Librarian Louise Birch uses photographs from the Leodis archive to remember events that took place 50 years ago today. 5th February 1972 was a day of marches and demonstrations in the city of Leeds. Using images from the Leodis website we will take a look at the marches and their causes. Over 500 people took…
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Christmas-Morning Carols by Children in Yorkshire
It’s day 13 of our Advent Calendar and Senior Librarian, Louise Birch is returning for a second visit to Robert Chambers ‘The Book of Day: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar, Including Anecdote, Biography, & History, Curiosities of Literature and Oddities of Human Life and Character.’ Vol. 2 (1864). We’ll leave…
Lewis’s Picture Perfect Windows
For Day 12 of our Advent Calendar, Senior Librarian Louise Birch looks at the closest thing Leeds had to the store from the movie Miracle on 34th Street. Lewis’s department store opened in 1932 on the widened Headrow. Every Christmas Lewis’s provided beautiful Christmas displays, becoming citywide legendary in the 1970s and 80s. This displays…
Any Mummers Allowed In?
It’s day 9 of our Advent Calendar and today Senior Librarian Louise Birch will take us on our first visit to Robert Chambers ‘The Book of Day: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar, Including Anecdote, Biography, & History, Curiosities of Literature and Oddities of Human Life and Character.’ Vol. 2 (1864)…
Family Allowance Toy Fair
by Louise Birch Day 7 of our Advent Calendar is all about Christmas Shopping. there is a commercial side to Christmas that many dislike, for some this is due to the affordability of gifts. Today’s entry recalls a toy fair that addressed this. These images show the annual Wykebeck ‘Family allowance Toy Fair’. Local residents…
Snowy Tramscapes by Peter Lapish
We’re kicking off the 2021 festive period with our Secret Library Leeds Advent Calendar. Everyday in the run up to Christmas we will bring you something from our heritage & special collections, all with a seasonal feel. Day 1 – Prints from the Leodis.net photographic archive as chosen by senior librarian Louise Birch Impressionistic watercolours…
Leeds Sanitation & Sewers
In today’s post our Senior Librarian for Local Studies & Research, Louise Birch, explores the history of Leeds Sanitation taking, from the local studies collection, David Seller’s work; ‘Hidden Beneath our Feet: The Story of Sewerage in Leeds’ (1997) as the main source material. Sewers and sewerage are something many of us take for granted….
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Heritage Month
As June ends and we say goodbye to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Heritage month, Senior Librarian Louise Birch takes a look at what our Local History collections hold regarding West Yorkshires 7,000 strong Gypsy & Traveller community. “In many cases Gypsies are invisible in the usual records” Freda Matthews, Gypsies in Leeds Local History (in…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 