Hell Meadow
Note: This map gives a fairly accurate position. If anybody can kindly offer advice, this will be most welcome.
HELL MEADOW: Temporary aerodrome
Note: This picture was obtained from Google Earth ©
Operated by: Berkshire Aviation Company
Location: On Stenson Lane, roughly 3nm SSW of Derby city centre
Period of operation: 25th to 30th August 1919. Later from the 17th to 28th June 1926
NOTES: Flying Circus venues. In May 2020, (see 'Comment' below), Mr Michael Holder also sent me a copy of The Derbyshire Advertiser published on the 26th June 1926. It advertises The Berkshire Aviation Tours venue, with flights from 5 shillings (£0. 5. 00d). In those days the average wage was not much more than £1 a week.
What Michael and I agree upon is, during the Sunday "Wonderful Exhibition Of Flying", weather permitting, they would be displaying a 6 horse power motor glider. A machine neither of us has heard of before.
What I find doubly interesting is that this site, does not appear to exactly coincide with the later STENSON ROAD flying circus venues in the 1930s. See seperate listing.
Michael T Holder
This comment was written on: 2020-05-23 12:11:15From The Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal – Friday 11 Jun 1926 – An advertisement for The Berkshire Aviation Tours flights at Hell Meadow, Stenson Lane, Derby, including Mrs Sophie C. Eliott Lynn – the only Lady Pilot on Tour. At the bottom was “You’ll all be under the earth one day. GET OFF IT!” Hell Meadow is a wooded area but the field next to it (between the wood and the railway) looks suitable. Position52 52 37”N 001 30 51”W. Quite a way out of Derby – about 4 miles – and 1.5 miles from North Stafford Junction Railway Station
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