It was once a bastion of the First World War, aiding British soldiers as they battled with the enemy.

But recently, the former Vickers tank factory, in Cross Gates, was used to offer assistance in a battle of a different type and scale.

The vast premises was let to the Royal Mail to help cope with last month's
dispute between the organisation and its workers.

Extending to 350,000 sq ft – the equivalent of eight football pitches – the Radial Park building is almost half a mile long from one end to the other.

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The dispute has now been settled, but Royal Mail, fearing a longer impasse, needed to find somewhere it could store mail in bulk.

It is thought the Vickers site could potentially hold mail for the whole of the north of England. The last military connection with the famous Leeds tank factory was severed in 2003.

Around 130 engineers who worked for Vickers Defence Systems moved out
of their offices in its Barnbow site.

The team was the last link to the Vickers tank factory; originally the 1915 Barnbow Royal Ordinance Factory.

All the staff were relocated to a new 30,000 sq ft development at Leeds Valley Park in Stourton where a centre of excellence for electronic systems and technology was opened in 2003.

Threadneedle Investments, a fund managing on behalf of assurer Eagle
Star Life Assurance Company bought the 64-acre site from Rolls-Royce in
2001 for an undisclosed sum.

An auction of the factory's tools and equipment took place, marking the
end of an 85-year history of arms manufacturing in the city.

State-owned Barnbow Royal Ordnance Factory opened in 1915 on a 300-acre site between Garforth and Cross Gates. It employed 17,000 people in its heyday, manufacturing munitions during the First World War.

A new factory was built at Cross Gates in 1939 which installed gun barrels on
American Sherman tanks before producing its own, including the Centurion, Chieftain, Challenger 1, and Challenger 2. Barnbow was privatised and bought by Vickers Defence Systems, a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce, in
1986.