A group of older people in Leeds will form a flock of budding birdwatchers this winter thanks to a heart-warming new community project. Through an innovative partnership between Leeds Museums and Galleries, arts organisation Skippko and older people’s support network Armley Helping Hands, the group is being encouraged to spot and identify the…
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Museum-lovers in Leeds can rediscover millions of years of history now council-run venues across the city have officially reopened. Leeds Museums and Galleries sites closed earlier this year as part of a city-wide effort to control the spread of Covid-19. Over the past few months, the team has continued to engage tens of thousands…
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The skeleton of a majestic whale cruelly killed by fishermen 152 years ago will be reconstructed for a new display highlighting the plight of our planet’s oceans. Leeds Museums and Galleries’ long-finned pilot whale is being painstakingly pieced together over the next few months before it is hung from the ceiling of Leeds City…
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Staring down imposingly from above the store entrance at Leeds Discovery Centre, this giant monster of the deep is one of the more bizarre items on display in Leeds. The huge model of a juvenile giant squid was created for Slime, a temporary exhibition back in 2002 that looked at some of the facts…
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Billed as “a game of skill and chance for dairy farmers”, it’s safe to say board game Grade Up to Elite Cow isn’t exactly a family favourite. The agriculturally inspired game was produced by Waddingtons 1986 on behalf of The British Friesian Cattle Society of Great Britain and Ireland, with proceeds going to their…
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For generations, board games have been a tried and tested family favourite in homes all over the world. Classics like Cluedo and Monopoly, both originally made in Leeds, have become a staple at Christmases and family gatherings and remain among the best-selling games each and every year. But curators delving a little deeper into…
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Researchers may have finally laid to rest the age-old question of whether the mysterious Tasmanian wolf might still be alive somewhere. But one place you definitely can still find a rather splendid example of the elusive marsupial is at the Leeds Discovery Centre. The centre’s extremely well-preserved specimen of the curious creature is one…
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It’s a hard to imagine exactly how the gigantic bid that laid this colossal egg would have looked. But it’s clear that the Madagascan elephant bird, a huge, three metre tall giant, must have been one of the largest birds that ever lived. Related to modern kiwis, elephant birds disappeared around 1200 AD and…
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In normal circumstances, this glass, lion-shaped ornament may appear fairly unremarkable. But put it under a UV light, and what previously seemed like an innocuous paperweight begins to give off an eerie, green glow. The lion’s curious luminescence is actually due to small quantities of the radioactive element Uranium, which was added to the…
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It’s an enduring extinction mystery that has puzzled generations of scientists and naturalists from around the world. Now an international research project may have finally solved the riddle of what happened to the enigmatic Tasmanian tiger- thanks to three specimens from Leeds Museums and Galleries collection. Researchers from Australia have been painstakingly analysing DNA…
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Measuring just 12mm across, this tiny coin’s humble appearance belies its truly remarkable age. Dated at around the 5th Century, the coin is of a type produced at a town called Eion in Thrace between 500 and 480 B.C, making it around 2,500 years old. Known as a trihembiol, the coin carries a design…
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For more than 2,000 years they lay side by side, buried under a seemingly unremarkable patch of land on the outskirts of Leeds. Now the ancient skeletons of a mystery Iron Age man and woman will be displayed together for the very first time in a thought-provoking new exhibition opening in Leeds next month.…
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Staring down imposingly from above the store entrance at Leeds Discovery Centre, this giant monster of the deep is one of the more bizarre items on display in Leeds. The huge model of a juvenile giant squid was created for Slime, a temporary exhibition back in 2002 that looked at some of the facts…
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Recovered from the stage after a memorable Leeds Fest, this tequila bottle is now a piece of rock and roll history. The bottle was found during the clean-up following Guns n Roses’ top of the bill performance at the 2010 Bramham Park showpiece. It was discovered alongside a used Guns n Roses stage pass…
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It may be a hair-raising sight to behold today, but back in 1930s Leeds, this vintage perming machine would have been very much top of the range. Known at the time as a permanent wave machine, the bizarre looking contraption was used in a hair salon in Bramley and was collected by Leeds Museums…
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New research this month may have finally lain to rest the age old question of whether the mysterious Tasmanian wolf might still be alive somewhere. But one place you definitely can still find a rather splendid example of the elusive marsupial is at the Leeds Discovery Centre. The centre’s extremely well-preserved specimen of the…
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Magnificent western lowland gorilla Mok is one of the most impressive specimens in Leeds City Museum’s Life on Earth gallery. But the story of how the young primate came to be displayed in Leeds is actually quite the tragic tale. Captured in central Africa, Mok was originally put in a cage in the lobby…
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Perhaps the biggest UK sporting spectacle in living memory, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games left an indelible mark on Leeds. With thousands lining the streets to watch the Olympic torch relays and the city’s athletes putting in a superb display, communities in Leeds still have many happy memories from 2012. A permanent…
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A spectacular relic of an age long past, Leeds City Museum’s Heavy-footed Moa skeleton was once one of the largest birds ever to roam the earth. The huge flightless bird originally came from New Zealand, where its species was driven to extinction by hunting and deforestation around 570 years ago. The skeleton first came…
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Four hundred years ago, one of Temple Newsam House’s most famous residents was killed in a grisly murder that remains a mystery to this day. Now, on the anniversary of Lord Darnley’s gruesome demise, budding super sleuths can wander the same atmospheric halls he once called home as they try to solve their own…
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