IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
McQueen Walk, SALISBURY, SP4 8RF

This art deco garage has seen better days but still manages to display its name in concrete, just visible below the modern canopy.

Along this unassuming and otherwise quiet road are these concrete kerbstones. They are in fact the front footings of a group of aircraft hangars that were constructed in the early 1900s. Flying was an amazing new mode of transport and gained its earliest faltering attempts here on this part of Salisbury Plain. The old hangars have long since been demolished and the trees are now close to erasing all traces. See Image] for another view of hangars that are still in use, just a few hundred yards down the road.

In the middle of what is now a simple arable field in an otherwise unremarkable landscape lies this memorial. It must be a scant visited site, but the story remains to be heard. This part of Salisbury Plain was important not only geographically but also in terms of military history. These open sweeps were home to the first efforts to form a flying force. The miracle of powered flight had only just happened and by 1912 Larkhill became the first military flying service - originally part of the Royal Engineers, but shortly after the Royal Flying Corps. The new flying machines were, naturally, prone to disaster. The stone tablet on this memorial reads: "In memory of Major Alexander William Hewetson, 66th Battery Royal Field Artillery, who was killed whilst flying on the 17th July, 1913, near this spot." Oddly enough, there is a stone cross on the old A344 (a road that is now restricted and close to the new visitor centre); the cross refers to the same person and the same date - but is some 2.75km away! See Image] for Alan Cooper's image.

Part of the landscape around Larkhill, which has witnessed thousands of military personnel stationed here over the twentieth century. Most were soldiers but a few became founders of a new service. The area gently falling away downhill was once the cradle of military aviation as it was used by the very first flyers, attached to the Army. Taking to the air in their primitive craft and using the open spaces as an airfield, the amazing potential of such a breakthrough became evident. Soon the embryonic service grew into the Royal Flying Corps, and then later to the Royal Air Force. Little remains of any of the history on the ground, save for a few items, as the camps were largely temporary canvas affairs. See Image] for an example.