Hatherton Hall
HATHERTON HALL: Ad hoc flying site
NOTES: Although I think this location is most likely, this still needs to be confirmed. The problem being that the Hatherton family seems to have owned about half of south Staffordshire by this time, including some very large 'Stately Homes' as their private houses.
I found this intriguing and amusing story in the book Station 12 by Des Turner. It concerns the early history of Leslie J C Wood, then a trainee RFC pilot in 1916, who later went on to command 'Station 12' for the SOE in WW2 at Aston House in Hertfordshire.
"Having made a forced landing on an estate in Staffordshire owned by the third Lord Hattherton, he was informed by his lordship that one of the farmhouses had been made available to a troupe of chorus girls. He eagerly accepted the invitation to 'come and join us'."
"Next day, Lord Hatherton loaded the fledgling pilot's Vickers Gunbus, (my note: a two seater type), with strawberries as a present for the mess. Inevitably this hospitality led to further landings there...."
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