Following last week’s look at our latest Speed-dating our Library Treasures event, Josh Flint from the Local and Family History department explains his fascination with Captain P.A. Charrier’s early 20th-century book on Oliver Cromwell… The Campaigns of Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War: 1642- 1649, was written by Captain P. A. Charrier in 1906. Charrier,…
Speed-dating our Library Treasures III
As part of our Library Fest 2018 programme, we once again ran our popular Speed-dating our Library Treasures event – this time twice: on Valentine’s Day in the Tiled Hall cafe and a day later at the Hyde Park Book Club. Both events proved very successful, with attendees taking great interest in the wide range of items…
Tales from Circus 250: A Topography of the Circus in Leeds, Part I
To mark the 250th-anniversary of Philip Astley’s leap into show-business with his ring of entertainments near to Waterloo in London, the Secret Library presents a short series of stories from the glory days of the Circus in Leeds and the surrounding area. NEW BRIGGATE Charles Adams opened his Grand Circus on the site in New…
Do You Remember Hunslet Grange Housing Estate?
This week we hear from Louise Dwyer and Gill Crawshaw, MA students at the Leeds Arts University. Louise and Gill wo researched the history and legacy of the Hunslet Grange estate (aka Leek Street flats). Read on to find out more about their research and how they used Leeds Libraries resources. Our current research focuses…
Xin Nian Kuai Le!
As we welcome in the Year of the Dog, librarian Ross Horsley looks back over some of the ways Leeds Libraries has worked with the city’s Chinese community over the past twelve months, exploring local history in what was the Year of the Rooster. The Leeds Is My Home project is a collaboration between Leeds…
People of Leeds #1: Sam, the Newsman
The first in an occasional series looking at forgotten contributors to the history of Leeds. This week, Librarian Antony Ramm tells the story of 19th-century newsagent Samuel Schofield, better known to contemporaries as ‘Sam, the Newsman’… There was once a time – not so very long ago – when visitors to the centre of Leeds…
A Surprising Map of Briggate, 1844
This week on the Secret Library, librarian Antony Ramm takes a look at a lesser-known map collection in the Central Library collections. A recent blog post explored some possible sources for the authentic voice of the 19th-century Leeds working-class. One book in that small grouping included the reminiscences of James Watson whose youthful dalliance with…
Voices from the Past, Part II: 19th-century Working-class Autobiographies
Librarian Antony Ramm searches for the authentic voice of the Leeds people in the 19th-century. Many of these Voices from the Past are from workers in the textile mills of Leeds and West Yorkshire: see a recent blog by Emily Owen to read how 20th-century textile workers can contribute their memories to contemporary research. A…
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