Barnsley 1913
BARNSLEY 1913: Temporary Landing Ground
Note: The fourth Control Point for the Yorkshire Air Race
Location: Barnsley Cricket Ground on Shaw Lane, just WSW to SW of Barnsley town centre
Period of operation: 2nd October 1913
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
We have Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for researching this event and for providing the following items.
The route diagram was obtained from The Aviation Historian.
This article in three parts was published in the Leeds Mercury on the 3rd October 1913.
The excerpt is from an article published in the Yorkshire Evening Post. In effect this race, nicknamed the "War of the Roses" because the Blackburn monoplane was built in Yorkshire whereas the Avro biplane was built in Lancashire, was basically a race between a monoplane and a biplane. As was seen, the results were hardly conclusive as to which was superior, in speed at least.
It was rather disappointing that the Avro crew missed the Barnsley Control Point, landing at Dewsbury instead.As intimated, they found navigation difficult on this last stage due to the atmosphere being heavily contaminated with 'smog'. We need to remember that by this late stage in the 'industrial revolution' nigh on everything was coal powered, from major factories to home fires, and the amount of smoke being produced into the lower atmosphere was immense.
From what I have seen so far, this did not effect 'global warming'. But of course the major industrial areas at that time, both in Europe and the USA, where, on a global scale, quite limited. The effects being far less than a major volcanic eruption.
The local area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES: Since starting this project to provide a 'Guide' over twenty five years ago, (from 2024), I have been amazed by how much aviation activity had been going on before WW1. With much generous help, the quest to discover what had happened in that quite short period between 1909 and 1914 is far from complete.
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