Britannia Works Recreation Ground
BRITANNIA WORKS RECREATION GROUND: Temporary Landing Ground
Operated by: Gustav Hamel
Location: About 0.75nm ESE of Banbury town centre (Banbury Cross)
Period of operation: 1st March 1913
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
We have Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for discovering this little known venue and providing the items below.
This article was published in the Banbury Advertiser on the 16th March 1913.
The excerpt is from Old Velodromes. The local area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES: I would certainly not like to be asked just when the very first bespoke 'exhibitions of flying' by an individual pilot, with his machine, took place. And in any case, it would be almost impossible to define exactly anyway. What we certainly do know is that by 1912, some of the most famous pilots were engaged in tours, notably the Daily Mail sponsored Tour for Henri Salmet for example. Please see my article about that Tour.
As is often the case, definitions become blurred. What is the difference, especially in those days, between being very famous and a major celebrity? Perhaps very little if any? However, if you apply more modern definitions of 'celebrity', as in film and rock stars, Gustave Hamel comes into focus. Indeed, he had a coterie of young women, (not exactly 'groupies' perhaps?), who would follow him to displays around the country.
As in this case, he would often have his aircraft transported to the venue and assembled. He would then arrive and 'whow' the crowds, to greater or lesser extent depending on the conditions, then depart by train. These days of course it is hard to imagine such things happening. Thousands turning out to see an 'exhibition of flying' with just one pilot and aeroplane! It is known that at some venues during the week days, that the local council would declare a public holiday. The pilot would usually be féted with a slap up banquet too, either at the best hotel or town hall.
Sadly, Gustav Hamel was drowned on the 23rd May, aged 25, when his engine failed over the English Channel, whilst ferrying a new aircraft back from France, a Morane-Saulnier monoplane from Villacoublay near Paris. Fishermen later found a body in the sea on the 6th July off Boulogne and a few items retrieved indicate it might well have been Hamel. Perhaps understandably due to its condition, they did not attempt to retrieve the remains of body.
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