Hamsey Green Airfield And The Flying Gardners

Hamsey Green Airfield was a private airfield owned by the Gardner family and open from 1933 to 1953. A list of aircraft based there at various times:

G-AATE Blackburn Bluebird – stored at Hamsey Green 1939/46. Scrapped c.1947.
G-ABTC Comper Swift – Charles Gardner 1935/38. Still exists.
G-ABYC Avro Cadet – Yardley Cosmetics 1932/33.
G-ACHL Miles Hawk – Southern Aircraft & Motors.
G-ACIC GAL Monospar – Richard Gardner 1934.
G-ACGO Percival Gull Four – C.T.F. Aviation 1938/39.
G-ACGP Percival Gull Four – Richard Gardner 1939.
G-ACRJ Leopard Moth – Richard Gardner 1934.
G-ADFA Percival Gull – Charles Gardner 1934/35.
G-ADDB BA Swallow – Southern Aircraft and Motors 1938/39.
G-ADFY DH Rapide – Charles Gardner 1935/36. Sold to Spain.
G-ADID BA Eagle – Charles Gardner 1938.
G-AEDW DH Dragonfly – HB Legge & Sons 1936/38.
G-AEJS BAC Drone – The Drone Syndicate – 1946/47. Last aircraft at Hamsey Green.
G-AEKL Percival Mew Gull – Charles Gardner 1936/38. Destroyed Lympne 1940.
G-AENY Beechcraft 17 – Charles Gardner 1936/37. Sold to Spain.
G-AEPX Taylor Experimental – Richard Taylor – Crashed January 1937.
G-AESJ Beechcraft 17 – Charles Gardner 1939 – Sold to Sidney Cotton.
G-AEUY Miles Whitney Straight – Richard Gardner 1936.
G-AFBW Percival Vega Gull – Jimmy Gardner 1937/39. Stolen.
G-AFFE Percival Q6 – HB Legge & Sons 1938/39.
G-AFFH Piper J2 Cub – Jimmy Gardner 1938/39. Still exists.
G-AFHC BA Swallow – Peter Mursell 1938/43. Still exists.
G-AFIT Percival Vega Gull – Jimmy Gardner 1938/39
G-AFKY Gipsy Moth – Southern Aircraft & Motors 1938.

Music: ‘Honeysuckle’ by Honeyroot
Maps: National Library Of Scotland
Photos: Air-Britain and others. Contact me if you want a specific credit added to the description.

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Hamy green is a village in Su strung along the b269 road between sanderstead and warlingham during the middle of the last century it was home to a busy private Airfield and our story starts in 1933 on April the 29th and 30th of that year Alan Cam’s National Aviation day

Display team came to hamy Green this photograph of the fleet of aircraft was probably taken on April the 30th as they departed hamy green the road running diagonally across the photograph is the b269 towards warlingham the south end of the land used as a temporary Aerodrome is in the foreground Cam’s team erected

A screen of sackcloth and poles around the perimeter of the field to discourage hedge KS from enjoying a free display these delightful images of the team’s havin Fox moth used for joy riding were taken over warlingham the same weekend a month later in May 1933 Richard Exton Garder who with his family

Lived at Overhill in warlingham a couple of miles south of hamy green purchased several fields from hamy Green Farm The Garden of family had owned yardly cosmetics and after public flotation in 1920 remained majority shareholder Richard Gardner did not fly but his two sons did Charles the Elder

Son learned to fly in a moth at s flying services with cin in 1931 the younger son Richard learned to fly at hamell in 1933 to avoid confusion with his father Richard Jr was generally known as Jimmy I shall do likewise for this Film The Field used by the National Aviation day displayed team in 1933 was to the west of the b269 the land purchased by The Gardener family was to the east the Airfield had no marked runways and could be used in most directions depending on wind conditions The Hanger as marked was

Actually two hangers with large semicircular concrete aprons to the west and south the housing developments marked to the west of the Airfield were of little consequence not being completed until the 1950s only hamsy green Gardens was complet Ed before the second world war as soon as the aerodrone was

Completed then several aircraft moved in the gardeners owned many aircraft between them over the coming years but early residents included this monpa which Charles Garder flew in the 1934 kings cup air race Jimmy bought this leopard moth later sold to India and Charles bought the first of several

Personal gulls to be based at hamy Green in 1935 Charles Gardner bought this comper Swift using it for the regular commute between hamy green and Rochester airport where he worked as an engineer for pobjoy air Motors and short Brothers in January 1936 accompanied by his school friend Peter Marcel Charles

Flew a short s from England to Delhi to take part in the vice Roy cup air race they came a credible sixth place and arrived back in England in march 1936 having encountered no problems whatsoever pobjoy air Motors had to issue a correction to their advertisement due to to a preing Oversight for a short while a dragon red lived at hamy Green but it was sold to Spanish nationalists in the summer of 1936 in July of the same year Charles accompanied by jarles Guthrie won the king’s cup air race in sir conip guth’s persful Vaga gal at an average speed of 164

Mph having bought the ex Tom C Campell black personal mugal Charles food to Victory again in 1937 this time at an average speed of 233 mph it was his last and fastest air race Victory January 1937 saw the only fatal accident at hamy Green Richard Taylor an engineer from sbon had rented hanger

