Wortley grew, much like surrounding areas during the
Industrial Revolution. While Wortley was home to some smaller industrial works, its proximity to the industrial centres of Armley and Holbeck encouraged gradual growth. Perhaps Wortley's most notable features at this time were the vast array of railway junctions and its two gasworks, a smaller one in Lower Wortley and Leeds' largest gasworks in New Wortley which, until early 2022, was marked by the presence of a large spiral guided
gasholder. Wortley was formerly a
township in the parish of Leeds and a
chapelry, in 1866 Wortley became a separate
civil parish, on 26 March 1904 the parish was abolished to form
Armley and Bramley. In 1901 the parish had a population of 27,456. On New Year's Day 1891 eleven girls, aged between nine and thirteen, were killed at a school pageant when their cotton-wool costumes were accidentally set on fire by the lighted Chinese lanterns they carried. The disaster gained international attention. A memorial dedicated to the Wortley "Snowflakes" stands in the grounds of St John's Church. The landscape of Wortley changed considerably following
World War II, when both the
Leeds Corporation and private developers redeveloped the Victorian slum areas which had characterised Wortley since it developed. New Wortley was largely developed through the building of social housing, mainly in the form of high rise flats and
prefabricated houses. Despite being built opposite what was then a gas works and is now a storage facility, the prefabricated houses were built with 'all-electric' heating, as was common at the time. In 2009, as part of a fuel poverty scheme the homes were connected to gas. Lower Wortley and Upper Wortley saw less development than New Wortley with many of their larger Victorian through terracing still remaining and the redevelopment largely being undertaken by private developers who favoured low rise developments using more traditional methods of construction. Between 1851 and 1852 the bones of the
Armley Hippo, a great northern
hippopotamus now extinct in the United Kingdom, was found in the ancient former southern channel of the River Aire, in an area previously part of Wortley, where the Armley Gyratory now stands. ==Amenities==