UPCOMING EVENTS

Leeds Heritage Open Days

Saturday 12th September 2026 - 12 noon

Beech Grove House 
University of Leeds LS2 9JT

The Bilbroughs of Beech Grove Terrace

Local, family and social history will be brought to life in an account of the daily life of a middle class Victorian family in the second half of the nineteenth century. The talk will cover the everyday activities and household management of this family of six plus two adopted cousins and their succession of live-in servants.

Free - reserve a place

The Thorsby Society

Thursday 17th December 2026 -  18.00

The Leeds Library 
18 Commercial Street LS1 6AL

The Bilbroughs of Beech Grove Terrace

Author Catherine Wright discusses the local, family and social history of middle-class Victorian Leeds through the day-to-day lives of the Bilbrough family and household.

Free - more information & bookings

ABOUT THE WRITER

Catherine Wright, whose husband is a great grandson of Anna, has written Anna’s story, and Henry’s, built upon the letters that Anna and others wrote at the time, and on the detailed diaries kept by her four first cousins, the children of her ‘very dear Aunt’.  In doing this she has provided an insight into middle-class life in Victorian Leeds, illustrated by many family photographs. 

Catherine has, for a long time, enjoyed researching the more colourful characters who crop up in family history studies. This, and an abiding interest in the history of papermaking, led her to discovering the rich source of material upon which her book is based.

In addition to the book, Catherine has been a regular contributor for The Quarterly – the journal of the British Association of Paper Historians.  And in a lighter vein, she has given many talks about papermaking and families, in Yorkshire and in County Durham, whose livelihoods were affected by their ability to set up and run papermaking enterprises.