History Group

EARLY AVIATOR – Hunmanby Local History Group met last Saturday to hear an intriguing talk by Dave Newbury about an early aviator in Filey. Little is known about John William House and his time in Filey. The young boy worked as a mechanic in his father’s motor business in Bradford. In 1902, at the age of 17, he became the city's first licensed driver and conductor of a small motorised omnibus with tiller steering and was fined more than once for speeding. But John and his father had also become hooked on the ‘extreme sport’ of the day - flying.

House's father formed The Northern Aero Syndicate and they acquired a Bleriot monoplane 'La Blonde'. When their own airfield at nearby Apperley Bridge proved too small for safe flying, the Houses took ‘La Blonde’ to Filey by rail to use the facilities of the newly formed Flying School at Flat Cliffs, Primrose Valley, established by JWF Tranmere.

Here there was a large wooden hangar on the clifftop and a concrete slipway to four miles of firm and level sands. House, who was on his honeymoon, made the first recorded flight there on July 25, 1910, and a number of subsequent flights, crashing his plane more than once.

John William House stayed in Filey for about six months and then returned to Bradford. He managed to live to the ripe old age of 81, in spite of his daredevil lifestyle.

For more information visit https://www.ukairfieldguide. net/airfields/Filey or http:// www.hunmanby.com/fileysands.html