Leeds400: Heritage Events from Leeds Libraries

2026 marks the 400th anniversary of the first Leeds Charter, issued in 1626 and granting the growing town a measure of self-government for the first time in its history. Leeds Libraries are marking this important moment in the city’s development through a dedicated Leeds400 exhibition at their Central Library and a related programme of events. 

The exhibition,  Leodis: 400 Years of Leeds in the Leeds Libraries Collections, will allow audiences to discover four centuries of the Leeds people, places, and events that have shaped the city, all told through archival materials preserved by the Heritage and Research department.

On show in the exhibition will be everything from 17th century manuscripts to football fanzines, via rare maps, photographs, film footage, memoirs, newspapers, pamphlets, and, of course, books. Exhibition viewers will have the opportunity to explore some of the city's richest treasures and learn more about how Leeds Libraries have preserved historically significant archives for past, present, and future generations. Leodis: 400 Years of Leeds in the Leeds Libraries Collections will be open at the Central Library from 16 September to 11 November.

Alongside the exhibition is a full programme of local history talks and workshops. We’re kicking things off on 17 September with, fittingly, a talk about a pioneering Leeds Librarian – Maud Hummerston, the first female librarian for Leeds Libraries, and the city’s first Children’s Librarian. Maud was an associate of Frank Kidson, the Leeds-born folk song collector. You can find out more about Kidson’s life and achievements in the Folk Song in the North of England Conference being held at our Central Library on 10 October.

Other women who have made an impact on the city’s history are the subjects of talks in the programme – including Alice Porter, AKA Woodbine Lizzie, on 11 November, and radical 19th century printer Alice Mann on 23 September.

The broader story of printing and publishing in Leeds – from the 18th to the 21st centuries - will be told in Play, Publish, Progress: How Leeds Led the World on 6 October. Central to that talk will be the music fanzine explosion of the 1970s – punk first and, later, the many branches of post-punk. The related arrival of the Goth subculture in ‘70s and ‘80s Leeds will be the subject of What’s Leeds GOTH to do with it? on 24 October. 

Another suitably Halloween-y talk will be Witchcraft and the Supernatural in Leeds Libraries Collections on 4 November.

Earlier periods in the town’s history are not neglected, either. Most people know that Ralph Thoresby wrote the first history of Leeds – the Ducatus Leodiensis (1715) – but not many will know of his connection to the first Black person in the Leeds historical record. You can find out more in Ralph and John Went to Church a talk that promises to illuminate a little-known incident in the city’s past on 7 October.

Similarly, few will know much about the rich history of the stained glass industry in Victorian Leeds, you can find out more at Piety and Profit: Contrasting Careers in Stained Glass on 21 October or, indeed, the wool-trading activities of the early Templars in the area around Temple Newsam, so The Templars of Neusam on 20 November will provide useful insight.

Many people will have visited Beckett Street Cemetery to walk among the 180,000 dead resting in its graves, but most of us will still be able to learn something about the stories of the departed, and the impact they had on the 19th and 20th century city, in the talk Solving History Mysteries - Taphophile Turned Detective on 7 November.

We’re not neglecting areas around Leeds either, with various local history workshops being held in our community hubs and libraries: Holt Park on 14 October,  Pudsey on 18 September, and Wetherby on 23 October with more locations and dates to follow.

Finally, to bring things full circle, are two talks that relate directly to the Leodis: 400 Years of Leeds in the Leeds Libraries Collections exhibition. First, The Sights and Sounds of the Leeds Tercentenary, 1926 on 14 October is a talk about the equivalent celebrations organised by the city in 1926, which included an exhibition showcasing the history of Leeds as seen through the collections of Leeds Libraries; second, 400 Years of Leeds, through the Collections Of Leeds Museums and Galleries a talk covering 400 years of the history of Leeds told through objects preserved by Leeds Museums and Galleries on 5 November.

Find more Leeds400 events on the Leeds400 events collection page here, and Leeds Libraries Events here.