Posted: Sat 25 Aug, 2012 2:00 am
The following is taken from John Mayhall’s ‘Annals of Yorkshire’ vol 3:-August 25 1872. “About 6 o’clock this morning a fire, involving immense destruction of property, broke out in the goods warehouse of the North-Eastern Railway Company, Wellington Street, Leeds. Roughly estimated, the damage to buildings and merchandise amounted to the sum of £150,000”.Using an inflation calculator in the Bank of England website £150,000 in 1872 was equivalent to about £13,917,000 in 2011 at an average inflation rate of 3.3% a year. That is some sum!