Aberford is a village and civil parish on the eastern outskirts of the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in Yorkshire, United Kingdom. It had a population of 1,059 at the 2001 census, increasing to 1,180 at the 2011 Census. It is situated east, north east of Leeds city centre in the LS25 Leeds postcode area. Etymology The name 'Aberford' comes from the Old English woman's name Ēadburg and ford, which, then as now, meant 'ford'. The name meant 'Eadburg's ford'. This suggests the settlement's once-strategic importance. The name was recorded as Ædburford in 1176 and Ædburgford in 1177, Ebberford in the 13th century and Aberford from 1208. History Aberford was where the ancient Great North Road crossed over the Cock River (now reduced in volume as the Cock Beck). Aberford was the midway point between London and Edinburgh, being around distant from each city until the construction of the A1(M) motorway bypass starting at Hook Moor. On the north side of the river the Aberford Dykes earthworks were constructed to defend the crossing. The buried remains of a Roman fort have been found beneath Aberford House. The current bridge dates from the 18th century. Aberford was in the ancient Kingdom of Elmet, the name given to the local parliamentary constituency. An Anglo-Saxon gold ring, inscribed with the name of King Alfred the Great's sister Æthelswith, was found in a ploughed field near the village in 1870. It was bequeathed by A.W. Franks to the British Museum in 1897. In the 17th century the village was a major place for the manufacture of pins. Aberford's growth has historically been along the road and the village has developed a linear rather than nucleated profile. Since the early 1990s much new housing has been constructed, as increasing affluence allows people to move away from city centres to rural and suburban areas. Geology Geologically, Aberford lies slightly east of the narrow basal sandstone boundary between the central Leeds' Coal Measures and much harder magnesian limestone deposits, and sits in an area shaped heavily by subsidence of the underlying Coal Measures. Buildings Aberford is considered "a place of special architectural and historic interest". Some notable buildings are: St Ricarius Church. The parish church is an 1861 rebuilding of a 12th-century one. The Gascoigne Almshouses designed by George Fowler Jones was built by sisters Mary Isabella and Elizabeth Gascoigne in 1844 to commemorate their father, Richard