Space to assemble his Taylor experimental monoplane powered by a 50 horsepower rear engine it was of lightweight Construction rather too lightweight moments after this Photograph was taken the port wi collapsed and the aircraft plunged to the ground killing Taylor the coroner recorded a verdict of accidental

Death in the early morning of June the 28th 1938 a peral Vega Gull crashed whilst taking off from hamy Green it wasn’t as the Press erroneously reported the 1936 King’s Cup a race winning machine but a near identical airplane that Jimmy had bought new from peral previous October the feeds were two RAF

Apprentices from hton aged 18 and 16 respectively their aim was to fly to Spain to join the nationalists in the Civil War but having broken into the hanger they realized there wasn’t enough fuel a local garage owner was pressed into providing 60 gallons of petrol unaware of the true situation he then

Helped the boys push the aircraft outside and refuel it they managed after a lot of trying to get the engine running and with the 16-year-old boy at the controls headed off towards Spain they flew but briefly their flight finishing in a hedge no doubt they got a

Damn good telling off but punishment was Minimal a couple of months later and Jimmy was up against the local bench the charge was excessive use of the accelerator pedal an enthusiastic motorist in February 1937 Jimmy had bought himself a type 57 Bugatti he liked the car tremendously keeping it until 1976 in the spring of 1938 Jimmy bought

A Taylor cub and in the summer of that year Charles took it on an adventure first stop was hble Aerodrome on Southampton water the aircraft was transferred to the adjacent slipway landing gear removed and a pair of Ido floats fitted after a couple of solo

Test flights just to get the hang of the thing Charles again accompanied by Peter Mel headed west they planned on landing and refueling at Waymouth but a stiff onshore breeze meant the sea was too rough instead Charles elected to land on the East Fleet freshwater lake behind chazel beach after borrowing a bicycle

To ride to the nearest garage and arrange some fuel they continued westbound to their first overnight stop at sulum on leaving sulum they flew over the wreck of the herin Cil beached the previous year in Star hle Bay the next fuel stop was at l pool near Helston

Where a passing motorist helped them retain fuel they flew as far west as St Michael’s Mount and having rounded the island headed east once again further stops were made at St Moos Plymouth and torcross most conveniently the torcross hotel at the south end of slapton Lake

Had a petrol pump after a final fuel stop in Paul Harbor they flew triumphantly around the needles raced two motorboats across the solent and returned to hell it might only have been a trip from Hampshire to coren back but with two people in a 40 horsepower overloaded sea plane it was quite an

Achievement Peter Marcel wrote an account of the trip published in Flight magazine January the 5th 1939 he noted they were planning Further Adventures on floats possibly to Scotland or Norway but it never happened In May 1939 Jimmy joined the Royal Naval volunteer Reserve commissioned in September he gained his wings in early 1940 after operational training he became one of 56 Fleet aarm Pilots transferred to the Royal air force during the Battle of Britain Jimmy complete with Bugatti and matchless motorcycle joined 242 Squadron under

Douglas bar with whom he got along with very well as be fits and naval officer Jimmy’s Hurrican was decorated with a Nelson’s famous signal to the fleet before the Battle of Trafalga England expects that every man will do his duty Jimmy certainly did his duty he flew operationally until

1943 and then as a fighter instructor laterally Chief fighter instructor at the school of Naval Warfare at St Marin in Cornwall he retired from the Navy in 1946 Richard Gardner senior had died in 193 9 and Jimmy and Charles have both become directors of yardly Cosmetics Jimmy eventually becoming managing

Director and chairman neither brother returned to hamy green after the war instead they took up powerboat racing culminating in the winning the cows T cows race in 1967 in their twin V8 motorboat surf Fury Charles Gardner died in 1998 and his younger brother Jimmy died a year later in 1999 hamy green Airfield was used by the air training Corp who continued gliding throughout the Second World War this aerial photograph is from 1944 it clearly shows marks in the grass from Towing and flying gliders it also shows the buildings and concrete aprons by The Hanger a Blackburn Bluebird was stored in the hangers throughout the second world war it was taken away 1946 and

Scrapped the last aircraft a BAC drone flew away in 1947 the air training core moved out in 1953 and the Airfield closed the hangers were used as a Hast store until they burnt down in 1975 today the site is used for playing fields and horse paddocks The Hanger base forms the yard

Of the Kingswood Equestrian Center Jimmy’s leopard moth exported to K in 1938 still survives in India Charles’s compa Swift which had quite a colorful post-war career including a flight from England to the Middle East in the 1970s is is stored away in Cornwall Peter Marcel’s ba swallow which

He kept at hamy Green from 1938 to 1943 is still stored away in the exor area part of the Bertram Arden Collection Jimmy’s Bugatti type 57 survives in America it’s probably the most original type 57 in existence having never been rebuilt Jimmy’s Taylor Cub which is sold in 1945 was exported to Spain in 1953 it came back nearly 40 years later and has been rebuilt by an Enthusiast in

Wiltshire the Edo floats once fitted to the Taylor Cub was stored away in the hangar until 1973 having been strung up in the rafters in 1938 in the late 1970s they were temporarily fitted to a piper super CB just to see if they might work they

Didn’t being far too small for the much heavier super CB of course being Edo 1070s they weren’t even meant to be fitted to a tailor Cub they were designed for the Arona C3 and as such for the last few years have been strung up in my hanger I bumped my head on them

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