Down Hatherley
DOWN HATHERLEY: Private aerodrome
Note: The aircraft in the aerial photo appears to have a Dutch registration.
Note: All six of these items were kindly supplied by Mike Holder. The advert was published in the Gloucester Citizen on the 27th September 1932.
Operated by: Westgate Motor Company
Location: Just N of the B4063, (once the A40), just N of STAVERTON/GLOUCESTER AIRPORT
Period of operation: 1931 to 1936 (Perhaps a tad longer?)
Flying club: Cotswold Aero Club
Flying Circus venue: Western Aviation, 26th to 30th September 1932
NOTES: We have Mr Michael T Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for finding this little known aerodrome, and providing the maps etc shown above.
It appears that in 1931, the Westgate Motor Company, of Gloucester, set up a dealership for de Havilland DH60 Moth aircraft. Needing somewhere to demonstrate these, and with there being nowhere local, they set up their own aerodrome here, complete with hangar. It also appears that in that same year, the Cotswold Aero Club became residents - and they are still in business, over the road at STAVERTON/GLOUCESTER AIRPORT.
We don't know for certain, but presumably DOWN HATHERLEY's days were numbered when STAVERTON, just to the south, was opened in 1936.
It is often claimed that the de Havilland DH60 Moth, first flown in 1925, opened up flying to the British public. Which in fairness it did, providing you were well off, and that included learning to fly with a syndicate or club. Flying was still, until after WW2, very much an elitist affair. Indeed, even today many people still have that conception, although anybody earning a 'decent' salary can, (or having a fair amount of cash in the bank), if their circumstances permit, afford to do so.
In around 1930 you could buy a Moth for around £595 which sounds a great price to us today of course. Until you learn that you could buy a new semi-detached house in London for £350! Which puts things into perspective. I found a Moth for sale, (in 2022), for £108,000, which, while it sounds like quite a lot, shows how house prices have risen. Although almost impossible to determine due to so much changing, a Bank of England tracker says that £595 in 1930 is now worth around £28,000 in 2020.
So, a Moth brought in 1930, if kept, was quite a good investment - on paper. Except of course, heavens only knows what it might have cost to keep it flying!
ANOTHER PIECE OF THE JIG-SAW
This postcard was acquired by Mike Charlton, a great friend of this 'Guide'. Without much if any doubt the picture was taken in 1935. Information about the two aircraft was provided by Mr Phil Mathews of the Cotswold Aero Club. The aircraft in the foreground is the de Havilland DH60G Gipsy Moth, G-ABER. First registered 05.09.30, this was later registered to the Cotswold Aero Club on 01.02.35 until 16.01.40. It was then impressed as W7946 on 13.02.40.
The aircraft beyond is the Desoutter Mk.1 G-AAPZ, although it looks as if the signwriter had made a mistake, making it G-AAPL. That was a DH60X Moth registered to National Flying Services at HANWORTH AIR PARK and it crashed near Grimsby on 18.05.32. Phil Mathews thinks it was also registered at one point to the Cotswold Aero Club, but the official register shows it as being registered continuously to Richard Shuttleworth at OLD WARDEN from 11.02.25 until 01.12.46 - it now being part of the Shuttleworth Collection.
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