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Founding Fathers at Muswell Manor 4th May 1909
The 'Founding Fathers' in the above picture standing outside of Muswell Manor on 4th May 1909, which was their Aero Club 100 years ago next year. For the hundredth year commemoration we are looking to re-instate the door & apex as it was then with aviation pioneers of today.
Left to Right (Back Row)
JDF Andrews owner of Muswell Manor, Oswald Short, Horace Short, Eustace Short, Francis McClean, Griffith Brewer, Frank Butler, WJS Lockyer, Warwick Wright
Left to Right (Front Row)
JTC Moore-Brabazon, Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright, Hon. Charles Rolls
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"The birthplace and cradle of British aviation"
The Manor is a 16th Century Grade II listed building steeped in unique early aviation history. It was the First headquarters of the UK Aero Club, The Short Brothers constructed their first factory on adjacent land and the first recorded flight/circular mile in Britain was made here by JTC Brabazon in 1909. A commemorative exhibition of these events and connected famous aviators is displayed in our Bar.
It has always played an important part in the history of Leysdown, none so as in 1909 (then known as Mussel Manor) the Short Brothers, who will be remembered for their historic links with the Medway Towns, and constructed their first aircraft here namely the Wright "Flyers". At the same time, the Manor was being used as the headquarters of the Aero Club of the United Kingdom and was visited by many distinguished pioneer aviators such as C.S. Rolls, J.T.C. Brabazon, the Wright Brothers and Frank McClean. In 1909, the first recognised flight by an Englishman and the first circular mile in Britiain was flown from here, both by J.T.C. Brabazon. An exhibition of these events and biographical details of the main personnel involved is displayed in the Bar.The Manor
house hosts many functions, from History Societies' and Aviation Associations' meetings to Business seminars and celebration parties.
British aviation’s historic events which happened at Muswell (mussel manor) some recorded in the Guiness book of records.
- In February 1909 the worlds first aerodrome was here on the land of mussel manor. Official in the Guinness book of aircrafts on p83
- Worlds first Aeroplane factory was adjacent to Mussel Manor Shellness in the Guinness book of aircraft p83.
- Mussell manor became the aero club for the aviation pioneers. In the Guinness book of aircraft p79.
- Wright brothers gave the short brothers the rights to build their aircrafts in this country. The short brothers and their colleagues decided that mussel manor isle on the Isle of Sheppey, Shellness, in Kent would be the first to have a factory building aircrafts in the world February 1909 as in the Guinness book of aircraft p83.
- Orville & Wilbur Wright visited England, Shellness Leysdown on the 4th may 1909 driven here by Charles Rolls in his silver ghost car. They were extremely impressed by the progress of the worlds first factory. They had lunch in the Aero club and had the only photograph taken outside Mussel Manor along side all of the other important aviators. Officially recorded in the flight magazine. This picture is on the walls.
- 2nd may 1909 Moore-Bradazon was the first British man to fly in a British built aircraft called the bird of passage. He flew 500yds, & height was 40/50 feet here on the grounds of mussel manor, p84 in the Guinness book of records of aircraft.
- The first official pilots certificate No1 license was given to moore-brabazon in recognision of the above. Issued this in 1909 but awarded in 1910 by mussel manor aero club. In the guiness book of aircraft p84
- On the 30th October 1909 recorded in the Guinness book of aircraft p84 in a Short/Wright flyer costing £1,500 built in the factory and flown from the grounds of Mussel Manor, John Moore Brabazon was to be the first English man in a British built aeroplane to fly a circular mile. The daily mirror awarded the prize money of £1000 & this story was covered by Charlie hands. All the information and pictures of this important event are on the walls here.
- On the 5th November 1909 lord brabazon christened a pig Icrus the 11 & they flew from the grounds here to stop the worlds famous phrase “pigs might fly” he took the baby pig up in a basket & said “now pigs do fly”. Officially recorded on p87 in the Guinness book of records.
- They built two aeroplanes & named them after the manor, mussel1 & 11. Eustace short learnt to fly the first two seater sea aircraft which was also used for experiments. The modified mussel ii was primarily developed twin float sea-plane, & was made of part metal, & was used for testing their theories. Unfortunately on the 8th April 1932 whilst landing in mussel 11 he had a heart attack & died. Pictures and information on all of the historic aviation events are all recorded and on the walls of the bar at Muswell/Mussel Manor.
