Lansdown
Note: This map only gives an approximate position within the UK. If anybody can kindly confirm this is correct, or provide a more exact location for the 1930s airstrip, this advice will be most welcome.
LANSDOWN: Civil Landing Grounds
(Used from 1914 to the 1930s)
(See also BATH RACECOURSE for further details)
Location: 2.5nm N of Bath and adjacent to the racecourse. Not to be confused with the other airstrip on the racecourse in more recent years
Period of operation: 1930s initially? Later 1970s to - ?
Runway: 1930s, max landing run: 293 grass
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The newspaper article was published in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette on the 18th May 1929. The photo of the officials was published in the same paper, but on the 1st June.
Note: The picture of the mayor alighting from G-AAEV was also published in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette on the 1st June 1929.
It is just possible that the location LANSDOWN FARM aerodrome might be seen in the aerial photograph?
THE VISIT BY SIR ALAN COBHAM
This was on the 27th May 1929, and was his tenth venue in a tour intended to visit 107 towns around mainland Britain. Mostly these were in England but two were in Wales and seven in Scotland. In the event after a couple of crashes and other setbacks, he nevertheless managed to visit around 95 venues. In itself a quite magnificent achievement.
The aircraft he mostly used was the ten-seater DH61 'Giant Moth' G-AAEV, named 'Youth of Britain'. The newspaper article above gives a very good idea of the routine Cobham mostly followed. However, we now know that the anonymous sponsor for the childrens flights was Lord Wakefield of Castrol Oil fame.
ANOTHER PIECE OF INFORMATION
Later, Mike Holder discovered this Notice published in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette on the 13th June 1931. It tells of an 'Air Carnival' being presented by Berkshire Aviation Tours, taking place from the 19th to the 24th June 1931.
NOTES: 1930s info source – ‘AA Landing Grounds’ publication, 1930s.
For more info on the above, please see seperate listing for CHAPEL FARM.
It is not at all certain that the 1930s LANSDOWN airstrip and the location of the later helicopter landing area coincide. Also, it does appear that, in the 1970s, an airstrip serving presumably the racecourse (?) existed. If so, can anybody now provide more details?
In June 2019 Tim Hill kindly contacted me once again to give advice on Bath flying sites: "I've done a bit more digging and I have found the other Lansdown site and the Claverton site. The other site at Lansdown was opposite the Lansdown Cemetery, and is now under (or very adjacent to) a housing development on the former MOD Ensleigh site. Exactly which field(s) were used are not clear, but it gives the general area."
"There was an image of Rowland Ding landing his HP, (My note - Handley Page), there in the July 3rd 1914 edition of Flight, and the local press also records C.D. Barnard flying there in May 1931." This was C.D. Barnard Air Tours Ltd and the venue is given as Chapel Farm, Lansdown, operating on the 13th and 14th.
"The articles indicate that he brought his Fokker FVII G-EBTS 'The Spider', (My note: Which had belonged to the Duchess of Bedford), along with at least two Simmons Spartans and an autogiro." Clearly this was a joy-riding venue with next to no 'air-show' worthy of mention.
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