Tag: World War I

Portholme Meadow and Early Cambridgeshire Aviation

Located between Huntingdon, Godmanchester, and Brampton Village is a low-lying meadow along the River Great Ouse. Having existed as a protected place since medieval times and known as the largest meadow in England, Portholme Meadow is treasure. The site was historically dubbed Cromwell’s Acres due to his connection with the area and the nearby presence of Hinchingbrooke House but it is Portholme Meadow’s early connections with aviation in Cambridgeshire that I want to explore. While the meadow is a wildlife paradise, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and an important part of managing flooding in the area during the winter, it is its aviation history that is an almost forgotten story and a key piece of Cambridge military history. At 104 hectares, wholly located in the Brampton Parish, the Portholme Meadow was used as a Royal Flying Corps and RAF training area during the later part of the Great War and beyond, but its connection with aviation began earlier.

In 1910, just two years after Samuel F. Cody had flown the first aeroplane in England, James Radley, an early aviation pioneer based in Bedford believed that the flat areas of the Portholme Meadow, shielded from winds, and accessible to local towns, were ideal for take-off and landing as well as demonstrating to an enthused public the wonder of flight. Having acquired a Beleriot monoplane (the French aviator had recently flown the channel and the Alps), on 19 April 1910, with almost the whole population of Huntingdon, Godmanchester, and Brampton watching, Radley took off and flew circuits of the meadow to the amazement of the local crowds.

While several flights were made, Radley’s aircraft was able to complete a 16.5 mile circuit of the meadow at an altitude of 40 feet in just under 24 minutes – just over 41 miles per hour.

After this success, a workshop was aquired in Huntingdon, on St. Johns street, and James began to assemble his aircraft along with his partner Will Morehouse. Their company, Portholme Aerodrome Ltd. was founded and the first locally produced aeroplane was flown on 27 July 1911 from the meadow.  

Despite local enthusiasm, Radley and Moorehouse’s business venture was not a succes. Their debts mounted and they were unable to produce a commercially viable aircraft. In 1912, they sold Portholme Aerodrome Ltd. to Handly Page which also struggled to maintain profitable aircraft production in Huntingdon. However, flying did continue in Portholme Meadow up until the Great War, largely for practice and demonstrations for the public. When the Great War began, the admiralty awarded Handly Page a license to produce 20 Wight Seaplanes for the Royal Navy, but this contract was canceled in 1916 after only four aeroplanes were produced due to issues with the construction. Consummed with debt and the war over, Portholme Aerodrome Ltd. went into receivership in July 1922.

However, it was later in the Great War that the Royal Flying Corps, which became the RAF in April 1918, used the meadow for flight training, and this use would continue into the 1930s. At one point, the Portholme Meadow was considered for conversion into an airfield, but luckily this never occurred, and this beautiful and unique piece of nature was conserved. As aircraft became larger and maintenance requirements grew, the RAF moved the remaining aircraft from the grassy meadow to RAF Digby in Lincolnshire and Portholme Meadow’s brief history with aviation came to an end. 

If you would like to visit Portholme Meadow, it can be accessed from Godmanchester, Huntingdon, or Brampton but I would recommend parking at The Brampton Mill, Bromholme Lane, Huntingdon, Cambs. PE28 4NE, where the Meadow can be accessed by public footpath – and an excellent lunch or pint can be had after your visit.

Sources:

Doody, J.P., Portholme Meadow: A Celebration of Huntingdonshire’s Grassland. The Huntingdonshire Fauna and Flora Society, 60th Anniversary Report, eds., H.R. Arnold, B.P. Dickerson, K.L. Drew and P.E.G. Walker. 2008.

Hull, Patrick. 1998 – The Past of Portholme. The Godmanchester Museum Website: http://www.godmanchester.co.uk/bridge-magazine/219-1998-the-past-of-portholme

Ypres: The Menin Gate

It is a somber place, the Ypres Salient, where so many young men perished between 1914 and 1918. I have begun a series of hikes around the many battlefields, following Paul Reed’s excellent guide: “Walking Ypres”. However, my exploration of the Ypres Salient rightly begins at the Menin Gate, a memorial to the British and Commonwealth soldiers missing from the beginning of the war until 15 August 1917. It was then that 55,000 names of missing men had been reached and additional names would be recorded on other memorials around the Salient. However, for the missing from Commonwealth countries: Australia, Canada, and South Africa, all their missing from the Ypres Salient are recorded at the Menin Gate. The memorial was built in the 1920s and unveiled in July of 1927. At the unveiling of the monument, Field Marshal Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, who had led forces in the Salient during the war, most notably at Messines Ridge, famously said of those with no graves: “They are not missing, they are here.”

Originally, the gate was an opening in the 17th Century walls built by Vauban which led from the medieval market town of Ypres to the town of Menin some miles away to the east. During the war, the opening in the walls led to the front, and as the war progressed, hundreds of thousands of men would pass from the town through the destroyed portal to the trenches and dugouts which surrounded the tenuous British position in the salient. Ypres itself came under increased German shelling throughout the war and was almost completely destroyed by the armistice in 1918. Soldiers passing from Ypres through the ruined walls to the trenches were said to joke: “tell the last man through to bolt the Menin Gate.”

Beginning in July 1928, only interrupted during the German occupation during the Second World War, the Last Post Buglers’ Association has played the Last Post at 8 pm each evening under the arch of the Menin Gate. In fact, as Ypres was liberated by Polish forces in the Second World War, the ceremony was bravely resumed by local firefighters while fighting continued in the town. It is a moving ceremony and a credit to the Belgian allies of Great Britain, the citizens of Ypres, who have maintained this somber tradition for almost a hundred years. Each night, traffic is stopped and visitors stand silently as the buglers play in unison the Last Post, which echoes under the gate and among the 55,000 names of the missing. It is fitting to feel overcome by a sense of loss and tragedy at such a moment.

For more information on the Last Post Buglers’ Association, or to schedule a wreath laying at the Menin Gate, visit their website: https://www.lastpost.be/en/ceremonies/participation