Tor Clawdd
TOR CLAWDD: Private airstrip
The initial information came from an article, 'Sky high above Mawr', published by Mr Ioan M Richard which he kindly sent to me.
My reaction being to refer this to Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', and with knowledge of both this region and the Welsh language. Part of the answer, which in November 2021 is still underway, is as follows:
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The second item, a newspaper article, was published in the Western Mail and South Wales News on the 8th October 1936.
Note: The picture of the Flying Flea was published in the Western Mail and South Wales News, also on the 8th October 1936.
Note: The last picture, the area view, has been added from my Google Earth © database.
Location: Just N of Rhyd-y-Gwin, roughly 7nm N of Swansea city centre
Period of operation: 1930s only?
NOTES: It appears that Mr Grendall Williams, who was also a pilot owning his own aircraft, built a bungalow here, (and presumably a hangar?), and laid out an airstrip. He seems he had several visitors, including one arriving in a twin-engine type.
Has to be said, not an ideal location, on top of a hill given the often likely quite strong winds. It seems that, having heard of Mr James Hill and his friend Mr Glyn John, having built a Mignet 'Flying Flea', he gave them access to assemble and test fly it here.
ANOTHER ASPECT OF THIS SITE
In the ninth picture there can be seen 'lines' spread across the southern area. Mr Graham Frost, another great friend of this 'Guide', tells us that these are part of a anti-glider defensive system constructed in 1940 across the whole of this area when fears of an invasion were at their height following the retreat from Dunkirk.
It was all a nonsense of course, any German glider tugs flying this far would have been easily shot down long before getting this far. And indeed, as Churchill and the senior staff knew, it wasn't going to happen. Hitler, who knew nothing of military strategy, had had the idea of invading the British Isles, and did indeed insist that a start should be made, which it was, until he was persuaded that the project was unattainable. The British defences, in the air, on the ground and on the sea, were impregnable.
So, he decided to invade Russia, (Soviet Union), instead. And we all know how well that strategy went.
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