Lady Bay, Nottingham
LADY BAY: Temporary flying site
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The third item, an advert, was published in the Nottingham Evening Post on the 18th June 1929.
Note: The last and sixth item was added by the author from his Google Earth © database.
Note: As the third item above shows, Western Aviation operated here from the 18th June to the 15th July 1929. Based in Cheltenham they started operations in April 1927 and continued until April 1933, when they were taken over by Air Tours. They had two Avro 504K aircraft, G-EBQR and G-EBXV which they flew, plus another, G-EBSG, which was not registered it seems, but probably/possibly (?), purchased for spares.
Location: Lady Bay is an area S of the River Trent, SE of the A6011 bridge
Period of operation: 1929 only?
NOTES: In their book TOLLERTON an airfield for Nottingham the authors tell this story. “It had been hoped that the aerodrome could be ready for the Lord Major, Alderman A. R. Atkey, to use when he had to go to the annual meeting of the British Waterworks Association at Plymouth in early July 1929.” This raises an interesting question - where was he to be landed at Plymouth? ROBOROUGH didn’t open until 1931 so perhaps HALDON was the site?
“Unfortunately Tollerton was not ready and so he was flown from ‘the landing ground by the side of the Trent at Lady Bay. Alderman Atkey was flown to Plymouth by E.D. Winn using the Nottingham Aero Club’s Moth aeroplane, (My note: G-EBQW probably?), which was then based at Hucknall airfield.” I wonder what Alderman Atkey made of that experience? Nottingham to Plymouth would be a fairly demanding trip in a Cessna 172 or PA-28 today for most passengers - let alone an open cockpit DH.60 Moth.
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