The Stray
THE STRAY: Public temporary aerodrome or Flying Ground (also known as TWO HUNDRED ACRES)
Note: These three pictures are from my Google Earth © derived database.
Operated by: 1914: Roland William Ding and Harold Blackburn
1919: Aircraft Transport & Travel
Note: Years after making this sparse entry I discovered, in his most excellent book British Commercial Aircraft, by Arthur W.J.G. Ord-Hume a photograph of the aircraft involved. It was a de Havilland DH.16 with the temporary civil marking of K-130 and seen on Whit Monday, the 9th June.
It may not be known by too many people today that after WW1 the first civilian aircraft were given a 'K' marking. Only K-100 to K-169 were registered. On the 22nd of July 1919 the International Air Navigation Convention was imposed and from then British civil aircraft bore the 'G' prefix, with four letters starting with 'E'. The second permanent register, starting with G-AAAA came about in 1928.
Location: An area of open parkland just S of Harrogate town centre, E of the A61 and S of the A6040
Period of operation: 1913 to 1919 only?
NOTES: It appears that possibly the first aeroplane to arrive on THE STRAY was the Blackburn Monoplane flown by Harold Blackburn (no relation) who had departed from Wakefield on the 22nd April 1913 to land on THE STRAY, in front of the Queen's Hotel.
Note: The excerpt is from Handley Page Aircraft since 1907 by C H Barnes. He says the aircraft used by Roland Ding was a Handley Page Type 6100.
Both of these 1914 operators undertook pleasure flights, (apparently in friendly competition), Ding with a Handley Page Type G/100, (see Note above), and Harold Blackburn with a early Avro 504. Throughout the summer of 1919 Aircraft Transport & Travel operated pleasure flights with Avro 504Ks.
As mentioned elsewhere and I make no apologies for mentioning it again – the Avro 504 design must surely deserve the title of being the ultimate British Classic aeroplane? Forget Spitfires and Lancasters, (I’d nominate the Mosquito), the ‘career’ of the Avro 504 spanned two World Wars, performing countless military duties from trainer to bomber and in between these conflicts was the mainstay of so many various civilian flying operations. A truly remarkable history that is today, sad to say, largely ignored.
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