towns started to be dwarfed by these two now citys.

Post war the Wakefield regions main industry was coal and (and all its off-shoot industrial processes) of course agriculture in the form of mainly the growing of veg and of course Rhubarb. Something ridiculous like 90% of the worlds Rhubarb was gown in the Rhubarb Triangle at it's peak, the majority of which fell into the Wakefield district.

When all of the West Yorkshire traditional industry started to decline Leeds made a very successful switch, during the 70 and 80's, to re-model itself as a financial centre. Wakefield on the other hand sought to exploit it's excellent location in relation to Leeds and more importantly at the cross-roads of the norths motorway system.

Leeds in now the financial capital of the North with Wakefield the distribution capital of West Yorkshire... that is why they are going to get a new ground as well!

Wakefield became a city by virtue of the Church of All Saints being made a Cathedral in 1888, Leeds by Charter in 1893.
I make that about five years.

Wakefield does have the tallest church spire in Yorkshire though (247 feet).


In the 1880's/1890's when they were both given city status, Leeds was already way outstripping Wakefield in all areas except Wakefield's status as the county town (n.b. not capital) of the West Riding of Yorkshire.

omg

Yes, I did not realise it was quite as late as 1888, I thought it had been decades earlier when they split the diocese of Ripon down into smaller areas but you are right it was much later. I think I was confused by the date of the extending of Wakefield Cathedral in the mid 1800's but it was still a parish church then.

PS... and ten and five years before Bradford respectively! 13.162109375:10