Just received this very interesting email from Mike Holder....
Basingstoke Golf Course was established on 06 December 1907. The original 9-hole course was set up on land just to the north of the railway station. The Club thrived until WWI when it was taken over as a training airfield. The land was never used again as a playable golf course and in 1926 the club members looked for a new site to build the course.
He goes on to say "This was the site of Cobham’s 1932 tour and the venue where Mollinson turned up." It seems from Mike's research that the golf course was to the west of North Hill at approx N51.16.28/W001.04.44
So ,this is all news to me . Does anyone have any info about the use of this site during WW1?
I have also (from Flight) " BASINGSTOKE :The Dec 20th 1929 issue of Flight reported that Basingstoke Town Planning scheme included a site reserved
for a Municipal Aerodrome.The location is so far unknown.
Was this perhaps the same site - or elsewhere?
Picture (via Mike Holder , shows Mollison at the Basingstoke aerodrome.
Recent thread in Pprune (Aviation History and Nostlgia) regarding Basingstoke's airfields but this one wasn't mentioned; the thread mainly focused on the use of a strip by the AA (whose HQ is in Basingstoke) in the '60s and '70s which was south west of the station and is now a housing estate.
An AA Airfield Guide of the '20s/'30s might show this airfield.
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