Re-Discovering Leeds

Soon we’ll be unveiling a raft of updates to the 13-year-old Discovering Leeds website, a learning resource devoted to the history and development of the city. The new additions have been written by student Sophie Hedley during a placement at the Local and Family History Library. This week, she tells us a little about her experiences…

Where Was Leeds Maze?

by Ross Horsley, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library When Carver thought about the maze he could picture it very clearly. The thick green walls of leaves, the scuffed brown pathway that may once have been lawn, the iron trellis that was pulled across the entrance at six o’clock each evening. But apart from…

Making a Drama Out of a Catalogue Card

by Ross Horsley, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library Last weekend, we welcomed a group of Leeds University students to the Local and Family History Library to take part in a mystery project for the Out There Challenge programme. None of them knew each other, and none even knew where they’d be meeting until…

Shakespeare and the Art world

by Adam Barham, Art Library. Many artists have felt compelled to depict the plays of Shakespeare. Some are attracted to Shakespeare’s universal themes and complex characters, which inspire them to produce stirring representations of the plays’ inner meanings. Others appreciate his combination of exotic locations and sparse scene descriptions, which leave them free to create…

Tales From the Stacks: Solving a Mystery

by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library EDIT: You can now find this British Association for the Advancement of Science printing block on our catalogue. Please contact the Local and Family History department to arrange a viewing. This blog was supposed to be about something else; instead, it’s about this: That question was…

Takeover Challenge 2015

As Part of the 2015 Takeover Challenge Day we invited Carr Manor Primary School Year 4 pupils to take over our heritage blog post for the day. We gave them a tour of the building and the department resources, so now it’s over to Caitlin, Harry, Safa and John to tell you what they found…

#explorearchives: A Tale of One Manuscript and Two Lords Irwin

by Gilly Margrave, Music and Performing Arts, Leeds Central Library One of the rarest items in the archive of our Music and Performing Arts Library has to be the manuscript of a Cantate di Camera à Voce Sola written by Giuseppe Montuoli of Lucca and dedicated to “Signor Milord Eduardo Irwin and dated 1706. This refers to…

A Night of Fright!

by Ross Horsley, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library Last Friday, after the doors closed and the last remaining customers were ushered out into a chilly autumn evening, thirteen brave souls remained behind to stalk the darkened halls of Leeds Central Library. It was the eve of Halloween, and the perfect night for our first…