Felton Farm
FELTON FARM: Temporary Landing Ground (Aka Mr WINDER'S FELTON FARM)
Location: Just N of the A49 and just E of the racecourse. About 1.5nm NW to NNW of Ludlow town centre
Periods of operation: 11th September 1929 and 5th May 1933
NOTES: This was the 77th venue for Sir Alan Cobham during his 1929 Municipal Aerodrome Campaign. Starting in May and ending in October, the original plan was to visit 107 venues in mainland Britain to promote the idea of as many towns as possible to have their own aerodrome/airport. There is no way of knowing how much influence Cobham had, due to this Tour, but shortly afterwards many facilities did start appearing. Due to a couple of crashes and other setbacks Cobham eventually managed to visit 96 venues - in itself still a magnificent achievement.
The aircraft he mostly used was the ten-seater de Havilland DH61 'Giant Moth', G-AAEV, named 'Youth of Britain'. As a general rule, for one day visits, (which the majority were), he would aim to arrive at around 11.00 and then take local dignitaries for a local flight. Following this he would take sponsored schoolchildren for flights. The then anonymous donor, who we now know was Lord Wakefield of Castrol Oil fame, had offered to pay Cobham for taking up to 10,000 schoolchildren on free flights, throughout his Tour. Cobham would then take fare paying passengers for short local flights, usually until dusk.
Invariably Cobham was féted upon arrival by a party of local dignitaries, who at some point arranged a slap-up luncheon and/or dinner for him at the town hall or a grand hotel. This gave Cobham the opportunity to extol the considerable benefits of having a local aerodrome/airport.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: This article, divided into two parts to make it easier to read, was published in The Kington Times on the 14th September 1929.
MORE NOTES: There is quite a bit of misinformation around, and was at the time, regarding just which each venue was, in numerical order. Even Cobham himself got this wrong! Thanks to some very detailed research by Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', with supporting evidence from local newspaper evidence, this 'Guide' now has the most reliable routing, dating and numerical sequence available anywhere.
ANOTHER VISIT BY THE BRITISH HOSPITALS AIR PAGEANT
Later Mike Holder discovered that the British Hospitals Air Pageant Tour in 1933 also displayed here on the 5th May 1933. So, here is another gallery he has prepared for us.
AN ADVERT AND ARTICLE
This advert and article, (in seven parts to make it easier to read), was published in the Kington Times on the 29th April 1933. The advert includes a picture of the de Havilland DH84 Dragon I, G-ACCR. This was brand new, being registered on the 3rd April 1933, so probably joined the Tour at the second venue at YEADING LANE, Hayes in west London, where two displays were held on the 8th and 9th. It had a short life compared with most Dragons, apparently crashing in the English Channel on the 22nd January 1936.
NOTES: The short article and the photo were both published in the Kington Times on the 13th May 1933. Sometimes, as in this case, the quality of existing evidence can be very poor. A translation of the short article is: "People from a wide area were present at the great hospital air pageant, held at Mr E H Winder's Farm, Felton, Ludlow, on Friday, and were spectators at a display such as has never before been seen in the vicinity."
"This was one of a series of pageants which is being held in different towns throught-out the country, by means of which it is hoped to raise some thousands of pounds for the hospitals."
The area view is from my Google Earth © derived database, and, not all the locations included in this 'Guide' have been marked.
THE 1933 BRITISH HOSPITALS AIR PAGEANT TOUR
Organised by Barker & McEwen King, this Tour was planned to visit 150 venues, and this was the 23rd venue. It commenced at Luton on the 1st & 2nd of April and finished at Woolwich, south east London, on the 8th October. It travelled into the West Country as far as Truro, across South Wales as far west as Haverfordwest, but did not venture into North Wales.
Most if not all the larger towns and cities in England were paid a visit and during September the Tour ventured as far north in Scotland as Banff, Huntly and Aberdeen. However, it did not cross the Irish Sea unlike some other tours of this era, notably those organised by Sir Alan Cobham but they were on a much larger scale in 1933 and 1935.
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