On Tuesday evening the Central Library welcomed a small panel of experts for an hour-long discussion. @grimupnorth2017’s @123McTom and @mjohnreeve discussing how history can inform identity at the #TheseNorthernTypes roundtable event. pic.twitter.com/Amc2ZPMvRc — Dr Rhiannon Pickin (@RhiannonPickin) April 17, 2018 Designed to spark thinking and discussion around the theme of ‘Northern identity,’ coinciding with a…
Category: Social History
The Luddites of Liversedge
This week we hear from guest author Mike Harwood, who tells the fascinating story of Luddite activities in Liversedge, part-way between Leeds and Huddersfield – a story that “should be of interest to anyone interested in West Yorkshire – especially its industrial history”… ‘”You’re a Luddite, Mr Brook,” said the headmaster.’[1] And The Chambers Dictionary[2] has…
Do You Remember Hunslet Grange Housing Estate?
This week we hear from Louise Dwyer and Gill Crawshaw, MA students at the Leeds Arts University. Louise and Gill wo researched the history and legacy of the Hunslet Grange estate (aka Leek Street flats). Read on to find out more about their research and how they used Leeds Libraries resources. Our current research focuses…
Xin Nian Kuai Le!
As we welcome in the Year of the Dog, librarian Ross Horsley looks back over some of the ways Leeds Libraries has worked with the city’s Chinese community over the past twelve months, exploring local history in what was the Year of the Rooster. The Leeds Is My Home project is a collaboration between Leeds…
Voices from the Past, Part II: 19th-century Working-class Autobiographies
Librarian Antony Ramm searches for the authentic voice of the Leeds people in the 19th-century. Many of these Voices from the Past are from workers in the textile mills of Leeds and West Yorkshire: see a recent blog by Emily Owen to read how 20th-century textile workers can contribute their memories to contemporary research. A…
Demanding Recognition: Butch and Mates in Woodhouse, 1970
This week, Librarian Antony Ramm provides some context for a popular 1970 photo of Leeds. Our Leodis archive is home to thousands of historical photos of Leeds, but one in particular caught a lot of attention on social media over the last few weeks: this 1970 image showing a group of children in the Servia Hill…
Voices from the Past: Textiles in Leeds and West Yorkshire
This week on the Secret Library, we hear from guest author Emily Owen, who is conducting research into the textile industries of Leeds and West Yorkshire. Stowed away in the University of Leeds Library is Special Collections – home to everything from rare medieval manuscripts to the notebooks of famous poets like Tony Harrison, and…
2018 meets 1918, 1818, 1718…
To mark (yet another) new year, librarian Antony Ramm takes a brief look at a a small selection of books from the Central Library collections, all celebrating a significant milestone this year (100th-anniversary, 200th-anniversary, 300th-anniversary): Women and the Labour Party (ed., Dr. Marion Phillips) A collection of essays published in 1918, all written by women…