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"There are many accounts written in various books and papers about the early aviation history. After researching through many of them and checking details against details I feel that this is as true account as you can get" - Muswell Manor
From the year dot man has always wanted to fly. Legend has it that Icarus,' father made him a pair of wings out of feathers and wax in order that he could escape King Mynos' labyrinth at Crete. But unfortunately he went too near the sun, which melted his wings and Icarus fell into the Sea and drowned. In the 15th century Leonardo. da Vinci, thought flight was possible. As well as being a great artist he was also an engineer. His notebook is crammed with designs for ornithopters, wings and even an airscrew. In later years many other pioneers built models of gliders, many unbelievable, some fanciful, some large and some small but all with purpose of launching man into flight.
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Before "heavier than air' machines, of course there were hot air balloons. The first flight was by the French Montgolfier Brothers on 5 June 1793. These balloons remain airborne by buoyancy supplier by gas that is less dense that the air surrounding it. Hydrogen, and of course helium for example.
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One man that should be mentioned is Otto Lilienthal, a pioneering German glider pilot, who in the 1890s experimented with monoplane, biplane and triplane gliders. He was the first man to launch himself into the air and fly. He made 2,000 flights in all. His findings and research brought aviation to its penultimate phase. His technology and his scientific findings influenced the Wright Brothers. Unfortunately in 1896, whilst, once again in his glider, he crashed to the ground, and died from his injuries, otherwise if he had lived it is thought that he would have been the first man to fly in an aircraft.
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All the main early aviators that are connected with Muswell Manor were keen and expert balloonists, or aeronauts to give them their technical name, apart from Horace Short, who after his first experience in a balloon, vowed he would never go up in one again.
Although the Short Brothers did not join forces until November 1908, their history really began in 1897 when Eustace, the middle of the three brothers brought a second hand passenger coal-fired balloon for £30. His elder brother, Horace, a genius of a man with an awesome character and who had enough adventures in his life to fill a dozen others, was adventuring overseas at this time. He had a miraculous escape from cannibals in the South Pacific, whilst en route to Australia, and ran a silver mine in Mexico until he was 23, whilst Oswald, the younger brother was swept along as a young and impressionable boy by Eustace's enthusiasm.
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On 17 December 1903, on the isolated sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, America, two brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright lifted their "heavier than air" machine off the ground for the first powered, controlled and sustained flight in history, landing undamaged on the same flat ground from which it had taken off it had flown 120ft and lasted 12 seconds. This extraordinary feat was a culmination of seven years of study, planning, building, suffering agonies and enjoying successes but for every one of us it opened up the world but at the same time it made it smaller.
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Ballooning filled the lives of Eustace and Oswald for more than a decade. It was financed by cash earned from Eustace's small London coal merchant business, which he started with money given to him by Horace to sustain the family whilst he was overseas. They gradually became expert balloonists and designed and built their own in a mews shed off of the Tottenham Court Road in London and after that underneath railway arches in Battersea. They became well known for their quality of work and soon came into contact with a growing band of other pioneer balloonists, who were later to come to Muswell in 1909 when their enthusiasm for "Heavier than air machines" came to the fore.
Amongst these were Charles Rolls, John Brabazon, Frank McClean, Griffith Brewer and Frank Hedges-Butler. All these can be seen in "The Founding Father" photograph that is on the wall, which, was taken outside the front door of Muswell Manor.
In the middle of the first decade of this century, after the success of the Wright Brothers, powered flight in "heavier than air" machines was being tried and tested in America and Europe with some success. We in Britain were far behind because, it is said, our government was blinkered, as to what was going on.
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Because of scapticism and red tape, the Wright Brothers could not sell their machine to any government or syndicate but in 1908, Orville successfully demonstrated a more controller machine to his own government and Wilbur came to France, Le Mans and late demonstrate the Wright "Flyer" in Europe with resounding success. By this time the air lasted over 2 hours and flew 90 miles or more. Many people watching had tears in their eyes at this wondrous feat. The world was astounded. Members of the Aero Club of the United Kingdom, which was co-founded by Charles Rolls and Frank Hedges-Butler in 1901 to encourage enthusiasm in aero automobilism, travelled to France to see the demonstrations. Wilbur took some of them into the air as passengers during some of his flights. Immediately members of the Aero Club wanted to order "Flyers" for themselves. But as yet the Wright Brothers had not found a manufacturer to build their machine under license in England.
