ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS DURING 1998-99

Session 1998-99 proved to be a busy and eventful year for the Society, dominated in many respects by the closure of Leeds City Museum. The actions taken by the Society are outlined below under Support for Leeds City Museum and Art Galleries, but the closure also resulted in the loss of the office, meeting room, and storage space in the Museum enjoyed by the Society since the 1960s. Accommodation for back stock of the Society's publications, and certain other effects, has now been provided at the Museum's temporary quarters in Yeadon, but much less conveniently. Certain Council meetings that would have taken place in the Museum have instead been held in Leeds Town Hall; others have been held in Leeds University Library. The complete reorganisation of the City Council's committee structure also has implications for the Society's formal relationship with the City Council.

More positive highlights of the year included the inauguration of a new series of annual science lectures; the decision by the Society's Council to offer two Millennium Music Awards for new music by young composers in West Yorkshire (the closing date for entries to be 10 April 2000); and the establishment of the Society's Web site, at the address http://www.leeds.ac.uk/lpls/. Further details of the Society's activities are as follows:

Scholarships, Prizes and Grants

The Society awards two annual prizes to undergraduate students at the University of Leeds. In 1998-99 the Arthur Chadwick Memorial Prize was awarded to Vanessa Ollier of the School of Earth Sciences, and the Modern Languages Prize to Lucy Jameson of the Department of German. The Society's University of Leeds research scholarship was not awarded during 1998-99; it has, however, been re-instituted for 1999-2000. The award-holder from 1995 to 1998, Mr Alex James Clark of the School of Chemistry, successfully completed his studies. During 1998-99 individual grants were awarded to the following:

• Deborah Petterson, towards the costs of attending the 3rd European Congress of Mammalogy in Finland Josephine Wong, towards the costs of attending a conference abroad in connection with her research into bats (to be paid in 1999-2000)
• Dr Vivian Wyatt, towards the cost of attending a conference on the incidence of motor neurone disease amongst the Maltese
• Alex Young (and fellow-students), towards the costs of an expedition to research the use of primary and secondary forest by butterflies in Ecuador

As in 1997-98, a grant was made to the Leeds International Medieval Congress, to assist with the payment of bursaries enabling postgraduate students from Eastern Europe to attend the Congress, held in July 1999. In September 1999 the Society was one of the sponsors of a reception on the occasion of the annual conference of the British Society for the History of Medicine, which met in Leeds. The Society was also associated with a lecture by Professor Tom McLeish given under the auspices of the Yorkshire branch of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Other grants are noted below under Support for University of Leeds concerts, and Support for Leeds City Museum and Art Galleries.

Publications

Two publications were issued during 1998-99: Three Essays: Johnson, Wordsworth, Byron, by D. W. Jefferson (October 1998), and Towers and Colonnades: The Architecture of Cuthbert Brodrick, by Derek Linstrum (December 1998), which respectively formed Vol. XXIV, Part V, and Vol. XXV of the Literary and Historical Section of the Proceedings of the Society. It is pleasing to note that Towers and Colonnades was subsequently awarded the 1999 Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion by the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain.

The publication of Towers and Colonnades coincided with an exhibition devoted to the work of Cuthbert Brodrick at the Heinz Gallery of the Royal Institute of British Architects in the early months of 1999 (a somewhat smaller version of the same exhibition was later mounted by Leeds City Art Gallery). It also marked the retirement of Mr Ian Moxon from the Editorship of the Literary and Historical section of the Society's Proceedings, a term of office notable for many publications of high scholarly standard and great editorial care.

Dr Linstrum was also the guest speaker at the Society's Annual General Meeting, when he took "Cuthbert Brodrick, Francophile" as the subject of his illustrated lecture.

Annual Science Lecture

An innovation during 1998-99 was the first in what the Council of the Society hopes will be an annual series of popular science lectures, aimed at students, sixth-formers and members of the general public. The venture was inaugurated by Mr Bryson Gore - well known from his past involvement with the Royal Institution's Christmas lectures - who in November 1998 addressed a large audience in the Rupert Beckett lecture theatre of the University of Leeds. His lecture-demonstration was entitled "Arcs, Sparks and Microscopes".

Support for University of Leeds Concerts

The Society continued its financial support for the Department of Music's programme of concerts and recitals. As usual, the name of the Society, as sponsors, was attached to one of the evening concerts, the event on this occasion being a concert of Latin Secular Motets given by The Clerks' Group directed by Edward Wickham. Members of the Society were invited to a small reception before the concert.

Other Events for Members

As in 1997, the Society's Annual General Meeting in December 1998 was held at the Leeds Club, when (as noted above) Dr Derek Linstrum was the guest speaker. A reception and buffet for members and their guests followed the formal business of the AGM and preceded the lecture. In April 1999 the Society organised a lecture-demonstration on the use and workings of the medieval navigational instrument, the astrolabe, the lecturer being Mr Adam Moseley of the University of Cambridge. Members of the Society and their guests had the opportunity to experiment with replica astrolabes. Two events took place in September 1999: an evening walk through parts of historic Leeds, led by Dr Hammond, and a visit to Milnrow, near Rochdale, to see the Ellenroad steam engine in action, organised by Dr Lydon.

Support for Leeds City Museum and Art Galleries

In autumn 1998 it became apparent that Leeds City Museum would have to move out of the Municipal Buildings in the city centre to allow essential refurbishment to be carried out. Its future being uncertain, the Council of the Society in November drew up a statement of policy towards the Museum, reaffirming the Society's traditional support and its readiness to be involved in the planning process; expressing the hope that a new building would allow the creation of a major new science museum, befitting the strength of the collections; and holding out the prospect of a significant financial contribution from the Society. This policy statement was welcomed by Dr Evelyn Silber, the Director of the City Museum and Art Galleries.

The Society was, however, critical of the City Council's decision, early in 1999, that the Museum should not move back into the Municipal Buildings after refurbishment, given that no decisions had been taken about its long-term future. The Society's continuing concern about the situation, in the face of the City Council's evident unwillingness to discuss the matter, led in February to the formation of an informal Joint Working Party on the Museum in which members of the Society's Council (Dr Pickering, Professor Seaward and Dr Lydon) were joined by representatives of Leeds Civic Trust, the Thoresby Society, and the Friends of the City Museum. This working party has shared concerns, and explored ways in which constructive views about the nature, location and contents of a new Museum might be put to the City Council.

The Society's support for the City Museum and Art Galleries was also demonstrated by the attendance of Dr Pickering and Dr Evennett at a meeting of the City Council's Museums Working Party to hear of plans for the future of the Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills (March 1999); by the making of a grant towards the publication costs of the 1999 issue of the Leeds Museums and Galleries Review (which was distributed free of charge to all members of the Society); and by the promise of a sizeable grant to assist with an ambitious project to improve radically the storage and cataloguing of the Museum's important collection of molluscs.