This week, we hear from the Central Library’s Helen Skilbeck, who talks us through a fascinating and very-valuable Playbill. This article is #15 in our People of Leeds series – short biographies of lesser-known contributors to Leeds’ past. Leeds Libraries collection of playbills can be viewed online but one that has not yet been digitised is…
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Cookridge Street Public Baths
This week, librarian Helen Skilbeck takes a look back at the history of the public baths on Cookridge Street… Directly opposite Leeds City Museum, on the site of Millennium Square, were Cookridge Street Public Baths – also known as the Oriental and General Baths. Opened in 1866, these baths survived for nearly a century until…
People of Leeds #11: Superintendent Henry Baker and his Fire Books
This week Helen Skilbeck looks at a collection of scrapbooks compiled by Superintendent Henry Baker of Leeds Corporation Fire Brigade, covering the period 1870 – 1896. This article is #11 in our People of Leeds series – short biographies of lesser-known contributors to Leeds’ past. Deep within the stacks in Leeds Central Library are a collection…
People of Leeds #10: Godfrey Wood, Confectioner
A recent blog post by librarian Helen Skilbeck looked at Godfrey Wood’s Victorian Catering Ledger which shows the events his catering business provided food and services for. This follow-up post, also by Helen, looks in more detail at Godfrey Wood himself. This article is #10 in our People of Leeds series – short biographies of…
The Glory of Goad Maps
In the blog this week, Librarian Helen Skilbeck looks at some beautiful but underused maps in our collection – Goad maps. This piece forms part of our series of articles exploring resources relevant to family history research. In the Local and Family History Library there are hundreds of maps – maps of Leeds, maps of…
A Victorian Catering Ledger
This week, Librarian Helen Skilbeck takes a look at an unusual piece of Leeds’ history: Godfrey Wood’s Victorian Catering Ledger. Unassuming to look at but containing a goldmine of information, Wood’s Catering Ledger details events and banquets he catered for in the Victorian era, covering the period 1840s – 1870s. As well as detailing the…
Crime and Punishment on Ancestry
As part of a series examining family history resources for beginners, librarian Helen Skilbeck takes an in-depth look at one of the most useful resources for continuing your family history research: records of crime and punishment. As well as the most popular collections of birth, marriage and death records, Ancestry hosts some fascinating databases covering…
Local History Quiz #3 Treasures of the Local and Family History Library
This week Helen Skilbeck take you on a journey around some of the treasures of the Local and Family History Library in the form of a multiple choice quiz. Q1. In 1894 the Duke and Duchess of York (later to become King George and Queen Mary) visited Leeds to open part of the Yorkshire College….