This week on the Secret Library, we hear from Library Officer Karen Downham, on a fascinating piece of Leeds social history – with an intriguing connection to a Second World War hero… For the last couple of months I have been tackling a project on the Scrapbook of Harry Croft, Secretary of Leeds St Mark’s…
Category: Social History
Family History Resources: Historical Trade Directories
This week on the Secret Library we hear from Local and Family History’s Josh Flint, who will be exploring the excellent family history resource, historical trade directories. This article will help family history researchers understand what trade directories are, how they can be useful for family history research and finally where to find them. This…
Charles Ward VC: A Leeds Hero
This week on the Secret Library we are delighted to hear from Mick Ward, who gives us the fascinating and poignant story of his grandfather, Charles Ward: his military life in The Boer War, and First World War and the impact of those conflicts on him personally. This article is #20 in our People of…
Wormald’s Yard, Commercial Court and Lower Briggate
On the Secret Library this week, we hear from Library Officer Karen Downham about another project on our Leodis archive of historical Leeds photos… I have recently been indexing for the Leodis website a set of photographs from the area on the eastern side of Briggate, to the south of Boar Lane, which had a…
Windrush Day 2020
On this day in 1948 the troopship Empire Windrush arrived at the port of Tilbury, England, after a journey that began at that same place before visiting Southampton (to collect troops) and then taking in stops at Trinidad, Jamaica, Mexico, Cuba and Bermuda. On board were at least 1,027 people (according to the passenger list),…
A Victorian Catering Ledger
This week, Librarian Helen Skilbeck takes a look at an unusual piece of Leeds’ history: Godfrey Wood’s Victorian Catering Ledger. Unassuming to look at but containing a goldmine of information, Wood’s Catering Ledger details events and banquets he catered for in the Victorian era, covering the period 1840s – 1870s. As well as detailing the…
Family History Resources: Newspaper Microfilms and Online Newspaper Databases
As part of a series examining family history resources for beginners, Local and Family History’s Josh Flint takes an in-depth look at one of the most useful resources for your family history research: online newspapers databases. This article will discuss how Leeds Libraries members can use multiple newspaper databases online and then show in detail how to…
Black History at Leeds Central Library
This week on the Secret Library blog we have chosen to highlight past articles exploring the rich legacy of Black communities, locally, nationally and internationally – as seen in the collections at Leeds Central Library. We shall be publishing more articles along these lines over the coming months, because we firmly believe #blacklivesmatter. A permanent…
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