SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

My Mom was born in Leeds in 1928 and, as it's her 80th birthday in September, I am trying to compile a "This is Your Life" photobook for her. Unfortunately her family moved to Birmingham when she was about 7 and there is no family left in Leeds to ask about her early life. She was born in a back to back house close to her grandmother's house which I think was in Quadrant Street. She says that the streets ran in alphabetic order in that part of the city. She thinks that the site of her old house is now where the TV studios now are (which in turn I think is close to the cricket ground). Can anyone provide any info which will help me locate where she might have lived? (obviously I can't ask her as the project is meant as a surprise!) I also think she probably went to Burley Road School as a youngster - would that be feasible? I wish now I'd listened a bit more to her when she rambled on about the old days - ho hum! By the way, her name was Marjorie Birch, she had a younger brother called Derek. Her mom and dad were Ernest and Agnes (always known as Ann) Birch and her mother's maiden name was Agnes (Ann) Hustwaite. Does this ring any bells?

Hi Jaxagain.Try looking at the Historical directories site athttp://www.historicaldirectories.org.ukThey have AFAIK a directory from around 1920's which should show where your grans family were living back then .You can search on the site under the surname.

That should be http://www.historicaldirectories.org

Thanks Steve. Will follow your advice.

You are talking about the 'alphabet streets' which were between Burley road and Kirkstall road.At the Leeds town centre end there was a large Post Office transport depot.http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... 71729There is a person who used to live on Quadrant Street who remembers certain things, and there is an email address attached, it might be a good place to start making a contact.I do notice that there was a George Hornblower living at 44 Quadrant Street in 1895, so with such a distinctive name its entirely possible that relatives of that name lived nearabouts. This is because that person acted as a referee in the naturalisation application for a Russian Immigrant.

Hi Jax,See "Demolition of YCL factory,Black Bull Street" thread, page 3, for full list of alphabet streets posted by me.Cheers,Si.

i am afraid I was wrong about 1930's directories on the site I mentioned. There aren't any for Leeds in that period.I could have sworn I had seen one online somewhere.Google reveals 1920-1921 Leeds Directory on sale in CD format from a couple of sellers for around £10 but you might not want to fork out for one.

Hi Jax,This is a detail from the 1890 OS map of Leeds.Reproduced courtesy of Leeds Indexers.

This months edition of Practical Family History magazine includes on the give away CD-Rom the complete 1923 Leeds Directory listing people and streets alphabetically.A useful resource to have for people.

Steve Jones wrote: This months edition of Practical Family History magazine includes on the give away CD-Rom the complete 1923 Leeds Directory listing people and streets alphabetically.A useful resource to have for people. For some strange reason Steve this particular (PFH) publication isnt seen very often,have you noticed that too?