Coming Soon: True North Blog Series!

5th October 2020

True North is a collaborative project between local people, Holbeck Together, and our friends at Northern Monk Brewery, which celebrates the rich tapestry of life in Holbeck, once the epicentre of the industrial revolution.

After the success of our first photography calendar, ‘Humans of Holbeck’, in 2018/2019, we wanted to focus on local stories – the people that make Holbeck the wonderful community that it is. We set out to create a calendar to celebrate the area, give the people the opportunity to share their stories and develop something that can sit in pride of place in people’s homes.

We invited members of the Holbeck community to share the people and places that mean the most to them, and the stories we gathered capture so much of the energy, friendship and neighbourliness at the heart of the community. Photographer and Northern Monk Patron Mark Newton helped us to bring the stories to life, and his portraits of our ‘True Northerners’ are the focus of the calendar.

True North has collaboration at its very heart, with local companies such as Northern Monk and FYI helping to bring it together free of charge. This partnership is a fantastic example of what can be achieved when businesses and voluntary organisations work together and pool resources to achieve a shared goal.

We launched the calendar on a wintry night in November 2019, alongside a fabulous exhibition of the community submissions and portraits in Northern Monk’s Chapter Hall, and this Autumn we’re bringing the stories directly to you as part of a new blog series.

We’ll be featuring our True Northerners every week on our website and social media channels, to give you access to the fantastic portraits and personal stories that make up the calendar. Beyond that, our plan is to present the exhibition in a range of community venues across LS11, as soon as can be safely done – watch this space!

We hope you enjoy reading about the remarkable people that make up Holbeck today.

Supporters of Holbeck Together