The workers at Fosters astounded everyone when in early January 1916, around three months later, they announced that the prototype machine was now ready for whatever the military could throw at it - named Little Willie. Testing was undertaken in the peaceful surroundings of Burton Park near Lincoln and then the machine was sent for official tests in Hatfield Park in Hertfordshire.

The tank sailed through it all, taking trenches and boggy ground in her stride. The next stage of production aimed to create a tank that could traverse wider trenches and so the world's first fighting tank - named Mother - was born.

After Mother had proved her worth, the orders started to come in and Lincoln became known as ‘Tank Town’ (see above left). Machines made in Mothers image were soon leaving Lincoln for use in the world’s first tank battle on the 15th September 1916.

The Lincoln designed tanks were so successful that they began to be produced by factories across Great Britain in order to keep up with demand. The answer to the barbed wire had been found at a small, agricultural manufacturers in Lincoln and it was called the tank.

The people of Lincoln were proud of Tritton's invention, and indeed tanks were paraded through the streets of the city before they went out to war (see above right).

Without the tank, the stalemate of the Great War would have carried on, perhaps well into the 1920s, and thousands more lives would have been lost then and into the future.