Wade's Charity is the working name of The Charities of Thomas Wade & Others arising under the will of Thomas Wade dated 4 February 1530, which provided for funds to "remain and go to the use of mending, upholding and keeping of the highways about Leeds". Other benefactors subsequently added to the Charity including Alice Lodge who died in 1638, Henry Ambler and others and Richard Simpson. Until the late nineteenth century the Charity was generally known as "the Highways Estate". It was administered by the Committee of Pious Uses, who were also responsible for the Grammar School and Leeds Poor' Estate, and its income was spent purchasing and dedicating property in various parts of the town and widening and improving streets and footpaths.

The Leeds Improvement Act 1866 provided that the entire management of the making, maintaining, paving, repairing, covering and cleansing of the streets within the borough should be vested in the Corporation. In consequence, the trustees passed a resolution that the Charity's funds should be applied in improving existing streets rather than creating new ones. Inevitably, however, the existence of two highway authorities caused difficulty, and in 1884 the Corporation applied to the Charity Commissioners for a new Scheme to be established, administered by the Corporation.

After protracted arguments, the matter was referred to the Attorney-General, as a result of which a new Scheme was established in 1893.

This new Scheme is still in operation today, although it has been subsequently amended on occasion. (See current scheme).