Many famous firsts of the Industrial Revolution occurred in West Yorkshire. Marshall’s Mill, a six-storey flax-spinning mill in Holbeck, Leeds, was one of the largest factories in the world when it opened in the late 18th century. The Leeds and Selby Railway, which opened in September 1834, was the first mainline railway in Yorkshire. And alongside the huge mills that appeared in Bradford, Halifax and Huddersfield, heavy engineering dominated Castleford, Leeds, Pontefract and Wakefield. And of course the ‘Steel City’ Sheffield was also part of historic West Riding, although today lies within South Yorkshire.
