Planning the City: Leeds City Council Papers

We welcome back Heritage Volunteer Andy Armstrong this week, for the fifth in his series of blog articles exploring the rich archives of Leeds City Council papers and records available in our Local and Family History department. As usual, Andy’s research is accompanied by a research guide and a comprehensive spreadsheet of all our stock…

Housing the city: Leeds City Council papers

This week on the Secret Library we are delighted to hear once again from Andy Armstrong, one of our heritage volunteers, on a significant piece of cataloguing work we’ve asked them to help us with. You can find more articles about housing in Leeds elsewhere on the blog… Hi. My name’s Andy Armstrong and I…

Rediscovering the Lost Streets of Victorian Burmantofts and Sheepscar

Funded by a Jane Moody Scholarship, University of York PhD researcher Joanne Harrison is collaborating with Leeds Central Library’s Local and Family History department and Leeds Museums and Galleries to deliver five online workshops. She reports here on this exciting project that will bring an improved experience to users of the Leodis archive, and a…

Back-to-Back Houses, Harehills

University of York PhD researcher Joanne Harrison  reports here on her research over the last year. The Local and Family History Library and My Research One aspect of my research that has been particularly interesting over the last year stems from my use of the Leeds directories held in the Local and Family History Library….

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…

Walking tours of the back-to-back houses, Harehills

University of York PhD researcher Joanne Harrison has continued her collaboration with Leeds Central Library’s Local and Family History department and the Compton Centre Community Hub, hosting a couple of events as part of the national Heritage Open Days weekend. She reports here on the tours and exhibition, how to get involved in the latest…

Back-to-Back Houses and their Communities

  University of York PhD researcher Joanne Harrison is working on an exciting project about the past, present and future of back-to-back houses and their communities in Harehills. Leeds Local and Family History Library is helping Joanne engage with the local communities, working with them to understand the neighbourhood, promote its value, and safeguard its future. Joanne writes… EDIT:…

Hands-On Urban History #1: Little Woodhouse

by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library Last Saturday, as part of our 2017 Library Fest programme, we welcomed a group of budding urban historians and explorers to the Central Library, for a workshop where they would help staff from the Local and Family History department research and investigate a fascinating item that had…