West Leeds Girls’ High School Jubilee Magazine

This week’s Secret Library Heritage Blog article has been written by Local and Family History’s Josh Flint and will be the first in a new series. This new series will be on treasures from the Local and Family History collection about Armley. This first Armley treasure is the 50th Jubilee of the West Leeds Girls;…

Harris Sumrie, Elizabeth Beecroft and Leeds Museum’s Wikithon

This week we welcome guest author Phillippa Plock, who has been working with Leeds Museums and Galleries on their Wikithon, where they write Wikipedia articles on important Leeds Historical Figures as part of their 200th birthday volunteer project. In this article Phillippa will discuss her two most recent articles on Harris Simrie and Elizabeth Beecroft. …

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 Battle of Myton, 1319, 700 Years Later

This week Local and Family History’s Josh Flint will take a special look at the Battle of Myton, seven hundred years after the battle was fought. The Battle of Myton was fought during the Scottish War of Independence after a Scottish Army, ordered by Robert the Bruce, raided and ransacked northern England. At Myton the…

Mining Genealogy Gold – A Hidden Gem in Leeds Central Library

This week we welcome guest author and family historian Jane Roberts, who explores how the Leeds Central Library Collection has shed new light on her own family history and the working conditions of children in mines and collieries.  As a family historian, I’m always on the look-out for sources which flesh out the lives of…

Almhouses, Annotations and Murder: Spending Time with Parish Registers

by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library The parish register – the list made in a church of the people who have been baptised, married or buried there – is one of the most useful tools for family history, especially for the period prior to the arrival of the civil registration process in 1837. They’re usually used to identify…

Unexpected Perspectives #5

by Ross Horsley, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library There are plenty of reasons to visit the Carriageworks Theatre on Millennium Square this month, the main one being that their production of Aladdin, the city’s only traditional pantomime, begins on Friday and runs right through to 9 January. Another reason is to take advantage of…

Unexpected Perspectives #4

by Ross Horsley, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library Now that the remodeling work has finished on the new sandwich shop, Simply Eat, next-door to the traditional Headrow pub, the Horse and Trumpet, it’s safe to once again poke your nose through that rather arty circular gate to the rear of the City Varieties Music Hall….