Rushden - Flightpath

This invocation was brought about by my visit to the Shuttleworth collection in September 1977, although the race took place on April 23rd 1910 at Rushden, Northamptonshire. Suddenly at the sight of these old juggernauts, Grahame-White came into my mind. For in his early days he took a commodious house up the Bedford Road, and there for some years he lived, and enriched the local community by his aeronautic plans and his part in the development of the science of the air.

How well I remember one of his signal attempts. The bush telegraph had issued the news that an aeroplane race was to take place from London to Manchester and pass over Rushden, about 7 o'clock in the morning.

Early on the day of the scheduled race, about 6 a.m., my sisters Thirsa and Catherine, with our cook and housemaid, were on the way to Ditchford, where the hump backed bridge, which existed then, gave promise of additional height, but in reality was lower than the district of Wellingborough Road, Rushden, from which we had come. My father John Clark, my mother, and brother John Eric Clark, had made their way to the limestone quarries off the Wellingborough Road which enjoyed a little more elevation, and had a light railway going to the siding of the Rushden brickworks.

Traffic was conspicuous by its absence on our walk to Ditchford. The few horsekeepers, out at crack of dawn to feed their charges, had long since finished their work, the owners of the half dozen motor cars who existed in the township would not have been out at this time, and we walked along, a happy group in complete solitude, anticipating the great event that was to be.

But at last 7a.m. struck, we strained our ears to catch a sound, and presently we could hear it, a metallic clicking, and presently it hove into sight, like a great bird, not any height, perhaps 150 feet clearly visible, and on its way to Rushden. Many local people witnessed this event, a climax of one of our residents. At least our hopes had been rewarded and to the inquiries of "Did you see it?" we could answer a glad affirmative.

After the war of 1914-18 a movement grew to popularise the first aeroplanes in the countryside. Some enterprising spirits would hire a field, as near to a town as possible, yet as far away from buildings and houses as were deemed safe, in case of an untoward incident which meant a forced landing, with consequent chaos if the plane fell on a range of greenhouses or populated farm buildings, or even houses.

At this period, I remember being present at one of these junkettings, in the middle of a large field near Sanders' Lodge, at Rushden. There the aeroplane stood in the midst of a little knot of people. The propeller, which had to be swung by hand, was conspicuous, the open cockpit, it might be a thin shield of celluloid material was there to give scanty protection from the weather, and a set of wooden steps to give access to the entrance. For the sum of 5s.0d. one had a foretaste of the joys of 1977 and entered the select company of those who had "been up". For about 10 minutes, lives were risked by our intrepid Englishmen, and sometimes women, for my aunt Mrs. Kate Ballard my father's sister had "been up" in one in the Leeds district.

I enquired of my brother, who had a ride in a plane, which went from Stone Cross Public House, Irthlingborough, in a field near there, how many could take to the air in a flight. He said there were three seats in the cockpit, one for the pilot and the other two for passengers behind him.

It can be imagined with what delight I meditated all this at the Shuttleworth collection, and went in the hangars to view the planes, at that time resting on the cement base. Exit for the planes is at the front of each hangar, where they are wheeled out by the mechanics and taken to a beautiful and ideally situated runway, like a grass field, though the turf is perfect, and kept like a lawn, closely cut. Here on Sundays these early machines are tried and seen to go into the air without incident. The lady receptionist has not so far been taken for a ride, though I understand she has several times been threatened with a trial run. The aerodrome is in fact ideally situated in the heart of the Bedfordshire countryside, a part of the model village of Old Warden.

A few vintage cars were in the hangars along with the planes, some motor bikes and a fire engine, a relic of times long ago, but they had to yield second pride of place to such names as Bleriot, Moth and Hawker.