ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat: 12 – 5pm
Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last admission: 4.30pm
Address
Abbey Walk
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat: 12 – 5pm
Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last admission: 4.30pm
Address
Abbey Walk
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
LEEDS ART GALLERY
Opening Hours
Mon: Closed
Tues -Sat: 10am – 5pm
Sun: 11am – 3pm
Address
The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 3AA
LEEDS CITY MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed (11am – 5pm on bank holidays)
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat & Sun: 11am – 5pm
Address
Leeds City Museum
Millennium Square
Leeds
LS2 8BH
Ticket Provider
LEEDS DISCOVERY CENTRE
Opening Hours
Visits by appointment/special event only.
Free public store tours are now available by booking in advance. Please call or email us.
Address
Leeds Discovery Centre
Off Carlisle Road
Leeds
LS10 1LB
LEEDS INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: Closed (10am – 5pm on bank holiday Mondays)
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat – Sun: 12 – 5pm
Last admission one hour before closing.
Address
Canal Road
Leeds
LS12 2QF
KIRKSTALL ABBEY
Opening Hours
Mon: closed (10am – 4pm on bank holidays)
Tues – Sun: 10am – 4.30pm
Last admission: 4pm
Address
Abbey Road
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
LOTHERTON
Opening Hours
Open Daily
Estate opens: 7.30am
Hall: Open (Downstairs only) 10am-5pm
Wildlife World: 10am – 5pm
Estate closes: 7pm
Last entry 45 mins before estate closing time
TEMPLE NEWSAM
Opening Hours
House: Tues – Sun: 10.30am – 5pm
Home Farm: Tues – Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last entry 45 minutes before
THWAITE WATERMILL
Address
Thwaite Lane
Stourton
Leeds
LS10 1RP
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Matchbox or Communist Propaganda?
Collections, Educational partnerships, Projects & Partnerships, Social HistoryDiscover the propaganda secrets contained inside our matchbox collection, with Radka Tobolkova.
Matchboxes donated to our collection
One of the tasks I took part on during my traineeship at Leeds Museums and Galleries was cataloguing a collection of more than 250 matchboxes from an unknown donor.
When taking the matchboxes out of the case they were donated in, we hoped to find a note with information about the donor or how they came to be in our museum collection. We had no such luck, but instead realised that the matchboxes were made in the mid-20th century, in many different European countries: Britain, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Russia (though it was still the USSR at that time) and six of them from Czechoslovakia.
As I live in the Czech Republic, the successor of Czechoslovakia, I know that there was a famous match company in Susice, and I was curious to find out from the matchboxes if I would come across any sign of my homeland. I was surprised when I saw Czech words on one of the match boxes at the very bottom of the case, and after a closer look I immediately knew it wasn’t just a normal match box: it was a perfect example of communist propaganda.
Matchbox with a question, written in Czech, asking: “Are you already a member of District Youth Care?”
On the matchbox is a picture of a small child and a Czech question on the label: Jste jiz clenem okresni pece o mladez? Which can be translated as: Are you already a member of District Youth Care?
The question might sound innocent, but for someone who knows the background of life in communist Czechoslovakia there is a clear hidden meaning. One of the goals communists wanted to reach was the participation of ‘common people’ on state important issues. In fact, they wanted people to feel – falsely – that their participation matters. The true communist citizen was supposed to be a member of as many organisations or associations as possible. In this particular case, the District Youth Care aimed to take care of the ‘correct’ development of children and the young, who were considered the future of the nation.
Organising the matchboxes at Leeds Discovery Centre
Actually, there were five more matchboxes made in Czechoslovakia in the collection, but they were made to be sold on the British market as all the labels were in English. All of these matchboxes were made by SOLO Susice, a match factory with a long tradition founded in 1839 which ended the production in 2008 due to economic crisis.
By Radka Tobolkova, Erasmus Traineeship
Learn more about our Social History collections.