Moor Park
MOOR PARK: Temporary Landing Ground
Location: Just N to NNE of Preston town centre
Period of operation: 29th to 31st August 1912
In 1912 the then very famous French aviator Henri Salmet was sponsored by the Daily Mail to make an extensive tour giving 'exhibitions of flying' at as many locations as possible. The Daily Mail in those days had long been a keen advocate of promoting powered aviation in the UK, offering a variety of very generous cash prizes even before aeroplanes had appeared in the UK - which was in and around 1909. The French especially being far more advanced than the British.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: This article, divided into three parts to make it easier to read, was published in the Preston Herald on the 31st August 1912.
Note: The local area view and area view are from my Google Earth © derived database.
In 1912 nothing like this had ever been seen before. The Daily Mail had, it appears, sponsored six pilots to each make several exhibitions of flying, mainly around England. Only two though, were spnosored to undertake extensive tours - Salmet of course, but also the equally famous British aviator Claude Grahame-White. His Tour being called "Wake Up England" which was painted on the sides of his machine, as aeroplanes were generally called in the UK those days. The term aeroplane being French, as is the term aerodrome. Which was initially, an area within which flying took place.
Salmet's Tour started from WORMWOOD SCRUBBS, west London, in May and he initially headed west, landing at several venues until reaching Llanelli in South Wales. He turned around before crossing the Bristol Channel and heading into the West Country reaching as far west as Falmouth. He more or less retraced his route back to Cardiff before heading up into the southern parts of the West Midlands. He then zigged and zagged roughly eastwards before covering the south east and south coast before heading north.
Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide' has thoroughly researched this Tour by Salmet and a full schedule can be found in my article - 'The 1912 tour by Henri Salmet."
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