Five things: Roundhay Park, Leeds

1. The 700-acre park was once a lord’s hunting ground and passed through several aristocratic families until 1871, when Leeds City Council bought the land from the Nicholson family.

2. The first electric ‘trolley power’ tram in the UK ran from Leeds to Roundhay Park. The terminus is now 
a car park but some of the trolley poles can still be seen.

3. The Arena, a large hollow now used as a cricket pitch, was supposed to have been a third lake. It can hold 100,000 people and has hosted Michael Jackson and Rolling Stones concerts.

4. Soldiers’ Field is named after the First World War-era troops who used it as a muster point. In 1919 it was home to a small airport with flights to London and Amsterdam.

5. There was an outdoor lido beneath the Waterloo Lake dam from 1907 until the 1980s and it is now a car park. Pleasure boats operated on the lake until 1923 and one was sunk there.