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Upon their return from France Charles Rolls and Griffith Brewer contacted Oswald and Eustace Short and suggested they go to France and see the demonstrations themselves. Oswald made a trip and was given a ride by Wilbur and he knew that thoughts were now turning towards these machines and knowing that himself and Eustace were not engineers, travelled to Newcastle to invite their brother Horace who was working at CA Parsons on the Steam turbine, to join forces with them. Horace immediately agreed.
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In November 1908 the Short Brothers partnership was formed, with each brother putting in £200 cash. Oswald made another trip to France in December and prompted Horace to go the following February. On his trip, Horace asked the Wright Brothers for plans of the machine, but amazingly they said they had never made drawn-up plans. Horace made pencil sketches in a notebook, which is now with the museum of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and obtained the license to build 6 Wright "Flyers" for members of the Aero Club. 2 for Charles Rolls, I each for Frank McClean, Maurice Egerton, Percy Grace and Alec Olgivie.
By now their premises at Battersea arches was too small and they needed to expand. They were already building a machine for Frank McClean, along the lines of a Wright Flyer. But where to go?
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At that time, Griffith Brewer, was in a balloon, flying over head, when he spotted the lands around Muswell Manor. He regarded the land as being perfect as it was flat with no obstacles and the winds were right for flying. It was also easily accessible from London. Shorts leased the land from the owner, a Mr Andrews for a nominal rent. Mr Andrews was a builder and foresaw that with an aircraft factory being built in this area, there would be a demand for houses. The Short Brothers moved their workers here and constructed sheds on land adjacent to Muswell Manor (Mussel Manor, as it was then known). This factory was the first in the world to be built for the manufacture of aircraft. At the same time, Frank McClean, who was a very wealthy man, and was to become the benefactor of Shorts in those early days, leased Mussel Manor from Mr Andrews, together with 400 acres of grounds, for the use of the Aero Club of the United Kingdom for their headquarters. Workers were boarded out in the coastguard houses down the eastern end, now the Hamlets, and the Rose and Crown public house in Leysdown as well as in Muswell Manor. All the Short Brothers were guests in this house some time during their stay at Shellbeach and in a book "Pioneers of the Skies" Oswald gave an insight to their stay here. Some of it is quoted in Oswald's story in our exhibition.
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World First Aircraft Factory at Shellness Beach, Leysdown, Sheppey & Silver Ghost Rolls Royce Car Owner by C.S. Rolls, whom was also a keen aviator. |
John Brabazon, who learnt to fly, or hop, in Voisin machines in France, purchased a Voisin, named "Bird of Passage", shipped it to England and brought it to Shellbeach and housed it in one of Shorts hangers. He installed a Belgian "vivinus" engine and over the weeks he practiced in it and eventually on May 2 1909, here on the grounds outside Mussel Manor, he made three short flights, the last one, of 500 yards at 35ft was recognised as the first flight in Britain by a British aviator.
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The Aero Club awarded him pilots certificate No. 1. The 90th anniversary of this event has recently been celebrated by the unveiling of a memorial stone, just outside Muswell Manor grounds and a plaque on the wall of the bar inside Muswell Manor. Meanwhile the Daily Mail offered a prize of £1,000 to the first Briton to fly 1 mile over British soil in an all-British built machine. Brabazon duly gave Short Brothers the order.
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On 2nd May 1909 the Wright Brothers visited England and on the 4th May Charles Rolls, in his Sliver Ghost Rolls Royce, drove them to Leysdown to visit the Short Brothers in their factory div to oversee the order of their machines. They were pleased with the progress and were impressed with the flying fields stating that they were better than any of those they had flown on. Afterwards they had lunch here at Mussel Manor and this was the occasion when the famous Founding Fathers photograph was taken. This is a very famous photograph and appears in aviation magazines all over the world. At this time Rolls took the opportunity to ask the Wright Brothers if he could have a glider made on the specifications of the "Flyer" so that he could learn to fly. They gave their permission and an order was placed with Shorts. This was delivered to him on 26 July 1909. He taught himself to fly on this machine from the grounds here and from a hill he rented at Eastchurch. By August 1909 he had flown 210 feet, and this machine is regarded as the first "heavier than air" machine made by Shorts to fly. Later this was the machine Rolls sold to the British government for £1,000 for the purpose of teaching Admiralty pilots.
