Knavesmire
KNAVESMIRE: Civil airfield later military aerodrome
(Also known as YORK RACECOURSE, see seperate listing)
Military user: RFC (Royal Flying Corps)
33 [Home Defence] Sqdn (Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2s, and just possibly F.E.2s?)
Location: On the present York racecourse SSW of the city centre
Period of operation: Civil 1912 to 1914? Military: May to June 1916. Civil again 1919(?) to 1928
Note: It would appear that even between 1928 and 1936 the City of York did not have an ‘official’ aerodrome as such.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
We have Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for investigating the early history of this location.
Article One was published in The Scotsman on the 24th February 1913. The photo was published in the Leeds Mercury on the 19th May 1913, and shows the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 being flown by Captain Beck. He landed here, enroute from Oxford to Montrose on the 17th May. The RFC conducted many flights from southern England up to MONTROSE prior to WW1, and KNAVESMIRE was a popular stopping off point.
This Article Two, in four parts, was published in the Yorkshire Evening Post on the 25th July 1913.
Article Three was published in the Yorkshire Evening Post on the 25th July 1914:
Article Four was published, also in the Yorkshire Evening Post, on the 15th May 1914.
MORE INFORMATION
Article Five was published in Flight magazine on the 17th July 1914. Article Six was published in the Dundee Evening Telegraph on the 26th May 1921.
The article Seven was published in the Northern Weekly Gazette on the 24th August 1929. THe local area and area views are from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES: There is of course a distinct relationship between so many early flying sites and racecourses. They had a large flat area for the aircraft to land on and ample facilities for spectators.
This connection still exists today of course to some extent, albeit for entirely different reasons - such as delivering the top notch jockeys and VIPs, usually by helicopter in later years. Many seemed ideal in several respects, they were used to dealing with the gathering of large crowds for example. Not only that but in the really early days of the RFC, (as an aside), any potential pilot declaring horse riding abilities was considered a superior candidate for flying duties.
It seems that in WW1 the RFC used KNAVESMIRE racecourse as an aerodrome from just May to June 1916 before transferring to COPMANTHORPE, (about 2nm WSW). It would appear that the reason for the move was a Zeppelin raid on York on the night of the 2nd/3rd of May.
Today this might be viewed as a severe over-reaction to a slight threat to most people but we only have to witness the effect on the press and media totally over-reacting and disseminating non-information at best, following the terrorist bombings in London during July 2005 for example.
So many people employed at the front end of news reporting in the early years of the 21st century not only seem to know next to nothing about how to report news, they are seemingly proud of their ignorance and general lack of education! (Or am I being far too cynical?). Even so, pretty conclusive proof it would seem, that in nearly 100 years British society, in this regard at least, hasn’t really moved on much in several important aspects. And indeed, the explosion of the internet and social media really does dumb everything down.
THE FLYING CIRCUS ERA
The Knavesmire Racecourse was listed as a venue in May 1931 for the Aviation Tours tour of Britain. Not much seems to be known about the venues, and I have only seventeen listed. It appears the Tour started in April and ended in late September. But, even these few venues indicate they performed from Penzance in Cornwall to Inverness in Scotland.
If anybody can kindly offer advice, this will be much appreciated.
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