Gipsy Lane
GIPSY LANE: Temporary aerodrome
Note: This road is often spelt as GYPSY LANE, but, it appears that in 1932 it was spelt GIPSY LANE.
Operated by: Sir Alan Cobham's National Aviation Day Display Tour
Location: Roughly 1.5nm NE of Frome town centre
Period of Operation: 5th May 1932
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
We have to thank Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', for investigating this venue and providing the information, maps etc.
The Notice was published in the Somerset Standard on the 29th April 1932.
The article was published in the Somerset Standard on the 6th May 1932. The local area view and area view are from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES: Sir Alan Cobham was, it seems, a tad reluctant to enter the 'Flying Circus' craze that erupted in the very early years of the 1930s. However, once he decided to get involved, he blew the socks off everybody else, from the start. We do not know much about previous operators, the most extensive tour in 1931 being by C D Barnard Air Tours which appears to have visited 63 venues?
Cobham was of course a self-confessed workaholic and expected all his crews to follow his example. This first 1932 Tour started at HANWORTH, (South west of London), on the 12th April, and, without a break, was planned to visit 174 venues before ending at CHINGFORD in north London on the 16th October. Trying to trace the history of this Tour today is very difficult to say the least, but, it does seem they arrived at nearly all the venues on time.
To make it happen Cobham and his team had arranged for two sets of ground crews and equipment, in effect leap frogging over each other to prepare the next venue. It was a masterpeice of logistics, never seen before. Even the finest military brains could not have organised an operation of this scale and complexity lasting so long.
Plus of course, we must remember, communications were rudimentary at best. Just land-line telephones and telegraphs for quick communications. Otherwise letters by post. In those days the postal system was amazing. I remember my grandfather saying he would send a letter to a friend in London in the morning, suggesting meeting up that evening, and expect a reply that afternoon.
Letters posted from one end of the country to the other, (mostly), would be delivered the very next day. A tad longer if a ferry service was needed.
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