Part eleven of a series exploring the history of Leeds, using books and other stock resources held in the Leeds Libraries collections. For all the entries in this series, see our dedicated page. In our tenth part we explored collections relating to Leeds United and its important role as a carrier of the Leeds name…
Women of Beckett Street Cemetery: Theodosia Grimshaw Wilkinson (1831-1901)
This week we hear from Jeanette B of the Friends of Beckett Street Cemetery group about the life and achievements of an inspiring Leeds woman… Whilst researching and reading on the Friends of Beckett Street Cemetery website I was very interested to find a gentleman buried in the Cemetery who was known as the ‘Blind…
Banned books!
This week on the blog we share details of a lovely display curated by staff in our Business and Intellectual Property department (BIPC) for Banned Books Week 2023 (October 1 – 7), using some treasures from our Central Library collections. The display is available to view on the 2nd floor of the Central Library. This is the…
Heritage Open Day 2023 Round-Up
This week on the Secret Library we round-up all the amazing events Leeds Libraries offered during Heritage Open Day Week! All images are (c) Leeds Libraries unless stated otherwise Local History Open DayWe kicked things off on Saturday September 9 with the second in our Local History Open Days – a chance for us to…
A Copper’s Eye: Tom Harper’s Leeds
This week we welcome guest author, Chris Nickson, who tells us about his new exhibition soon to be launched at Leeds Central Library. We generally think of a place as we see it now. That’s completely natural, it’s the way our brains work. But what we’re seeing is only today’s reality. Towns and cities are…
Opening the textile heritage of Leeds
We’re still recovering from our amazing but very-busy Open Day last Saturday, part of our Heritage Open Day (HOD) Week offer. We’ll be bringing you a full round-up of that day, and all our other wonderful HOD events in a few weeks – but today we can share a small snapshot of what we’ve been…
The Chimney Corner: Secret Books from the Secret Library #7
The latest in an occasionally-regular series exploring books and other items selected from our vast collections. In this entry Librarian Antony Ramm looks at a language phrase book from the 18th-century and, in particular, one intriguing handwritten note… This week’s entry in the Chimney Corner series is what appears to be an 18th-century Latin-to-French phrasebook,…
Heritage Open Days 2023
Every September we get very excited about the Heritage Open Days festival, which this year runs from 8th – 17th September. This sees thousands of staff and volunteers across England organise events to celebrate our fantastic history and culture. It’s your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – all of which are FREE…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 