Smethwick
Note: This map only shows my guess at an approximate position within the UK. If anybody can kindly provide a more exact location, this advice will be most welcome.
SMETHWICK: Civil private company aerodrome
Operated by: Birmingham & Midland Carriage Co
Manufacturing: Birmingham & Midland Carriage Co
Location: Halford Lane, Smethwick. SE of M5 (junction 1), E of A4252, NW of The Hawthorns Station, NW of Smethwick
Period of operation: Probably later in WW1? (No exact dates known?)
NOTES: The Birmingham & Midland Carriage Co built more than seventy Handly Page 0/400 bombers at their Middlemore Road, Handsworth factory, and it appears they were assembled and flown out from ‘their aerodrome’ adjacent to Halford Lane, Smethwick.
AN AMAZING HISTORY
As related elsewhere it is truly astonishing to discover just how many large manufacturing companies, previously producing vehicles for example, suddenly became aircraft builders in both WW1 and WW2. Sometimes the finished products were transported by road quite a long way for final assembly and flight testing.
During WW1 in many cases the tail skid was secured to a truck, (or lorry as they were properly called in those days), and the fuselage, (sometimes with the wings somewhat precariously attached), were towed along public roads.
But of course there was nothing like the volumes of traffic we now have, and even quite modest private car types were the preserve of the well off and professional classes.
THE COUNTY?
Looking at a map of the original Counties, this area is complex to say the least, but they still exist in law, and only an Act of Parliament can change them. Which, as far as I am aware, has not happened. In the UK we have seen the creation of many 'false' administerative areas created, such as 'West Midlands'.
In this area there is a confluence of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Giving the subject a bit of thought and investigation it seems to me that this flying site is probably in Worcestershire, but I will gladly be corrected by anybody with superior knowledge.
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