Stourton
STOURTON: Forced landing site
Note: This picture was obtained from Google Earth ©
Location: W of the B3092, about 2nm N of ZEALS
NOTES: On the 14th April 1914 Captain C Grenville-Gould, (some accounts delete the hyphen), planned a rather daring trip from NETHERAVON to visit his family in Barnstaple. Apparently landing at MR COPPS FIELD (DEVON)….(this listing contains most of the details). It appears he made three ‘display’ flights in the Barnstaple area before departing back for NETHERAVON making refuelling stop at SOMERTON in SOMERSET.
He misjudged his return to NETHERAVON and, with darkness falling, was forced down in/near STOURTON. Flight planning was of course in it’s infancy in those days.
It is purely conjecture on my part, but might he have chosen to land at Stourhead (STOURTON) deliberately? In those days miitary pilots especially were officers, and invariably from the aristocracy, or landed gentry - so therefore well connected. Landing here in a Maurice Farman type would not be a problem even today, and presumably he would have been well looked after. Having a then famous father, the cartoonist Francis Carruthers Gould, was presumably another advantage too.
There are many accounts of military pilots 'popping in' for visits to large country houses, so there would have been nothing unusual about this.
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