University of York PhD researcher Joanne Harrison has been working on an exciting project about the past, present and future of back-to-back houses and their communities in Harehills since 2014. A new exhibition, now at Leeds Central Library, provides the findings of her research. Joanne writes… Producing an exhibition at the end of my PhD…
Category: Guest Post
I Was Here: Diversity in Georgian Yorkshire
This week we hear from independent researcher Danny Friar, who offers a brilliant and sensitively-researched excavation of the Georgian era, revealing fragments of a hidden, but universal, history… Ten years ago a discussion of the Georgian period may have brought up names such as Lord Horatio Nelson, Captain James Cook, William Wilberforce and Jane Austen….
Eating People is Wrong? Cannibals and Heroes on the First Crusade (1096–1099)
This week on the Secret Library Heritage Blog we have guest author Hannah Mackenzie. Hannah is a PhD candidate at The University of Leeds and has recently delivered an incredible talk with us at the Leeds Central Library on this fascinating subject. You can learn more about Hannah and her exciting research on her university…
The Public Benefit Boot Company
This week we welcome guest blogger Dave Bean, who has spent years researching and writing about the Public Benefit Boot Company, which had Northern and Southern divisions. He has recently donated his collection to Leeds Central Library and it can be found in the Local and Family History Library. Here he tells us about the…
Disabled Activists in the News
The last event in our programme accompanying the 2022 Breaking the News exhibition focused on how disabled people, in Leeds and around the UK, hit the headlines in the 1990s with some hard-hitting protests. At the event, Steve Graby of Leeds Disabled People’s Organisation talked to Gill Crawshaw and Ruth Malkin, who were both involved…
A Brief Tour of Roundhay St. John Church
This week’s article is by researcher Irfan Shah, who illuminates the hidden history of a local Church, one that deserves much wider recognition… One of the jewels in the Central Library’s crown is the wonderful and unique Boyne’s Grangerised History of Leeds (a ‘grangerised’ book is one that has been added to and illustrated ‘by…
The Mechanics’ Institute: Part III – “…In no small measure to contribute…to the advancement of the community.”
The third and final part in guest author Tony Scaife’s trilogy exploring the Leeds Mechanics Institute. All three articles were researched using books and other resources available in the Local Studies & Research department at Leeds Central Library. We had left the story of the Leeds Institute with the 1865 opening of the Cuthbert Brodrick-designed…
Leeds Town Hall and the tradition of the ‘Civic Organ’
This week we have a guest blog post from the City Organist for Leeds, Darius Battiwalla, who tells us about the history of the organ in Leeds Town Hall. Even in a silent and empty hall, the organ in Leeds Town Hall demands attention as soon as you walk in. Like its cousins in Birmingham…
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