Yardley Wood Road
YARDLEY WOOD ROAD: Club aerodrome, used mostly as a gliding and model flying site?
Note: Aka BILLESLEY FARM (See listing for this)
Operated by: Birmingham Aero Club
Location: E of Yardley Wood Road in King’s Heath. Today W of the A435, roughly 3.5nm S to SSE of Birmingham city centre
Period of operation: 1911 to ?
A MOST SINGULAR VISIT
We have to thank Mr Micheal T Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', for providing the following regarding a visit by Gustav Hamel making an 'exhibition of flying' on the 11th January 1913.
The article was published in The Aeroplane on the 2nd January 1913. The notice was published in the Birmingham Mail on the 10th January 1913.
To have arranged a visit by Gustav Hamel in those days must have been a major achievement for them. Hamel then being a major celebrity, what we would today describe as a super-star. Then again, I suppose, January in the middle of winter, was probably a slack period.
NOTES: It appears that by August 1911 the Birmingham Aero Club had set up their headquarters, “0n the Yardley Wood Road at King’s Heath.” At the time described as, ‘The size of the field and the absence of trees mark this ground as a spot for future aviation meetings, or as an alighting spot for aviators coming to the Midlands from the south.”
ONE AND THE SAME?
I think that this site and the BILLESLEY COMMON and BILLESLEY FARM listings are probably the same location. However, experience has taught me to be very cautious about jumping to easy conclusions. If anybody can offer advice on this, it will be much appreciated.
A FLYING CIRCUS VISIT?
Could it be that this is the BILLESLEY AERODROME, Kings Heath, Birmingham, visited by the Berkshire Aviation Company from the 11th until the 25th October 1920? See the BILLESLEY FARM listing.
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