Did you know that Leeds had its very own race ground in Stourton Park back in the 1820’s? It didn’t last long and faced criticism throughout its life span for encouraging gambling and immoral behaviour. It was situated opposite the former Skelton Grange Power Station on the south side of the River Aire and was…
Category: Treasures & Discoveries
White Soup
January 28th this week marked the anniversary of the publication of the Jane Austen classic Pride & Prejudice. To celebrate we bring you a staple from any Austen era ball, a recipe for White Soup. We are first introduced to the delicacy by Mr Bingley in Austen’s classic; “As for the ball, it is quite a…
2015 Anniversaries
It is well known that the next 12-months see several anniversaries of major significance: the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta (1215); the 600th anniversary of Agincourt (1415); and the 200th anniversary of Waterloo (1815). But those three anniversaries are not the whole story, with 2015 also marking several other events of historical and literary importance:…
Christmas books
Readers of this blog will surely agree that few things in life go together better than Christmas and reading a good book. And, while there can be nothing held against anyone who chooses otherwise, Christmas is surely the appropriate time to find yourself reading a good book about Christmas. A quick search of our library…
Slightly Spooky
Everyone loves a ghost story at Christmas, don’t they? These real-life tales of haunted houses (above) are taken from the first volume of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. Originally launched in 1882 to, in its members’ own words, make “an organised and systematic attempt to investigate that large group of debatable phenomena…
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…
Wrap Up Warm!
As the thrills of Halloween and Bonfire Night recede, and November really starts to dig its heels into the frosty ground, we tend to start thinking about warmer clothes and Christmas gifts. That’s a fact that certainly hasn’t changed over the last eighty years – as this lovely 1938 catalogue demonstrates – but the nature…
Read More: The Gunpowder Plot
by Antony Ramm, Leeds Central Library This is an entry in our Read More series. These are ‘long-form’ articles, where staff offer a curated and detailed look at areas of our book collections, usually based around a specific theme or subject. These posts aim to guide the interested reader through to those books that offer a more in-depth…
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