This week we are joined by two guest authors, Lucy M. Evans and Spencer Needs, who write about a little known poet from Leeds – Eliza Craven Green. Part 1: The Manchester Connection by Lucy M Evans On 24 March 1842 over forty people assembled at the ancient Sun Inn, Long Millgate, Manchester for a…
Tag: Leeds
Heritage Open Days 2025
This week we take an in-depth look at events at Leeds Central Library during the Heritage Open Days Festival 2025. Local History Open Day Running on Saturday 13 September, 11.00am – 2.00pm in the Local and Family History Library, the Open Day is a chance for librarians to exhibit some of our most cherished and…
Tolkien in Leeds: Back again
In this short article, Librarian Antony Ramm explores a small but valuable addition to our collection of Tolkien-related materials at Leeds Central Library. This article is part of our series on the current Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition, taking place at the Central Library until January 2024… As most people probably know, legendary fantasy author…
I Was Here: Diversity in Georgian Yorkshire
This week we hear from independent researcher Danny Friar, who offers a brilliant and sensitively-researched excavation of the Georgian era, revealing fragments of a hidden, but universal, history… Ten years ago a discussion of the Georgian period may have brought up names such as Lord Horatio Nelson, Captain James Cook, William Wilberforce and Jane Austen….
The Places We Live: Local History Collections Around Leeds
As part of Local and Community History Month, Librarian Antony Ramm briefly explores our local history collections stretching all around Leeds, and introduces a new guide to stock relating to Rothwell… As readers of this blog may already know, the Local and Family History department at the Central Library in Leeds houses a huge collection…
Leeds Sanitation & Sewers
In today’s post our Senior Librarian for Local Studies & Research, Louise Birch, explores the history of Leeds Sanitation taking, from the local studies collection, David Seller’s work; ‘Hidden Beneath our Feet: The Story of Sewerage in Leeds’ (1997) as the main source material. Sewers and sewerage are something many of us take for granted….
Paintings of Burley
This week on the Secret Library we hear from guest author Jonathan Hooper. Jonathan is an incredible painter, who is here to share some of his paintings of Burley and the inspirations behind them. You can see more of Jonathan’s artwork and process on his website. I am a painter – my subject is the…
West Leeds Boys High School
As part of our ongoing Armley Treasures series, librarian Helen Skilbeck looks at the early history of the West Leeds Boys High School. This is a companion piece to the West Leeds Girls High School blog post of August 2020 by Josh Flint. The school opened in September 1907 and was ‘planned not as a…
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