Hitchin flying sites
Note: This map only shows the position of Hitchin town within the UK.
HITCHIN see also ICKLEFORD
HITCHIN see also RUSH GREEN
HITCHIN see also WILLIAN
HITCHIN: Temporary aerodrome?
NOTES: Venue May 1921 for the Berkshire Aviation Co Tour. Can anybody offer advice regarding the location? And indeed, the same request applies to the following listings.
HITCHIN: Temporary aerodrome. See ICKLEFORD for much more information - which is where he landed.
NOTES: Hitchin was the planned 91st venue for the Sir Alan Cobham's Municipal Aerodrome Campaign.
This Tour started in May and ended in October with one hundred and seven venues planned to be visited. Mostly in England two were in South Wales and eight in Scotland. Without any doubt this Tour helped to result in the creation of several aerodromes/regional airports. But not in Hitchin perhaps? Unless the BANCROFT FARM site listed below was a result?
Due to a couple of crashes and other setbacks, Cobham eventually managed to visit 96 venues, this being his 95th on the 4th October. Even so, quite a magnificent achievement.
The aircraft Cobham mostly used for the 1929 Tour was the ten-seater de Havilland DH61 'Giant Moth' G-AAEV, named 'Youth of Britain'. The punishing schedule he set himself seems astonishing today. Highly recommended are his memoirs in 'A Time To Fly'.
HITCHIN: Temporary aerodrome?
NOTES: Venue on the 27th April 1931 for a visit from the CD Barnard Air Tours Ltd tour of the UK.
It is of course very tempting today to assume they probably used the site listed below, but this could easily be a mistake. In those days these ‘Tours’ invariably did deals with local farmers for temporary use of a suitable field shying away from established sites. This said, after being used for a ‘display’ several such sites were later adopted on a more permanent basis.
HITCHIN: Civil Landing Ground
Operated by: Wallace Brothers, Bancroft Farm
Location: "1m N centre Hitchen, just N ring road linking A505 and A600, E of railway"
Period of operation: 1930s only?
Runway(s): Max landing run: 640 grass
NOTES: Info source ‘AA Landing Grounds’ publication, 1930s. This was one of seventy four AA (Automobile Association) approved Landing Grounds on mainland Britain and situated in the area known as Walsworth. In 1933 there wasn’t a hangar on site but fuel and transport (typically a taxi service) could be obtained from R E Sanders & Sons, Walsworth Road, Hitchen. A telephone was in a public kiosk on the southern boundary of the LG (Landing Ground).
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