We welcome Library and Digital Assistant Becky Bavill back to the Secret Library this week, for a brilliantly-researched story to mark Armed Forces Day on June 29. This is the second part of a three part series that will run throughout June, alongside a full programme of Leeds Libraries events. You can find all three…
Author: Leeds Libraries
Cabinet Displays for Armed Forces Day 2024
Visit the Local and Family History department throughout June to see a display curated by our staff exploring two Armed Forces themes, as part of the Armed Forces Day Festival taking place across Leeds this month. One cabinet looks at decompression – the ways soldiers, sailors and air-force personnel relaxed or processed their experiences during…
A mysterious diary from the Great War (Part 1 of 3)
We welcome Library and Digital Assistant Becky Bavill back to the Secret Library this week, for a brilliantly-researched story to mark Armed Forces Day on June 29. This is the first part of a three part series that will run throughout June, alongside a full programme of Leeds Libraries events. You can find all three…
Leeds Libraries a Century Ago – All Human Life Was There
As a celebration of Volunteers Week 2024, running from next Monday (June 3) to the following Sunday (June 9), we asked freelance writer and one of our longstanding Heritage Volunteers, Tony Harcup, to tell us about about the research he has been doing with old newspaper stories about libraries. When Leeds Libraries appealed for help…
The Places We Live: Redux
This week, for Local and Community History Month, Librarian Antony Ramm offers a brief update to a previous article exploring the histories of communities around the wider Leeds area… Back in May 2022 we published a piece here on the Secret Library Leeds blog that explored the depth and breadth of the local history material…
‘Town Street’: Re-imagining Armley in photographs
This week in Local and Community History Month we hear from Hannah White, who has creatively re-used some images from our Leodis archive to show contrasts and continuities between Town Street in Armley, then and now… You can read much more about Armley in our mini-series of articles, or explore our Armley research guide to…
The Leylands in Poetry
We welcome local poet Sally Michaelson this week on the Secret Library Leeds, who offers some poignant poetry about the Jewish community of Leeds and the Leylands area of the city centre. We are publishing these poems as part of Local and Community History Month. We hope you enjoy these poems. You can find out…
Thorne’s of Leeds: A Research Jigsaw
This week we’re delighted to publish the first in a series of guest posts for Local and Community History Month. Today, we hear from researcher Andrew Littlewood on his exploration of resources in our Local and Family History department, in his search for information on Henry Thorne & Co. Ltd… You can find out more…