Alderstead Farm
ALDERSTEAD FARM: Temporary aerodrome
Operated by: Sir Alan Cobham’s UK National Aviation Day Display Tours
Location: Shepherds Hill, NE of Merstham, roughly 1 to 1.5nm N to NNE of Redhill town centre
Period of operation: 27th July 1932 & 22nd/23rd April 1933
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
We have Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for providing the following items.
The advert was placed in the Surrey Mirror on the 22nd July 1932. The local area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
The article was published, also in the Surrey Mirror, on the 22nd July 1932. The area view is also from my Google Earth © derived database. This is another area in Greater London that has been utterly transformed in more recent years. One can only imagine what the spectators in the early 1930s might have made of, for example, the M.25 and M.23. Let alone GATWICK not so very far to the south.
COBHAM GETS INVOLVED
Sir Alan Cobham was somewhat tardy in joining in with the 'Flying Circus' era - a term which he thoroughly detested - but once he and his company got going in 1932, they rewrote the 'rule book'. Nothing on the sheer scale of his endeavours had ever been seen before. Or since for that matter. Indeed, he commissioned two 'airliners', the Airspeed AS.4 Ferry type, G-ABSI and G-ABSJ, with STOL capabilities, specifically for use on his tours.
The 1932 Tour was planned to visit 174 venues. It started at HANWORTH in south west London on the 12th April and ended at CHINGFORD north of London on the 16th October. ALDERSTEAD FARM was the 98th venue. Once this UK tour ended Cobham then shipped a fleet of aircraft out to South Africa for the winter season visiting 68 venues.
Far from becoming exhausted, he redoubled his efforts, (and those of his staff of course), and arranged two tours. This 'two tour' endeavour, in 1933, 1934 and 1935 sets him and his company apart from all other 'Flying Circus' operators. We can certainly have a 'heated debate' about the time frame for this era, which of course took place during "The Great Depression", but I reckon 1931 through to 1936 being the peak period.
The 1933 No.1 Tour commenced at CENTRAL PARK, Dagenham in Essex on the 14th April and was planned to give 116 displays.This being the 7th venue although they also visited the Republic of Ireland. It ended at CHERTSEY LANE, Staines in Middlesex on the 8th October. The No.2 Tour began at HOLT FARM, Ashington Road, Southend in Essex also on the 14th April, and that tour finished at MAYLANDS aerodrome, Romford in Essex also on the 8th October with 161 venues planned.
I suppose we can only sit back in wonder today. Imagine organising displays at 277 venues! No mobile phones, no apps, no lap-tops etc, etc. The 1934 tour was one tour with 159 venues planned. But, having relaxed, (Cobham was a self-confessed work-a-holic), his last and final enterprise in 1935 differed in starting out as one tour, later splitting into two but even so, still planned to visit 244 venues.
NOTES: In 1935 (25th April), this location is also possibly the opening venue (?), for the Jubilee Air Displays Tour. The address was given as Alderstead Heath, Merstham. So, was this the same site as used by Cobham in 1932 and 1933?
MERSTHAM FEATURES AGAIN
Mike Holder has also found these two articles relating to Merstham. Not ALDERSTEAD FARM of course, but well worth a mention. This 'Guide' being devoted to finding flying sites, especially if of some historical interest.
This article was published in the Western Daily Mercury on the 10th June 1912. It refers to the Aerial Derby around London that took place on the 8th June 1912, the contestants departing from HENDON. I was interested to see the account of the weather, which as a private pilot was always a constant source of potential problems - at any time of the year.
This second article was published in the Surrey Mirror on the 20th April 1928. I'm very glad to say that over the years I was flying, in well over two hundred different aircraft, mostly Cessna and Piper types, I never once had an engine problem. So, all those practice forced landings were never put to the test.
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