Old film including Whitfield airfield and Harriet Quimby 1912
- 11 July 2010 14:0159957Here is a wonderful Pathe compilation of old films, put together and entitled The Emancipation of Women.
...... in the middle of which is included a brief film of Harriet Quimby the first woman to fly across the Channel in 1912
TAKING OFF FROM WHITFIELD AIRFIELD.
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=78523
this is a fascinating film, transport, costumes, etc.! Films included date from 1890 to 1930, mostly between 1900 and the first war,
INCLUDES: London, rise of the suffragette movement, what women had to put up with, coal mine work etc, Buckingham Palace, London, yarmouth, hastings, start of the first war and what women took on as 'men's jobs'. Making ammunition, and labouring jobs. Also 1915 day nurseries for children of munition workers - fascinating. Do have a look if you have time! It makes you think!
Kath---------------------------------------------------
Lincolnshire Born and Bred - 11 July 2010 14:4059961Very interesting compilation of old film there Kath, which I`ve just watched from beginning to end. Not sure if you were just dealing with the Whitfield airfield piece, or the suffragette movement as well, or both. What interested me more were women`s right`s in the early part of the last century, and I have posted a number of comment`s on here of women scientist`s with very important discoveries on a number of occasions, but being put down by the arrogance of the the male species that they knew better. As it so often turned out, they didn`t, and thankfully those female scientist`s are recognised today for their important discoveries.Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
- 11 July 2010 16:5859968No Colin, but I drew particular attention to the Whitfield airfield take-off in 1912 which is on the film.
I did find all the rest of it compelling watching, how our grandparents and gt-grandparents lived, their jobs, clothing and attitudes especially to women.
I shall watch it again and perhaps be able to absorb more of it later !
K.---------------------------------------------------
Lincolnshire Born and Bred - 11 July 2010 19:3959997Seems a little odd to think that we celebrate the first man to fly across the Channel, but not a thought for the first woman.
Not many people have heard of Harriet Quimby - a big shame really.
Roger - 11 July 2010 23:3560041Interesting to see the intrepid Ms Quimby needed the knee of a bloke to get into her flying machine.
Anyhow, I stopped the video and extracted this picture of the Whitfield airfield:
- 12 July 2010 03:4560043Be interesting to know what that building is there. Looks like a large house. Can`t think that it would have been demolished over the year`s, even with the development of Whitfield. Well done Sid.Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
- 12 July 2010 13:3260077Whitfield airfield (which didn't exist for every long) was somewhere vaguely 'behind the Archer pub'. Bob says this (above picture inserted by Sid) - the house seems to appear in several old photographs of aircraft there in the early 1900s.
The centenary of Harriet Quimby's flight WILL be celebrated in 1012!
Pioneers include:
2009 the Bleriot flight was celebrated;
2010 This year saw the centenaries of
de Lesseps (celebrated by two replicas flying over to Waldershare airstrip in May),
Rolls centenary (two-way flight) in June, which was celebrated in Dover,
and on Aug 21 this year at Tilmanstone village hall there will be a (small) aircraft exhibition to celebrate the FIRST PASSENGER FLIGHT over the Channel by John Moisant
on 17 Aug 1910, when he landed at Telegraph Farm, Tilmanstone. (More about that later).
Harriet Quimby's flight centenary will be in the spring of 2012.
Giacinta Bradley Koontz of Arizona 86301 USA contacted me after seeing the Bleriot section on the Dover Society website.
She is a researcher of pioneer aviators, and has written books, especially about Harriet Quimby.
Email: aviatrix@earthlink.net
Look at Giacinta's website:
http://www.harrietquimby.org/
Giacinta is hoping to organise some special event in Dover or Whitfield to mark the centenary and celebrate pioneering women aviators.
She would like some sort of plaque to be installed perhaps near to the Bleriot memorial, which Harriet visited before her Channel flight.
Harriet, like many of the aviation pioneers, lost her life flying. Her Channel flight was in the Spring of 1912,
quote from Harriet's account of the flight (she was a journalist): 'So I arranged to have the Bleriot monoplane shipped across to Dover at once and wired the Mirror to have its photographers and reporters meet me at the Hotel Lord Warden, at Dover. It was vitally important that nothing should be known of my contemplated journey, so the machine was shipped very secretly to the aerodrome on Dover heights, about three miles back from the channel, a fine, smooth ground from which to make a good start.
(The Aerodrome referred to was of course Whitfield airfield)
Harriet died on 1 July 1912 in a flying accident.
Kath---------------------------------------------------
Lincolnshire Born and Bred - 12 July 2010 19:5960142Kath, 1012?
Are we inviting King Swein I - Forkbeard to the proceedings? (Note for Marek/Alexander - King Swein, grandfather of Harold was of Polish decent). Or, do we mean 2012, if so, I might be able to attend.
- 13 July 2010 11:3460205Just a slip of the tongue. My fingers got mixed up! Should have been 2012 !!! Yes indeed.
K.---------------------------------------------------
Lincolnshire Born and Bred - 13 July 2010 19:0260274Here is a photo taken at Whitfield airfield,
of an Air Pageant, in the early 1900s.
Kath---------------------------------------------------
Lincolnshire Born and Bred - 13 July 2010 23:1160314Amazing picture Kath, if only because the assembled crowd appear to be watching a young lad doing a head-stand!!
- 13 July 2010 23:4860315That last photo is actually from 1934. It shows aeroplanes of the 'Sky Devils Air Circus' landed at Whitfield. The Air Circus was a touring display of aerobatics that toured Britain to raise money for British Hospitals. The act was an afternoon of amazing aerial displays many of which would be unthinkable today. For example, in addition to aerobatics and parachuting, one display took place with the machines literally tethered together and another had the pilot try and burst balloons released by the public with his propellor. Another display had a plane turn on itself and try and slice it's own streaming bannner, and best of all, another was a marksmanship contest in which the pilot would try and shoot bottles on the ground with a revolver. Health and safety would have a field day.
For the technically minded their planes were a mix of Lynx Tutors, Miles Hawks, Lynx Avro 504 Ns and an Argosy Liner that took passengers up for a tour. - 14 July 2010 15:4260347Thanks for this detail, Phil, - sorry I didn't put any details on, we did not know about the parachuting.
Photo was taken from a glass plate negative.
Kath---------------------------------------------------
Lincolnshire Born and Bred - 15 July 2010 11:2060435Kath,
The parachuting was item 20 on the programme and the last. Unlike the mass jumps we are so used to seeing these days, the Sky Devils jump was a single person who lept out his Avro at height. Of course back then parachutes were barely steerable, so there were no guarantees where he would end up! Photos of the 1934 programme for you:
- 15 July 2010 14:0060441well spotted in post 11 sid.
let's hope the crowd were generous to him.
