Cheshire Coppice
CHESHIRE COPPICE: Temporary aerodrome
Operated by: Captain Brettell
Location: WNW of Admaston village, about 2nm NW of Wellington town centre
Period of operation: 11th to 13th Setember 1920
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Here once again we have Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for discovering this little known venue and providing the following items to illustrate the listing. We do not know the exact field used so if anybody can kindly offer advice, this will be much appreciated. The main point of this 'Guide' being to record the known existence of a location that was once used as a flying venue.
The advert was placed in the Wellington Journal on the 11th September 1920. We are sorry it is quite blurred but the original in the archive was even more so!
Regarding the Google Street View, as mentioned above we do not know which field was actually used, but this looks likely? Mainly because the lane leading to CHESHIRE COPPICE, (which can easily be seen on the 1947 aerial photo above), would have been very convenient for the public to use.
The article about the court case appeared in the Gloucestershire Echo on the 7th May 1920. It is included here to illustrate that most if not nearly all of the people setting up in the joy-riding business after the Great War were ex-military and having little if any expertise in running a business. Obviously we have no idea about the circumstances surrounding this case, but one guess might have been that somebody suggested that employing an apprentice was a 'nice little earner'?
However, as we can now easily imagine, the practicalities involved in doing so, with an operation almost constantly on the move, would have been far from ideal and probably more of a hindrance than a benefit.
The local area view is from my Google Earth© derived database.
NOTES: We do not know the identity of the aircraft Capt. Brettell used at this venue. But, Mike has discovered that the Avro 504K, G-EARP, was registered in 1920 to the Pudney, Brettell, Owen Company, so this looks a likely possibility? After WW1 the Avro 504K, and to a lesser extent the 504N, were by far the favourite types used for joy-riding as they could be easily and relatively cheaply converted to carry two passengers. Indeed, the Avro company themselves had quite a lucrative trade going both for their own joy-riding operations, plus offering them on the open market to competitors.
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