Caulderfields Farm
CAULDERFIELDS FARM: Temporary aerodrome (Aka CALDER FIELDS FARM)
NOTE: It has been quite a job determining where this aerodrome, originally used on a temporary basis, was actually located. The problem being that another aerodrome/airport was created just about a mile or so to the northeast in 1934. Which was known as both WALSALL and ALDRIDGE AIRPORT.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The newspaper article was published in the Walsall Observer and South Staffordshire Chronicle on the 27th June 1931.
Note: The advert was published in the Walsall Observer on the 20th August 1921:The newspaper article, also in the Walsall Observer, but published on the 3rd June 1933. The area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
Note: The last newspaper article, for the British Hospitals Air Pageant visit, was also published in the Walsall Observer, but this time on the 26th August 1933.
Flying Circus venue: Berkshire Aviation Company, 1919 and 1921), Berkshire Aviation Tours 1931, Sir Alan Cobham’s 1932 National Aviation Day UK Display Tour, 1933 No.2 Tour
Note: The Berkshire Aviation Company performed here from the 29th September to the 5th October 1919. two years later from the 20th to the 29th August 1921.
The Berkshire Aviation Tour visited and displayed from the 19th to 24th June 1931. Cobham's 1932 visit was on the 9th May, and the 1933 visit was on the 1st of June. Following this was the visit by the British Hospitals Air Pageant on the 19th August 1933.
Flying club: From 1932; used by the Walsall Aero Club?
Location: Mellish Road, Longwood Canal Bridge, Walsall
Period of operation: 1919 to 1934?
NOTES: Many years ago I asked this question: Could this site also possibly have been the venue for the Walsall Air Race sponsored by the Birmingham Daily Post in September 1913? It seems there were just two entrants, Gustav Hamel and Benny Hucks and Hamel won. In those days Gustav Hamel, (an Englishman born of German parents), was perhaps the most famous British aviator and a true superstar in that period when aviation was only just developing in Britain. (His name appears time and again in this 'Guide'). He gave exhibition flights and undertook many other notable flights, (throughout the UK and the Continent), seeming to have visited nearly every major town let alone city in the UK between 1911 and early 1914. (See listing for SPRING VALE)
Great plans were afoot for him including being nominated as the pilot for the first transatlantic crossing east to west from Ireland to St Johns in Newfoundland. He was to use the Martin-Handasyde Transatlantic Monoplane, a two seater with a 66ft wingspan and a 225hp Sunbeam Mohawk engine. Was this ever built? In May 1914 he made a non-stop flight to Germany covering 340 miles in 4hrs 14mins, a huge undertaking at that time. On the return flight he simply disappeared forever, presumably somewhere over the North Sea. A tragic loss to British aviation, but, he survived much longer than most pilots of that era.
This said, as wartime aviation developed in WW1, the life expectancy of pilots in action reduced to days, even a couple of flying hours for many. Just as in WW2, many pilots were put into combat with far too little training and what training they did have was hopelessly inadequate to cope.
THE WALSALL AERO CLUB
The Walsall Aero Club was formed in 1932 so presumably they used this site as the WALSALL (ALDRIDGE) aerodrome didn’t properly open until 1935?
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