Members of our society join the Community Archives Network Group meetings organised by Anna Carter of West Yorkshire Archives which provide the opportunity for community archives throughout West Yorkshire to meet and share updates on their activities. On the 12th November it was the Thoresby Society who were our hosts at Leeds Library where their archive is based. The Society was congratulated on recently achieving accreditation as a community archive, and was presented with a certificate.
Steve Burt, Vice-President of the Society gave an entertaining and informative talk about the treasures of the Thoresby Society. He explained how the Society came to be named after Ralph Thoresby (1658-1725) who accumulated a large number of historical documents and artefacts. Steve described the extensive collection and showed examples of the many documents, manuscripts, drawings, paintings, photographs and postcards related to Leeds and the surrounding area. He also recounted the history of Leeds Library itself, which was founded in 1768 and is the oldest surviving example of a subscription library in the UK.
At the end of the meeting groups shared their recent activities, and we were able to mention our society’s research for Wakefield Council’s civic art, and our upcoming publication of Mathew Tomlinson’s Journals.
https://www.thoresby.org.uk/index.html
https://www.theleedslibrary.org.uk/
