Scale Hall
SCALE HALL: Military aerodrome in WW1, later civilian until 1939
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Location: Just S of the A 589, 1nm NW of Lancaster city centre
Period of operation: Military, probably 1918 to 1919? Civil up to 1939 but starting date not known?
Runways: (Probably always the same, but not runways as such, rather available lengths within the aerodrome)
N/S 550 yards (503 metres) SW/NE 350 yards (320 metres) NW/SE 300 yards (275 metres)
NOTES: When adding this entry I made the comment that, "Rather oddly it seems, very little seems known in detail about this aerodrome." Within hours both Mike Holder and Graham Frost directed me to: Clark SH Airfield.pdf.(archaeologyuk.org), where a very full history is available.
From this it appears that: "On the 14th July 1912 the first aircraft landed in Lancaster in a field at Scale Hall Farm. Robert B Slack flew from Southport to promote his aviation courses."
It was it seems probably at least a Landing Ground in WW1 with Bessonneau hangars, but it appears, opinions are still divided. And, I was interested to see, that in 2014 even my 'Guide' does not record it! That now amended of course.
Note: We have Mike Holder to thank for tracking down this dark and grainy picture. Sir Alan Cobham landed here to conduct operations during his 1929 Municipal Aerodrome Campaign. See the listing for LANCASTER for a few more details. And, it does appear his later 'Flying Circus' operations did use this location at least once, between 1932 and 1935.
As always in this 'Guide', if anybody can kindly offer advice and information, this will be much appreciated.
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