Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it roughly approximates to an amalgamation of Tingley, Woodkirk, Hill Top, Upper Green, Common Side, Beggarington Hill and a number of other hamlets.

The first time the name is used with reference to West Ardsley seems to be in the period 1138–47, in the form Erdislaw.

[1] In Arthur Mee's The King's England series, he wrote that Woodkirk was "sometimes called 'West Ardsley'."

West Ardsley appears on ordnance survey 1:50,000 map sheet 104.

The hamlets of Tingley, Hill Top, Upper Green and Common Side have merged through urban sprawl whilst Woodkirk remains isolated.

The area sits in the Ardsley and Robin Hood ward of Leeds City Council – which elects three city councillors – and the Leeds South West and Morley parliamentary constituency.

[5] The fair used to stretch over a period of two weeks, but as the horse trade diminished, it now takes place on only the first and last days of said fortnight – known as "First o'Lee" and "Latter Lee".