James Potter Schofield (1849-1892)

Earlier this year a new Red Plaque was unveiled in honour of James Potter Schofield, former fireman in the Liverpool & London & Globe Brigade. Schofield was killed on duty tackling the 1892 Leeds New Station fire. The plaque has been installed at the Dark Arches entrance to the station, off Neville Street, on behalf…

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…

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…