PORT Meadow was once suggested as the site for a civilian airport for Oxford.

During the First World War, part of the historic meadow was transformed into a military aerodrome for training members of the Royal Flying Corps.

Every morning before planes could take off and land safely, livestock grazing there had to be moved away.

The aerodrome remained in place well after the war – the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII, landed there in June 1933 when he visited the city to open the rebuilt Wingfield-Morris Hospital, now the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.

Two years earlier, Captain Charles Barnard had organised his ‘Flying Circus’ at Port Meadow, a show featuring famous and unusual aircraft.

Oxford Mail:

  • Paul Hornby, who suggested a ceremony to mark 100 years since two members of the Royal Flying Corps were killed in Oxford in 1912, at the site of the plaque at Airmen’s Bridge.

Afterwards, the Oxford Journal Illustrated newspaper came out strongly in support of creating a fully-fledged airport.

It said: “In a few years, a city without an aerodrome will be cut off from one of the greatest transport services of the country, and it is important that Oxford should not lose sight of this future need.

“In Port Meadow, we have a natural aerodrome which impresses every visiting pilot by its excellence, and the city is exceptionally fortunate in the fact that this fine site is already civic property.

“The one great obstacle to its development as an aerodrome is, of course, its liability to occasional floods – an obstacle so difficult to overcome that it should be considered by the local authorities without delay.”

Research by two historians, Peter Smith and Peter Wright, shows the military airfield had seven hangars and many tents. Pilots learned to fly there and practised bombing with bags of flour.

During the First World War, 15 air crew and pilots were killed either flying from Port Meadow or close by.

In a letter home to his father, Second Lieutenant Patrick Sarsfield Manley recalled witnessing one crash which killed both men.

Some of the men who lost their lives are buried at Wolvercote Cemetery.

A plaque on Airmen’s Bridge, near the Trout Inn at Godstow, marks the first crash involving the aerodrome, on September 10, 1912.

A Bristol military monoplane due to land at Port Meadow came down after a wire came loose and tore a hole in the starboard wing, killing the pilot, Lieutenant Claude Bettington, 30, and his observer, Second Lieutenant Edward Hotchkiss, 28.

Mourners joined a procession through the city and more than 2,000 people contributed towards the plaque, which was unveiled in 1913.

In September 2012, after a suggestion by Jericho resident Paul Hornby, Wolvercote Local History Society organised a wreath-laying ceremony attended by about 100 people to remember the two airmen.

A bugler sounded The Last Post and an exhibition about the crash was held at The Trout Inn.

  • Mr Smith and Mr Wright are keen to hear from readers with photographs or information about flying at Port Meadow, particularly from 1920. Call 01865 728883 or email g.smith240@btinternet.com
  • Next week – Flying circus at Port Meadow.

​Memory Lane this week