What's happening in Beeston, Belle Isle, Cottingley, Holbeck, Hunslet, Middleton and Stourton
Embrace drummer Mike Heaton will be the special guest this Sunday (28 May 2023) when Old Chapel Music Studios in Holbeck opens its doors for the latest round of free public tours. The historic venue launched the initiative in November 2022 and will continue to host monthly tours until February
The Women’s Royal Army Corps Association (WRAC Association) is campaigning for proper recognition of role women in the armed services played during the Second World War with commemoration events including one at Holbeck Cemetery on Sunday (14 May 2023) at 2pm. On the morning of 11 May 1943, the biggest
On Sunday (13 May 2023) the Friends of Middleton Park are hosting a free guided walk around the Beeston Woods section of the park. Beeston Woods contain a treasure trove of remains of our past. From the 800 year old dispute between William de Grammaire and John of Beeston that
John Blenkinsop was a Mining Engineer and Steam Locomotive designer who was born at Felling, near Gateshead, County Durham. When he was old enough he was apprenticed to his cousin, John Straker, the Coal Viewer for Charles John Brandling’s Felling Colliery. Brandling lived at Tilling, County Durham; and he married
The public water supply was not really suitable for brewing beer until the 1860s when Leeds Corporation began to bring supplies from the Washburn Valley north of Otley, but beer was to remain a major item in most domestic budgets for at least the first half of the 19th century.
The Elmore Copper Works, or as it was known locally, Elmore’s, was originally established at the end of the 1880s with the works being built on the Haigh Park Estate between Stourton and the River Aire. This land was formerly part of Rothwell Haigh in the Parish of Rothwell and
Burials had previously been carried out in local Parish Church grounds but with the coming of the Industrial Revolution even things in the Church grounds were about to change. By the late 18th century with the vast increase in the urban population of the Parishes most churchyards had become extremely
On the last day of November 2022 I attended a brilliant history lecture given by Steven Burt at the Leeds City Museum on the lost houses and heritage of Hunslet. It was brilliant because of the amount of his research producing so many photographs of mansion houses, portraits of their
The Leeds Steel Works became one of the largest iron and steel works in Yorkshire. It occupied an area of around 25 acres (10 hectares) between Balm Road and Pepper Road in Hunslet and lying alongside the Midland Railway line. Its perimeter extended to just over one mile and at
Were you married or christened at St Mary’s? Have you an interest in local history? Or would you simply like to see inside one of the few heritage buildings in Beeston? Heritage reaches back in time to tell the stories of our near and distant pasts. Come and visit St