Oldest Aviation Related Memorial in the UK

Paul

Are you looking for the actual memorial [stone/monument/grave etc] or a plaque etc relating to early aviators

I snapped this one of a plaque on a house relating to Edith Maud Cook in Ipswich

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Still perhaps not whatyou are looking for Paul but this stone 'memorial' is to be found to aviator Amelia Earhart at Burry Port in Carmarthenshire, this is the spot where she landed in crossing the Atlantic. There is a pub nearby with a sign commemorating her as well

My mum's cousin found what I believe was a stone with a date (some time in 1912) etched into it along with an inscription which went something like 'flying machine flew over'.

It was in a barn, I know the family still have it but haven't actually seen it myself.

Clearly the farmer at the time wanted to record what at the time was probably a rare sighting in Cheshire.

I recall seeing a memorial stone in the sea wall at Clacton [near to the Old Butlins Fairground/Holiday Camp] of where Winston Churchill ditched in the sea, I seem to remember this date as the early 1910's

Not sure if there is a memorial but certainly Chard in Somerset is known as the birthplace of powered flight in the UK and of course we are talking long before the Wright Brothers were a twinkle in their dads eye. In 1848 John Stringfellow demonstrated that powered flight was possible. He is buried in Chard and I believe that his headstone does state his achievement. Not sure if you class this as a memorial or not.

There is the Bleriot memorial near Dover Castle, probably one of the most unloved and overlooked memorials, but then I guess this is just an expression of how we feel about the French!

Also the Schneider Trophy weather vane at Weymouth which used to be on the roof of Weymouth College and is now in the public gardens overlooking the seafront. Not the oldest memorial but my personal favourite.

I am sure Mr. Francis will know but I seem to remember a plaque on a hangar/shed at RAF Leuchars stating something along the lines of the oldest military hangar/shed in the UK? Although there is a similar plaque at Larkhill so not sure which one can lay claim to being the oldest.

Isn't there a memorial at Farnborough (Laffan's Plain) commemorating Samuel F Cody's 1908 flight?

Peter H

I think this one will need some beating, 1784.

This website listing the first balloon landing in England. www.welhamgreen.com/balloonCorner.html

The second balloon landing later that same day was here at Standon Green End, Hertfordshire. Just up the road from where I live.



On this boulder a plaque has been mounted. The inscription states:

Let posterity know and knowing be astonished that on the 15th day of September 1784 Vincent Lunardi, of Luccca in Tuscany, The first aerial traveller in Britain mounting from the artillery ground in London and traversing the regions of the air for two hours and fifteen minutes. In this spot revisited the Earth on this rude monument that wondrous enterprise, successfully achieved by the power of chemistry and the fortitude of man that improvements in science which the great author of all knowledge patronising by his providence the invention of mankind, hath graciously permitted to their benefit and his own eternal glory.



This is on private land and not on a public footpath, permission must be asked before entering.

Brian.