As part of a series examining family history resources for beginners, librarian Antony Ramm explores Visitation records – a largely neglected but extremely worthwhile set of genealogy records from the 16th and 17th-centuries… Family historians will be familiar with the difficulty of tracing ancestries prior to the almost-simultaneous start of Civil Registration and Census records in the…
Category: Social History
Keep on Keeping On: Running a Library Department in a Crisis
This week, Antony Ramm, Librarian-Manager for the Local and Family History (LFH) department at Leeds Central Library, explains the steps staff have taken to continue operating a specialist public library department in these unprecedented times… As previously announced on the Secret Library, the Central Library in Leeds shut its doors to staff and the public…
The Story of Hey’s Brewery Women’s Football Team in 1921
This week on the Secret Library we hear from Josh Flint on the tumultuous year that Hey’s Brewery Women’s Football team had in 1921. 1921 was a fascinating year for Women’s Football and Hey’s Brewery Women’s Football team encapsulated this, as they spent most of the year playing in front of enormous crowds and ended…
The West Riding Radical Press and Leeds Other Paper
This week on the Secret Library we hear from John Boocock on the history of radical publishing in Leeds and the West Riding, from the 19th-century to the Leeds Other Paper in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. This will be the subject of John’s upcoming talk at the Central Library (February 19) – further details…
Talking Rubbish
Do you remember the dustmen and their carts? Then join us at 2pm on Monday January 27, in the Sanderson Room at the Central Library for a ‘rubbish’ story – literally! Talking Rubbish is a visual journey down Memory Lane – discover how rubbish collection has changed through the years and the importance of recycling today….
Male Homosexuality in Britain, 1954-70: The Leeds Link
As part of LGBT History Month in February, Leeds-born writer John-Pierre Joyce will give a talk and read from his book Odd Men Out: Male Homosexuality in Britain from Wolfenden to Gay Liberation, 1954-1970. Here, he takes a look at Leeds and its people at a time of immense social and political change for gay…
Leeds Zoological and Botanical Gardens: A Brief History
This week, Kyle Thomason, a heritage volunteer at the Central Library, writes about the long lost Zoological Gardens in Headingley. The Leeds Zoological and Botanical Gardens were unknown to me until a few months ago. However, when I was younger I regularly saw what I thought was a mini Castle, over grown with no information…
The First Leeds Panto?
To mark the forthcoming Christmas week, Librarian Antony Ramm offers a short investigation into the first pantomime performed in Leeds… In 1986 a reader of the Yorkshire Evening Post asked a simple question: What “records” were consulted for this answer is not made clear, but a previous article on the history of pantomime in Leeds…
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