Winton
WINTON: Civil aerodrome (Aka ETCHES AERODROME and TALBOT VILLAGE)
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: These maps and the two adverts plus Google Earth © views were kindly provided by Mr Michael T Holder. The 1916 advert was published in Aeroplane magazine on the 5th April 1916. The last Google Earth view shows the proximity of the two aerodromes.
Operated by: Mr Frederick Etches
Flying School: Bournemouth Aviation Company
Location: On part of what is now the Bournemouth University's campus on Wallisdown Road, opposite Talbot village
Period of operation: 1915 to 1917
Note: Mike Holder discovered this picture, published in Flight magazine on the 15th June 1916
NOTES: When I started the research for what has ended up as this 'Guide' in the late 1990s, I found the history surrounding many of the flying sites in and around Bournemouth something of a nightmare. So much of it was, it seemed, virtually impossible to pin down. And indeed, a came to the conclusion many years ago that KINSON and ENSBURY aerodromes surely had to be one and the same.
THE PICTURE UNRAVELLED
In May 2017, my sister who lived in Broadstone near Poole, (DORSET), announced that she had found an article in Dorset Life magazine which might be of interest. Please imagine my delight when, upon reading the article by Lorraine Gibson, almost everything suddenly became clear. It was like opening closed shutters onto a bright sunlit morning, and I shall quote various excerpts, the first being the initial foray into aviation in this region by the Yorkshireman Frederick Etches.
"Etches, who lived at Edgehill Road in Winton and was a pioneering pilot with his own Monsanto-G aircraft, had harboured ambitions of the aviatory kind for the town as far back as 1915, when he leased a couple of fields on what is now Bournemouth University's campus on Wallisdown Road, opposite Talbot village." Note: I have never heard of the Monsanto-G type of aircraft, and indeed some research reveals nothing known. Can anybody kindly offer advice?
"Here he set up the Bournemouth Aviation Company, a flying school which trained pilots prior to entry into the Royal Flying Corps, later to become the RAF. From here he also masterminded the first plane landing in Poole to raise funds for Poole Soldier's Home and Cornelia Hospital, a haven for war casualties named after its benefactress, Lady Cornelia Spencer-Churchill." Brilliant - yet another notable flying site to add to this 'Guide'.
"His school thrived, with some of the world's leading lights in aviation, including Sir Alan Cobham, going through their paces here, until in 1917 it transferred to an 88-acre site at Ensbury Park, roughly covering the area around Hillview Road and Redhill Drive."
Vicky Burrows
This comment was written on: 2018-08-05 20:26:19Fredrick is my great great grandfather and I heard from my father that he was one of the first pilots in the country. We did have his pilot licence but someone came to my father fredrick smith and took it away to put in a museum I would love to find it or even seenit
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