‘Berkshire’s barnstormers’

One of the most mysterious things about Berkshire’s famous White Horse at Uffington is that it can only be seen effectively from the air. Even the nearest hill only offers a limited view of this evocative tribal symbol or whatever our ancestors intended it to be when they first dug it out of the grass around 3,000years ago.

Probably the very first to enjoy this now very well known aerial view were the Holmes brothers, Fred and John, and their partner in the Berkshire Aviation Company, Alan Cobham, when they first flew their Avro 504 from nearby East Hanney in 1919.

In its first year, the company carried 10,000 passengers and, although Cobham resigned after just two seasons, expansion continued and, by the Spring of 1922, over 33,000 ‘joyriders’ had been flown in Berkshire and nearby counties. A young ex-R.A.F. pilot, OP Jones, who flew with the company for a number of years, eventually became well known as the Senior Captain of Imperial Airways and B.O.A.C.

In various guises, ‘Berkshire’s barnstormers’ continued until 1928, when it was absorbed into Northern Air Transport.

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