Looks about right to me but i dont know if its a practical landing spot !! - Just to clarify i rang up the Golf Club and asked them about it. But they didnt know anything about a previous airfeild ?
Just found a bit of info. on the website of Bidston Golf Club which seems to reinforce my idea of the location: see my previous post with map.
Quote from Bidston Golf Club website
"The Early Years
Bidston Golf Club, founded in 1913, was an amalgamation of Golfing Societies who had previously been playing on the Wallasey Corporation Municipal Course, The Warren. A lease was secured and a nine hole course was created on the site of the present eighth to eighteenth holes. Further ground was leased in 1925 between the railway and the River Fender to provide an eighteen hole Golf Course." End quote
The piece of land acquired in 1925 is about 35 acres, between the railway & the river Fender/Birket & now contains holes 2-7. From the original reports of Bidston aerodrome, there's no indication that it survived very long after the gala opening at Easter 1920, in fact, (from the original post), "there is no record of it re-opening at Whit".
I think there's now strong evidence that this land, leased in 1925 by the Club, is the site of the airfield. Opinions please.
That is very intruiging evidence Chris, and seems to tie in with the aerodrome covering "35 acre's of land near Bidston Railway station".
However this information leaves a question in my mind, was it more towards the bidston village side of the railway station:
Quote
Bidston aerodrome, which was overlooked by Bidston Hill, covered an area of some thirty-five acres of grassland lying between Bidston railway station and the sand hills, a spot completely free from telegraph wires, trees, and other obstacles. It was within two minutes walk from the railway station, and was only a short distance from Hoylake Road, which was served by buses of Birkenhead Corporation Transport, who had promised to transport the public to the aerodrome. There are no records of the aerodrome reopening at Whit. The Bidston site would be considered for possible use during the Second World War as a site for aircraft off loaded in Birkenhead docks from ships that had transported them across the Atlantic from the USA.
It does seem to suggest to me that it may have been nearer Bidston Hill then the train station is and still very close to the train station is, maybe where the Fender flyover is nowadays, around that area and into the fields towards Bidston Village, overlooked very closely by Bidston Hill.
However, to be honest, I am inclined to prefer you're placement as to where it actually was. The docks bit from the above quote also seem's to backup this theory.
Matt; I think that the original description, part of which you quoted above, of it being "between Bidston station & the sandhills" rules out the direction of the hill or Bidston village.
Put point to call.. The aerodrome was not a Runway of tarmac it was just a Piece of gras... If you look at the map matty posted and look at where the Tesco's is go back before the steel works and look how Stright that piece of field is if Tesco's wasnt there Remember it was an Aerodrome not Airport..
This airfield started operating in April 1920. It was probably located where Bidston golf course now is. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has any information or photographs of it or who can exactly locate it.
Another airfield operated nearby in the 1930s. This was owned by E D Ward Ltd who had a garage on Leasowe Road somewhere near where Longacre Close now is. This airfield was behind the garage. E D Ward was Eric Darwent Ward who was born in Welshpool in 1900 and retired there.
@Matt; yes, I came across that too. @Soundlad; you're right, of course, about it being a grass field. What you also need to bear in mind though, is that in those days, what was needed was not a nice straight piece of land. Before the days of powerful jet aircraft, it was necessary, to achieve flying speed, to take off into the wind, so you needed a site which had room to take off in any direction. Planes also landed into the wind to minimise groundspeed at touchdown.(This is, of course, why all airfields had a windsock). In the 1939-45 war, when planes were heavier & needed a tarmac runway, the standard configuration was to have 3 runways in a triangle, 60 degrees apart.
A fly in the ointment guys..I'm reading a book at present called Wirral gleanings ,although it makes no reference to the Aerodrome it does say and there is a map from 1909 and the land where the golf course and the station are was all salt marshes .I suppose things might of changed in the eleven years before it opened but wouldn't that have been a major engineering task to drain them.. I am in the process of trying to get an appointment at the archives to do a little more research
It all makes perfect sense expressed in dollars and cents ,pound shillings and pence
Okay asking around i got a reference to a RAF Station off Leasowe Road. It wasnt a big affair it stored the barrarge balloons "Deflated Ones" in the Building. Like i say it was only small, but an RAF Station in its own rights, as it had security etc. And one of them barriers that counter balance and you send it up in the air with the minimum of effort.
There are several references to theses barrage balloon sites,there were quite a few on the Wirral ,even a couple on bidston hill.They also used to set huge oil fires close to these sites so as to dis-orientate the German bombers(slightly off thread)
It all makes perfect sense expressed in dollars and cents ,pound shillings and pence