Capel-le-Ferne
CAPEL-le-FERNE: WW1 Airship Station (also known as CAPEL and FOLKESTONE)
Note: This picture was obtained from Google Earth ©
I also need to thank the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust for tweeking the exact location.
Military users: RNAS/RAF 'Class C' Airship Station (Submarine Scout non-rigid airships)
Location: In/near Capel-le-Ferne village, on the ‘old’ A20, about 2nm NE of Folkestone town centre
Period of operation: 1915 to 1920
Site area: 124 acres 878 x 713 grass
NOTES: Writing the foreword to “An Aeronautical History of the Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway Region”, 1915 to 1930, by Peter Connon - Air Marshall Sir Victor Goddard KCB, CBE, MA, says, “being the most junior Midshipman of the lot my first airship was S.S.12 at Capel, near Dover”
It appears that for most of the time at least CAPEL had eight airships on charge. This said, CAPEL had three mooring-out Stations, at GODMERSHAM PARK, WITTERSHAM and Boulogne in France.
The main duties of these airships were two-fold it seems. Convoy escort and anti-German U-boat patrols. There is now quite a lot of information available on the inter-web, and very worthwhile reading it is too.
A RATHER FAMOUS VISIT
Location: Just N of the A20, (now the B2011), roughly 2.5nm NE of Folkestone town centre
During his tour of mainland Britain in 1929, named by Sir Alan Cobham as his Municipal Aerodrome Campaign, this was his 73rd venue, where he stayed for two days, the 5th and 6th September. He actually used a field just to the east of the WW1 Airship Station, sometimes referred to as an aerodrome, but as far as I am aware, never used by fixed wing aircraft?
Lasting from May to October, the original plan was to visit 107 venues - mostly in England but with two in South Wales and eight in Scotland. Due to a couple of crashes and other setbacks, he nevertheless managed to visit 96 venues - still a magnificent achievement. The aeroplane he mostly used was the ten-seater de Havilland DH61 'Giant Moth' G-AAEV, named 'Youth of Britain'.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
The second item was published in the Dover Express on the 6th September 1929. Note, in the third item, the name of the Silver Queen bus company on the airship hangar.
The fourth and sixth items, newspaper articles, were published in the Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald on the 7th September 1929.
The eighth item, the photo, was also published in the Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald on the 7th September 1929.
The fourth item above, the newspaper article, mentions that Sir Alan took seventy-seven schoolchildren and seven masters for a flight over his two day visit. The costs for doing these being met by an anonymous donor. We now know this was Lord Wakefield of Castrol Oil fame, and he had told Cobham that he would meet the costs of taking 10,000 schoolchildren for flights during his campaign.
Michael Holder
This comment was written on: 2020-06-22 14:49:37From the Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald - Saturday 27 May 1933: Sir Alan Cobham's National Aviation Day for Folkestone and Dover on Sunday 21 May 1933 at the old Capel Aerodrome, was favoured by excellent weather and thousands of spectators who came by all means of transport and from all round the area.
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