Tea & Entertainment in the Matthewman Collection

Library Assistant Becky Bavill introduces us to the Matthewman Collection in the Local & Family History Library. This card is part of the Matthewman Collection (SR Q 942.75 35449659).  Alfred Earnest Matthewman was born in 1868.  He was a solicitor who also worked as part of the Town Clerks Office in Leeds.  An active member…

Heroic actions of a local man

This week on the Secret Library Leeds we hear from Becky Bavill, Library & Digital Assistant, on the aftermath of a 1950s tram accident – including a nice Keanu Reeves reference. In September 1952, the Leeds papers were full of a dramatic incident that had happened in Oakwood.  An empty, driverless tram collided with a…

Trout in the Treasures

Did you know Trout season lasts from March to September? Library Assistant Becky Bavill went for a rummage in the reference and research stacks where she found ‘Yorkshire Trout Flies’ by TE Pritt (SR799.124 PRI) Published in 1885 the item is counted as one of our treasures, seeing as it is not only a first…

The Arrest of Miss Winifred Virtue

As sometimes happens in Local and Family History, Library Assistant Becky Bavill fell down a rabbit hole the other day, lets join her on her adventure. While helping a customer find information about railway wagons our indexing system returned this result: I went and found the article and sure enough, there she was, in a…

The Lady’s Magazine

This week on the blog we hear from Library & Digital Assistant Becky Bavill, who explores and illuminates the rich history of an 18th and 19th-century journal… The Lady’s Magazine – not to be confused with The Lady Magazine – was a popular publication in the 18th and 19th centuries, running from 1770 to 1818…

The Infant Prodigy Master Herbert – It’s Panto Season

By Becky Bavill, Library and Digital Assistant For Day 19 we’ve got more Pantomimes for you with another entry from our Playbills collection which can be viewed on the Leodis.net website. At Christmas, many families enjoy seeing a show.  On Tuesday 21st and Thursday 23rd December 1830 they could have gone to the Concert Room…