‘Pages from Leeds’ follows on the success of the Skippko Community Research Team who support our projects through researching and discovering amazing facts and stories that are incorporated into our projects, such as ‘In the Waiting Room’ researching the history of the NHS.

Skippko artists Anne, Matthew and Rozi will support the Research Team and new participants to discover their creative writing skills through personal interests, stories and family histories.

During 2023 the research team  looked at various objects and artefacts connected with the city of Leeds. These came from the personal collection of Robin Dove, a shopkeeper and local historian, who spent much of his life researching and writing about Leeds and Chapel Allerton. Sadly Robin passed away in 2022 and his archive was passed down to his nephew Matthew Bellwood – one of the Skippko artists.

All the objects are items which were made and used in Leeds at some point over the last 150 years. They include hat brushes, alarm clocks, beer pump badges, tuning forks, whistles, wall plaques, bricks and money boxes.

The group chose a selection of their favourite ones to research and explore further.

The large book created was displayed at Leeds Central Library during Local History Month in May 24.