Over 25 Years of Car Leasing in Leeds

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Did You Know?

From the invention of the mouse trap to sheep grazing on rooftops and museums that hold the world’s largest animal armour, Leeds has many stories to tell. And even if you’ve lived here all your life, you probably haven’t heard them all.

Leeds originated as an Anglo-Saxon town on the north bank of the river Aire. It grew as a local market centre and which was incorporated in 1626. The completion in 1816 of the Canal also stimulated Leeds growth, and after 1848 the railway made the city a major centre of Railway Train engineering.

Hippos once walked the same streets we do now and we have the proof. In 1984, during the construction of the Armley Gyratory, the bones of an ancient hippo believed to date back around 130,000 years were discovered in the city.

By 1998, the internet was already starting to take over our lives and Leeds had a huge role to play in that because it gave birth to the UK’s first internet service provider, Freeserve. Their free internet discs became a must-have. By the time it was sold to French company Wannadoo in 2000, it was worth a hefty £1.65 billion and had accumulated nearly 2 million active customers.

The oldest airworthy aircraft in the UK was made here. Designed by Robert Blackburn in 1912 for Cyril Foggin, the Blackburn Monoplane Type ‘D’ is often called the Single-Seat Monoplane. At that time, it could only fly an individual per flight.

While working at the confectionery factory Rowntree in York, the research scientist Brian Boffey came up with a powdered jelly creation we now know as jelly tots. So clever was his freeze-dried technique that he later went on to work with NASA, producing food for space missions.

The X-ray is one of the most important scientific progressions of the 21st century and it was made in Leeds. William Henry Bragg and his son William Lawrence Bragg discovered the structure of crystals using X-ray technology at the University of Leeds.

Anthony E. Pratt created one of the most famous boardgames in history. He turned his love of detective novels into a crime caper called Murder – the game we now know as Cluedo. Pratt was a Birmingham lad, but he took his idea to Waddington’s Games in Leeds in 1944. They saw its potential immediately, and it was finally released in 1949 after the war was over.

The oldest flying aeroplane in Britain was made here in Leeds. Blackburn Type D was a pioneering one-seat single engine monoplane, built by Robert Blackburn for Cyril Foggin in 1912, just 10 years after the famous first flight of The Wright Brothers.

The Ryder Cup is the biggest event in golf, but did you know it once took place in Leeds? The second ever and the first to be held in Europe teed off at Moortown Golf Club in 1929. Even though it took place in April, snow and cold weather caused mayhem, but it worked out okay for the Great Britain team led by George Duncan because they defeated the Americans 7-5.