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…
Category: Guest Post
Disabled Activists in the News
The last event in our programme accompanying the 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 in…
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…
Mary Gawthorpe, Alice Stone Blackwell and Florence Pethick Lawrence: Three Inspirational Women from the Women’s Suffrage Movement
Todays blog post comes from MA students Sophia Lambert, and Rebecca Illidge who are volunteering with Leeds Libraries to index the Gawthorpe Papers. The Mary Gawthorpe Papers are an incredibly valuable and rich resource and are available to view on microfilm at the Leeds Central Library. Mary Eleanor Gawthorpe was born in Woodhouse, Leeds, on…
The amazing career of aviation correspondent, author and journalist Allen Rowley
This week’s post is written by Geoff Carter. Geoff has also kindly loaned items belonging to Allen Rowley to the Breaking the News exhibition and donated some incredible 18th century newspapers to our permanent collection. Allen Rowley was born at Thornhill, Dewsbury, and as a nephew of the village newsagent, started delivering the Yorkshire Post…
The Mechanics’ Institute: Part II – “Commensurate with the growing intelligence and prosperity of the people.”
The second part of guest author Tony Scaife‘s series on the Leeds Mechanics Institute, sourced from books and other resources available in the Local Studies & Research department at the Central Library. Part I can be found here. Earlier we have seen how, in 1824, the leading citizens of the town planned to create the…
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