Here's why this BT tower in Leeds is the highest point until you reach MOSCOW

Yet incredibly, a local historian has proved that anyone flying in a straight line in an easterly direction from the communications mast would not reach higher ground until the Russian capital of Moscow.

James Rhodes, who runs his own history blog at rhodesysite.wordpress.com, has used geomapping techniques to prove that the long-running local rumour is true.

Mr Rhodes used the example of a crow which would fly at a cruising altitude of 252.96 metres - the height of the top of the tower.

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First the bird would fly across the notoriously flat Vale of York to the coast at Filey and Flamborough - during this stage of the journey, the ground only rises above 200m at one point.

The next 300 miles of the trip are across the North Sea before the crow reaches Denmark and southern Sweden - both flat countries.

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There's another flight over water to cross the Baltic Sea to arrive in Latvia, where the ground is not high enough to require a diversion.

As the bird enters Russia, the ground does become higher, but only occasionally rises above 200m until the crow comes within sight of Moscow's famous landmarks, Red Square and the Kremlin. Just east of the city, the ground finally reaches 255 metres in height - over 1,550 miles away from Tinshill Tower!

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Mr Rhodes used Geocontext mapping tools to prove his theory, and published the images on his website.

Tinshill BT Tower is a telecommunications mast built on land off Otley Old Road, and is one of twelve BT towers across the country made from reinforced concrete. In the 1960s, it served as a nerve centre, beaming microwave signals to London, Manchester and Newcastle. It is also home to thousands of telephone circuits.