A heritage project called West Yorkshire Queer Stories recently spent two years interviewing LGBT+ people across the region in order to find out more about local queer history. The result is a new website packed with information and anecdotes reaching back to the 1950s, at wyqs.co.uk. Project worker Ross Horsley has picked out some of…
Tag: Ross Horsley
The Mysterious Ms. Morgan
This week we hear from Ross Horsley, who introduces us to a curiously little-known crime novelist of the 1940s, whose best-known book has a Yorkshire connection… Back in the 1940s, at an isolated Yorkshire mansion, a murder took place that might have gone undiscovered were it not for the interventions of Dylis Hughes, a travelling…
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…
Chilling Memories
Temperatures may have improved a little recently but last week’s cold snap was nothing compared to the icy conditions experienced by Leeds in times past. Local history librarian Ross Horsley looks back on some of the city’s cruelest winters… “The Wharfe and the Aire are frozen to a depth capable of bearing anything,” reported the Leeds Mercury in…
Briggate in Brief
Local History Librarian, Ross Horsley, celebrates Black Friday with a special deal of ten FREE facts about Briggate, one of the oldest streets in Leeds. Whether you’re on the lookout for seasonal deals or finally getting to grips with your Christmas list, it’s likely you’ll find yourself on Leeds’s main shopping street at some point…
The Adam & Eve Garden Today
Local history librarian, Ross Horsley, revisits the site of the former Adam and Eve Garden on Woodhouse Moor. A couple of weeks ago at the Secret Library, we looked back to the early decades of the twentieth century, when a miniature Garden of Eden – home to its own Adam, Eve and Tree of Knowledge…
An LGBT-themed Lucky Dip
By Ross Horsley, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library | The city’s Pride weekend may still be a week away but events are well underway in Leeds Libraries. Yesterday, Stonewall’s Josh Willacy hosted a discussion on ‘The History of Pride and Why It’s Important’, and still to come at Central Library are a special…
Wo Wo Lol Lol: The Eccentric John Broughton
By Ross Horsley, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library It’s often via interactions with customers that we come to appreciate the stories behind some of the treasures in our collections. One we’ve recently discovered a little more about – thanks to the correspondence of the author’s great-great-granddaughter – is the 1828 book, Poems; Moral, Sentimental and…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 