Leeds news on today's date (July 2) in 1855 and 1869.

[Leodian]

The following are reported on today’s date (July 2) in John Mayhall’s ‘Annals of Yorkshire’:-Volume 1. July 2 1855. “Some alarm having been created in the town of Leeds, by a proposed encampment of the militia on Woodhouse moor, a public meeting was held at the Court-house, at which the mayor presided, to pass resolutions to the Lords of the manor, asking them to withold their sanction to such encampment.”July 2 1855. “The trustees of the Leeds Free Grammar School, with Dr. Hook as chairman, did great service to the cause of popular education, by extending the basis of the system of teaching at the school, so as to meet the needs of a class very numerous in the town. The new plan established two distinct departments, one with an extended course, comprising all the requisites of a first rate education; the second requiring a shorter time, and seeking only to give a thorough grammatical and commercial training, to fit boys for trades, and the lower kinds of office work. In both departments, modern languages were to form a regular part of the school system.”Volume 3. July 2 1869. “The Leeds Town Council voted £10,000 for the purchase of the tolls on the Leeds and Whitehall turnpike road, to free Monk Bridge. It was also agreed to pay £5,000 for the removal of the tolls on the Wellington and Tong Lane and Wortley and Pudsey bars.”Using an inflation calculator in the Bank of England website the £10,000 is equivalent (to 2011) to about £976,631 at 3.2% inflation.