Leeds nostalgia: The final frontier

In 1964 Mr. Warren Horsman of Tingley skilfully built a 10 inch telescope with which to view the skies in the days before space junk and the International Space Station.
1964: Warren Horsman of Tingley and his 10 inch telescope.1964: Warren Horsman of Tingley and his 10 inch telescope.
1964: Warren Horsman of Tingley and his 10 inch telescope.

Five years later you could be forgiven for thinking that aliens had landed but in fact these foil suited men were Dewsbury firemen undergoing an endurance training session.

A woman from Yorkshire did make it into space in 1991 when Helen Sharman visited the Mir Space Station and she brought back these pansy seeds which were studied by Leeds school pupils.

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The same sort of thing happened to pupils from Ashville College in 1990.

The fascination of looking at the night sky is still as strong now as it was in 1987 when the observatory at Batley’s Wilton Park was used by Charles Cross and Neil Powell.