This week’s post is by Tony Scaife, a Heritage Volunteer based at the Local and Family History Library. He’s been indexing volumes of The Palm, the magazine of the old Leeds Central High School, which inspired him to delve a little deeper into the city’s early radio days… In 1901, the groundbreaking Central High School (CHS)…
Category: Social History
Black History Month: A Brief History of the African-Caribbean Community in Leeds
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library Since the publication of this article on the 16th of October, 2015, new research has been undertaken, which takes the story into the 1980s. A BA dissertation by Tom Woolmore, a student at Queen’s University in Belfast, entitled “Keep On Moving: Black Responses to Racism and…
The Headrow: Coffee, Change and Loss in Leeds City Centre
Part I in a loose trilogy of posts exploring (some) meanings behind the study of local history. Part II is here and Part III is here by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library The proper study of history should always be far more than a record of ‘great’ events. History is as much…
When Industry and Art Meet
by Vickie, Art Library, Leeds Central Library This week’s post returns to the theme of an Industrial Leeds – specifically the title of ‘City of Industry’ – a name that is also title to the current exhibition devised and co-curated by local illustrator Drew Millward in the gallery space at Colours May Vary. After previously touching…
Not Just a Day Job
Leeds is – justly – famous for a great many things, not least its heritage of industry, manufacturing and trade: Benjamin Gott, John Marshall, Joshua Tetley and Michael Marks being just a handful of the major figures associated with the city and its commerce. But, alongside those names still recognisable today, were a mass of…
Do We Look Strangely Familiar to You?
This group of girls and boys with their bicycles are posing with attitude on Wolseley Road, Burley, in 1969. They had just returned from Kirkstall swimming baths on Kirkstall Road, which was close by. And that’s when visiting photographer Eric Jaquier captured the moment in a striking black-and-white image, full of the warmth and personality…
Retro Revelry
The bank holidays and clement conditions of late have put us in something of a party mood here at the Secret Library, so we couldn’t help but get a little distracted while using our Yorkshire Post archives for some research recently. The cause of said distraction was an article by Antony Derville from 30 June…
Old Leeds Cold Cures
When coughs and colds sweep the offices of The Secret Library – as they do around the beginning of every winter – it’s not a pretty sight. But we are, after all, a hardy bunch, accustomed to the draughts and drips of a 130-year-old building, so we soldier on. And one of our most invaluable…
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