Stapleford Tawney Airfield before WWII

I had intended to write about one Essex airfield near to the High Country but was diverted onto another, literally but not physically! Of the two, only one of these is still in operation and neither of them is at North Weald.

Edward Hillman

The airstrip at Stapleford Tawney has an interesting history. The early days of the airfield were closely connected with a man called Edward Hillman. Hillman was one of the early entrepreneurs involved in air travel within the United Kingdom. Edward Hillman was born in Croydon in 1889. He started on the buses, purchasing his first bus in 1928. He drove the bus himself on his first commercial route in December of that year between Stratford and Brentwood. By the end of the following year, the route was extended to Colchester calling at Chelmsford on the way.

Services were tailored to customer needs, and through his success Hillman was able to expand his fleet of coaches from 18 in March 1930, to 57 by December of that year. The service now ran to (wider) East Anglian destinations including Ipswich, Great Yarmouth, Clacton and Norwich. As an indication of the quality of the service the single journey from Stratford to Chelmsford took 90 minutes at a fare of two shillings, but sixpence was discounted for the return fare.

Hillman was quick to realise the opportunity to link his coach business with the developing commercial air transport activity. After purchasing two aircraft, Puss Moths, Hillman took over the licence of Maylands aerodrome from its former licensee in November 1931. His initial charter business was transformed into an air taxi operation, offering greater convenience, as a matter of course. Trips from Hillman’s Aerodrome, as it was now known, flew from 8 am until dusk. Long distance flights were priced at 3d. per mile, and destinations extended to Belfast, Dundee and Plymouth. You were invited to; “Meet your friends and watch the flying over a Cup of Tea” and the advertising included “All Refreshments at Popular Prices.” You could; “Drive your car onto the Ground where it will be safe whilst you are taking Refreshments or in the Air, or travel by our Coaches direct to the Ground.”

In 1932, and one can be amazed at the pace that Hillman generated, he instigated an Aviation Display on 24 September 1932. The attractions included the flight of the Lord Mayor of London to the display, and an air race for the Hillman Trophy. The publicity that was created for Hillman was invaluable and his first service to Paris was introduced in April 1933.

The period of rapid and seemingly unfettered growth was to be checked. The bus routes had been under threat from acquisition by the London Passenger Transport Board, who had taken over the majority of the road transport side of the business. The final 28 coaches (from a peak of 116!) were sold to Eastern National in 1934, and Hillman could now devote himself and his growing investment to his commercial air business.

Essex Airport, Stapleford Tawney

He was to move from Maylands, having been squeezed by the need to run larger aircraft and the restrictions placed on his operation because of the size of the aerodrome. He bought some land at Stapleford Tawney and opened the Essex Airport there on 23 June 1934. Advertising ran as follows:

ESSEX AIRPORT
Stapleford, near Abridge, Essex
Telephone – Stapleford 291 (10 lines)
Open Day and Night

The Essex Airport is situated on the main road between Abridge and Passingford Bridge, and is a forty minute run by road from King’s Cross.

All Hotel facilities are available at the Airport, and our own Express Coach service operates between King’s Cross Coaching Station and the Airport in connection with the arrival and departure of all Air Liners.

Private Charters are carried out from 5/- upwards, and machines are available day or night.

The Essex Airport has fully equipped workshops, and private owners can have their machines cleaned, housed or repaired at any time of the day or night, and complete C. of A’s are undertaken. A free Car Park is also provided.

In order to avoid delay passengers passing through Customs are requested not to leave the Customs Office until all the necessary formalities are completed.

Note that the phone has ten lines, the airport is just forty minutes from King’s Cross, and car parking is free. How flying has changed!

Two Accidents

The early days at the Essex Airport saw a further strengthening of Hillman’s commercial air business. The General Post Office awarded Hillman an airmail contract, which enabled him to fly to Glasgow. However, tragedy was to visit the company. A Hillman airliner crashed on 2 October 1934 - remember this was would have been only about six years from the purchase of his first bus. The plane, an 89 Dragon Rapide, crashed into the sea four miles off the coast at Folkestone and the pilot and six passengers perished. Lack of navigational skills by the pilot was stated to be the official cause of the accident. Two months later, on the 31 December 1934, Edward Hillman died at the age of forty-five.

On 21 February 1935, a further catastrophe befell the airline. Two American girls, the only passengers, apparently fell out of one of Hillman’s planes. They were the daughters of Coert Du Bois, the American Consul in Naples, Jane and Elizabeth, aged 20 and 23. The inquest was held on 25 February and considered the two bodies, lying close together on the ground in Upminster, and the deserted items found in the cabin - a lady’s shoe, a whisky bottle and sealed letters address to Mr and Mrs Du Bois. It was a celebrated accident, and there had already been considerable speculation in the press about the deaths of two apparently wealthy, high-living young girls. The deaths of two Air Force officers, who had died in a flying-boat disaster in Sicily on 15 February 1935, with whom the girls were believed to have formed close attachments, were thought to be connected and to have resulted in severe depression within the girls that might have culminated in the suicide of the girls “whilst the balance of their mind was disturbed”.

The passenger door of the aircraft was insecure and it was likely that the weight of both girls would have been necessary to force the door open against the slipstream of the aircraft. Suggestions were made that to avoid such accidents in the future; either a central locking system should be installed, or a flight attendant would be required to close the door. Shortly after, the board of Hillman Airways was to change and the pilot involved in the incident, Joe Kirton, left the company, hastened by an unrelated incident a week before the accident when a cargo of gold bullion was lost from the same aircraft.

Decline

In September 1935, plans were being worked out to merge United Airways and Spartan Airways with Hillman Airways, to form a new company, Allied British Airways which later the following month became known as British Airways. Hillman was dead and his airline had ceased to exist but, through Edward Hillman, Stapleford Tawney had formed an important chapter in the development of a national airline.

Stapleford Tawney airfield had seen the rapid expansion of a charter and taxi service into an airfield with international destinations. The period contrasts dramatically with the post-war years and the development of the de Havilland Comet just twenty years away. The controversy regarding the siting of the Third London Airport in the early 1970s, and the furore over the expansion of the resulting airport at Stansted, contrast markedly with the less dramatic, faster moving but considerably less regulated business growth at Stapleford Tawney in the mid-1930s.