Martock
Note: This map gives only the location of Martock village within th UK.
MARTOCK: Temporary aerodrome?
NOTES: Possibly one of the oddest sources of information? I happened to be casually watching part of an ‘Antiques Road Show’ programme on BBC One, presumably held somewhere in Somerset judging by the accents, when somebody turned up with a huge old picture postcard collection of various local sites. One of these postcards showed a pre-WW1 biplane, possibly a Bristol Boxkite (?) captioned “Martock - pioneer aviation”.
Making a quick note I looked up MARTOCK in the map index and there it was, a village situated on the B3165 about a mile or so north of the junction with the A303 roughly six miles NNE of Crewkerne to also discover I had MARTOCK. listed as a flying site used by a Mr Gilmour in 1912. It was only later that I realised that I already had this location listed - see AMESBURY for more information. It is claimed that Mr Gilmour offered passenger flights after arriving. I suppose we now need to understand today just why, in those days. MARTOCK was such an important place to fly from.
POSSIBLY USED?
During August 1912 Mr Herbert Spencer displayed at a Conservative Fete in Sherborne which is only 10nm away using an identically similar sort of machine so perhaps it was he touring the region? It appears highly probable that Mr Spencer was offering passenger flights. The Bristol Company had established a Flying School on Salisbury Plain by 1912 so perhaps there is another possible connection here?
ANOTHER ASPECT
In 2009 I discovered a book, Old Flying Days by C C Turner published in or about 1927. In it he gives a full account of how the pilot Mr Graham Gilmour eventually arrived here in 1911, see AMESBURY (WILTSHIRE) for more information regarding that singular flight programme.
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