Sir Francis Ley, 1st Baronet (3 January 1846 – 27 January 1916) was an English industrialist. He founded Ley's Malleable Castings Vulcan Ironworks in Derby. He (re-)introduced baseball into the United Kingdom town of Derby with the Ley's Recreation Club (later known as Derby Baseball Club) and owned Ley's Recreation Centre from 1890 to 1924, which was home to Derby County Football Club. In 1905, Ley was created a Baronet, of Epperstone Manor and, in the same year, served as High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire. Biography Francis Ley was born on 3 January 1846 in Winshill which at the time was in south-west Derbyshire (it's now in Staffordshire). He was the only son of George Phillips Ley and Sarah (born Potts). He started work at Andrew Handyside & Co. as a draughtsman and learnt about engineering. At the age of 28 he established a malleable iron castings foundry on Osmaston Road, Derby in 1874. The business became the Ley's Malleable Castings Company Ltd. The Vulcan Iron Works at Osmaston Road occupied an 11-acre site by the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway. In the London Gazette of 14 April 1876 Ley was granted a patent for "improvements in apparatus for locking and fastening nuts on fish plate and other bolts". In 1878 he was sued for patent infringement by an American drive chain belt company; the case was settled and Ley's company was awarded sole manufacturing rights. By the 1880s Ley was demolishing his old works and rebuilding on a grander scale. The new factory was to include expensive sporting facilities. Ley was never sporting himself but he was an enthusiast for sport and sat on the board of Derbyshire County Cricket Club. The Vulcan iron foundry was closed and demolished in 1986. Sport Ley visited the United States of America in 1889, and was impressed by the game of baseball. Some people had been intrigued by Albert Spalding's world tour with his baseball team when it played in England in 1889. Ley decided that, as a way of ensuring a healthier and more productive workforce, an investment should be made in promoting recreation for his workers. During his journey to the States, Ley had seen the way in which baseball fields had been laid out by companies and factories for the use by their workers and decided to follow suit on his return to Derby. Consequently, Ley had what was to