University of Leeds PhD student Pushpa Kumbhat is working on a new project with the support of Leeds Central Library’s Local and Family History department. She writes… We are creating a collection of short biographies commemorating the lives of public servants – local leaders of Leeds who served on the Council between the First and…
Category: Leeds History
The Ghost Stories of Lord Halifax
by Ross Horsley, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library Last Monday, I accepted an invitation from Bob and Jacki Lawrence of the East Leeds History and Archaeology Society to speak at their monthly meeting, and decided to take along one of my favourite items from our Local History collection as my inspiration. Lord Halifax’s…
Ballet Memories at The Grand Theatre
By Karen Downham, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library One of the best things about working in Local and Family History is the wide variety of topics that we can deal with, and not knowing what you will be asked on a day to day basis. It is always rewarding to help people find what they…
In Memory of David Strachan, a Yorkshire Scot
Guest blogger Val Hewson, from the Reading Sheffield project, tells the story of David Strachan, a Leeds librarian who died in the First World War. Val came across him by chance, in a 1923 article in the Library Association Record about plans for a memorial to librarians lost in the war. One hundred years ago…
‘O Come All Ye Faithful’: Leeds Catholics in the Central Library Collections
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library In his book Christmas Carols: From Village Green to Church Choir, Andrew Gant tells us that it was one John Francis Wade who is normally credited with composing the very familiar Carol ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’; in truth, as Gant makes clear, it appears Wade was primarily responsible…
Remembering the Barnbow Tragedy: 100 Years Ago Today
by Louise Birch, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library Leeds Central Library’s recent exhibition The Barnbow Story in Pictures used photographs taken from the munitions factory to give insight into the lives of the women who worked there. A selection of the exhibition photographs have been included below but, if you would like to…
A Hidden Victorian Treasure in Headingley
by Nick Tasker, PhD student in Philosophy at the University of Leeds During pleasant afternoons in Leeds Central Library I have been discovering a story of upward social mobility in Victorian Leeds. It’s also the story of my front room. I recently moved into a new place in Headingley. It’s in a large Victorian house…
When the Robots Came to Leeds
Heritage volunteer and guest blogger Tony Scaife looks back to 1920s Leeds, when the new word ‘robot’ had a somewhat different meaning… The robot army arrived in Leeds on Friday 16 March 1928. Readers will have to judge for themselves whether Councillor Turtington and the other members of the Leeds Highways Committee were prescient, deluded or…