The Short No.2, with a Green engine installed, was delivered to Brabazon on 20th September 1909. He paid £l,500 for it. He and a Daily Mail reporter Charlie Hands had rooms here and every day, at 3.am, went out onto the airfield to see if the wind conditions were just right. As Brabazon described it himself that if smoking a cigarette, the smoke went away from you, then the wind was blowing a hurricane. In their spare time they played a card games, rounds of golf and duck shooting on the marshes.
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From Left to Right - Oswald Short, Horace Short ,Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright |
Frank McClean built himself a bungalow and a hanger, Charles Rolls and other members of Aero Club built themselves hangars to house their machines. Meanwhile the Shorts progressed working on Frank McClean's machine, to become known as Shorts This machine, when delivered in July 1909, was not successful, due to an overweight engine. After several attempts to fly it crashed to the ground and was eventually scrapped.
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On 30 October the conditions were just right and decided to go for it. On his first attempt, the machine crashed landed from take off and Horace was brought in to repair it. His first repair job. On his second attempt a few hours later flying from Shorts factory in the direction of Muswell Manor, Brabazon the first circular mile in Britain, actually it was 1 ¾ miles in 2 minutes 36 seconds at a height of 20 feet. He won £1,000 and out of this he bought himself.
Commemorative cup. According to Brabzon all in all it cost him £2,500 to win £1,000.
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On the 5th November he went up again, this time with a pig aptly named Icarus 11. Apparently he heard someone in the crowd say that he had as much chance of flying a mile as that of a pig flying. He proved them wrong.
The Wright "Flyers" were slowly being constructed and delivered. Incidentally the buyers were charged £1,000 for each machine - £400 to the Wright Brothers, £400 for the engines and £200 to the Shorts.
By this time the factory had expanded to many more workshops and hangars and more aviators were coming here to ask Shorts to build their designs and experiment with flying. Shorts announced that they could deal with anything in the way of machine work, altering engines and making spare parts on the spot.
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In June 1910 Rolls flew the English Channel both ways, non stop, the first Englishman to do so, but sadly was killed when his aircraft plunged to the ground at an airshow at Bournmouth in July 1910. Brabazon was so saddened by the death of his friend that he never flew again until 1914. Francis McClean purchased many aircraft from Shorts and went on to train pilots for the Admiralty. He himself became a very capable pilot. In 1912, flying in one of his machines, a float plane, flew up the River Thames passing between the upper and lower parts of Tower Bridge and under London Bridge without touching water, and taking 4 passengers with him and Horace Short at one stage. In he 1913 flew up the Nile River some 2000 miles.
As we know The Short Brothers went on to design bigger and better aircraft at Eastchurch and Rochester. Horace stayed at Eastchurch and died where he would have wanted, at his bench in April 1917 aged 45. Eustace mainly worked at Battersea, where the balloon factory was still flourishing, until April 1932 at the age of 57 he died of a heart attack at the controls of a float plane, named after this building, 'Mussel 2". Oswald stayed in charge of the Rochester works until he retired in 1943. He died in December 1969, aged 86.
We acknowledge the determination and courage of these young men and are proud to be associated with this piece of history of our times and that is why we have collated this exhibition so that Muswell Manor and Shellbeach can be recognised as the "Birth place of British aviation".
He took up flying again and had a distinguished war record. In 1918 after the war he began a career in politics until his retirement in 1948, when the Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave him a peerage for his services to politics. He took the title "Lord Brabazon of Tara" Tara being the name of the family in Dublin.
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1909 JTC Moore - Brabazon made the first authenticated British powered flight at Shellbeach (Muswell Manor) Isle of Sheppey in a Voisin this was verified by the Aero club of Great Britain and he subsequently held pilot's licence number 1.
1909 - 10 Short brothers based at Shellbeach (Muswell Manor) built six Wright flyers under contract. This marked the beginning of the British Aviation manufacturing industry. The aircraft were supplied to the Royal Aero club.
1910 the Royal Aeroclub and Shorts moved to Eastchurch Isle of Sheppey an airfield associated with such illustrious names as Brabazon, Sopwith, Rolls and Maclean. During the First World War it became an RNA's station. It reverted to RAF use as the armament and gunnery school in 1922.
1912 The first take off of an aeroplane from a warship took place at Sheerness when Lt Samson took to the air in a Shorts 538 from HMS Africa.
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