SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

In a report in today's YEP (Oct 14 2011) it states "A 1930s library building which houses a mountain of Leeds's historic documents is to be sold off and its contents moved to a new home in Morley...A report was rubber-stamped by councillors to move the archives to the Central Archive Store in Morley. Cash from the sale will be pumped into the Morley base". Edit. The thread title should be 'The Sheepscar Archive is to close" but I missed the "to" out, so it reads like the Archive is nearby me! Sorry.     

Sounds a good idea, move a big collection of Leeds archive material out of the big City to a smaller neighbouring borough a good distance away!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!When is this supposed to happen? [It'ls be chaos for ages afterwards]

I probably should have added that in the YEP report it states "The current building was declared to be in a "poor state", and one likely to put the precious collections at "serious risk of damage and deterioration". Refurbishing the building would have cost almost £1 million, estimates had found".

If any cause is worth supporting then this has to be it. It is a unique and landmark building that has to stay.I for one will be attempting to champion the cause for its continuation.Anyone with me?

LS1 wrote: If any cause is worth supporting then this has to be it. It is a unique and landmark building that has to stay.I for one will be attempting to champion the cause for its continuation.Anyone with me? Sounds like another case of leave it long enough, spend nothing and it won't be worth saving doesn't it Lee? How often do we see this happen to our buildings?And that something as precious as the cities archive should be sent elsewhere.... there must be an abundance ofcuitable buildings in the Estate within Leeds. Mrs C, a frequent user is far from amused

chameleon wrote: Mrs C, a frequent user is far from amused And she's not the only one!Caught, somewhat, between a rock and whatever. Sure the building is nice but it’s the collections and the moving of them that’s the problem.For anybody who’s ever moved office or even anybody that’s moved house, no matter how much care is taken there is always something that goes missing [how many time have you heard – or had to use, “oh, sorry, it got lost in the move / recent move” and recent can be anything up to two years] or ends up damaged and that’s before it then takes forever to get everything back into a workable order.On a different note, much, if not all of the furniture in the building is a style typical of “Leeds Libraries”.I noticed a few years ago that all the beautifully made, of timeless design furniture had been turned out of the Crossgates library to be replaced by cheap modern [and a carpet] all of which was already filthy and very shabby looking. I doubt that many of the internal fittings of Sheepscar will be retained other than, possibly, the window with the coat of arms. If its going in the skip I’d love half a dozen of the chairs!

I wonder if the famous lost skulls are in the archive?

Perhaps they could put it down the spare nuclear bunker place.

Phill_dvsn wrote: Sounds a good idea, move a big collection of Leeds archive material out of the big City to a smaller neighbouring borough a good distance away! Except of course Morley is allegedly not a small neighbouring borough but as much a part of the city as Horsforth, Rodley, or Garforth.