Records of Victoria Institute (Hartshead Moor) of the Society of Friends

This material is held atUniversity of Leeds Special Collections

Scope and Content

Minutes, 1868-1872 (1 vol.) [EF 20]; Minutes of Institute Committee, 1903-1922 [EF 21]; Attendance book for Adult School, 1906-1910 [EF 30]

Administrative / Biographical History

The Victoria Institute, at Hartshead Moor near Scholes, was established in 1868. This was largely on the intiative of Robert Firth Crosland (of the long-established local Quaker family), who acted firstly as Secretary and Treasurer, and then as President. One of the Institute's first activities was to form a brass band. An Adult School for men and women, a Band of Hope, a reading room and circulating library, a cricket club and a savings bank also developed at the Institute, which formed a social centre for the village. Meetings for worship began in the Institute in 1872. Its activities were in decline by the early 1900s, and Robert Wilfred Crosland set up a new committee which ran the Institute until the early 1920s. There are no surviving minutes after 1922 and it became defunct around this time.

Arrangement

The records are numbered and arranged according to the system used when they were in Carlton Hill Meeting House

Access Information

The conditions of deposit include a clause requiring written prior permission from a Friend Custodian for access to consult current legal documents and any material less than fifty years old

Acquisition Information

The collection of archives of the Society of Friends formerly held at the Friends Meeting House at Carlton Hill, Leeds

Note

In English

Other Finding Aids

Contents listed in Handlist 99, "Inventory of the records of Brighouse, Knaresborough, Leeds, and Settle Monthly Meetings of the Society of Friends formerly preserved at the Friends Meeting house, Carlton Hill, Leeds", 2nd edition, 1997

Conditions Governing Use

As with access, the photocopying of current legal documents and any material less than fifty years old requires the permission of a Friend Custodian

Related Material

Related material in Leeds University Library: Records of Scholes Preparative Meeting

Bibliography

D. Blamires, A history of Quakerism in Liversedge and Scholes (author, 1973), pp.24-31

Additional Information

The records are deposited and remain the property of the Society of Friends