The story of the Leeds City Square paving stone mystery
It was a city centre mystery which baffled super sleuths and red faced council chiefs for weeks.
A paving stone appeared outside the main entrance to the Queens Hotel in the spring of 1974 bearing the inscription “This stone was laid by RK & DD RH & KK’
The culprits were eventually revealed weeks later as Leeds City Council Highways department workmen.
“”It has now been taken up and replaced y the culprits,” explained a Highways department spokesman in May 1974. “It was done as a joke by the workmen concerned and it has been replaced by the men who did it.”
He added: “They have been reprimanded: not sacked or anything like that though. We can take a joke to a certain extent but after all it was corporation property which had been defaced and the workmanship was not particularly good.”
The spokesman declined to name the practical jokers with an artistic flair, stating they would prefer to remain anonymous.