Dunstable Yesteryear - a pioneer glider at the Downs

One of the attractions for visitors to Dunstable Downs is the spectacular view of gliders flying from the airfield at the foot of the hill.

The field is owned by the London Gliding Club which was formed in 1929 and originally launched gliders at Ivinghoe Beacon and at Downs Farm, on the Ivinghoe-Aldbury Road. In those early days it attracted so many spectators that it caused traffic jams and the police eventually asked the pioneer flyers to move.

They found a new base in a barn at Lockington Farm in Totternhoe, very close to a suitable launching site on Dunstable Downs, and within a few years the club acquired the use of land to create its present airfield.

The photo reproduced here is very rare and has just been traced by glider expert David Underwood. It was taken in the club’s early days at Dunstable. It features a glider, imported from Germany, made by Alexander Schleicher at Poppenhausen. It has a registration number which enabled David to precisely identify it as being first flown by the club at Ivinghoe Beacon on July 17 1930.

The glider was damaged at Dunstable on September 17 1935 when its hangar was wrecked in a gale.

The photo also shows some World War One army huts which were purchased by the gliding club and transported to Dunstable. They were in use for many years and finally demolished about 20 years ago.

The present clubhouse was built in 1935 to the right of the huts.

Yesteryear is compiled by John Buckledee, chairman of Dunstable and District Local History Society.