THAT Worcester once had its own aerodrome, possibly the nation’s first civic aero-hub, is hardly front page news. Over the years we have many times featured the activities at Perdiswell Park, the 170 acres of flat land on the northern edge of the city sandwiched between the A38 to Droitwich and the Worcester-Birmingham canal, where planes landed and took off on a regular basis from 1932 until just after the Second World War.

But now a new book is in the offing which delves into the subject like never before. RAF Worcester is a work in progress by aeronautical historian Mike Mullins, who has amassed a veritable Aladdin’s Hangar of photographs and fascinating facts in his quest to tell the complete story.

Mike said: “RAF Worcester was operational from 1938 to 1945 and trained hundreds of young pilots. Yet when it closed it almost disappeared without trace. For the last two years I have been gathering all the information I can about the airbase. After a lot of searching and great help from friends, colleagues and interested parties, I now have enough information for a 200-page book.

“However, there are still some gaps, so I would be very grateful, if any reader has any photographs, drawings, maps, stories etc about RAF Worcester, they could contact me.”

So now’s your chance to be part of a definitive publication . Mike’s email is: michael.mullins2@outlook.com

The title may be RAF Worcester, but Perdiswell was a civilian airfield well before the military became involved.

In fact the first recorded flying there was in 1914 by the heroically named Major Frank Widenham Gooden. However this proved a somewhat isolated event and the main local flying activity continued to take place on Pitchcroft, within walking distance of the city centre and beside the river. This location saw some of the earliest aircraft and balloon flights in the UK.

But as Worcester expanded space became tighter, especially for flight paths, and somewhere else had to be found. Cue Perdiswell Park. In 1932 work began to level and grass a runway and soon after a hangar was built. The result was Worcester Municipal Aerodrome, which was clamed to be the first in the country.

One of the earliest users was Sir Alan Cobham, who visited three times in the early 1930s with his Flying Circus spectacular. This was followed by a Royal visit when Edward, Prince of Wales - the later short lived King Edward VIII - flew in to open the newly enlarged Worcester bridge in 1932.

There followed a series of famous flying names, of whom Amy Johnson was just one. The airfield also became popular with top jockeys riding at Worcester meetings and Sir Gordon Richards and Bill Rickaby both used it.

However all this came to an end in 1938 as war clouds loomed. Worcester Municipal Aerodrome was requisitioned by the RAF and renamed RAF Worcester, which is really where the meat of Mike Mullins’ book begins.

As well as the Perdiswell Park aerodrome with its runway, hangars, fire services and the like, the RAF also took over the adjacent 18th century Perdiswell Hall and its immediate grounds to create accommodation, admin and training facilities.

With some wonderful artwork by Maurice Jones, pencil sketches and diagrams, a host of vintage photographs and stacks of detail, Mike takes the reader back the war years and what life was like at this buzzing air base.

He explained “RAF Worcester was first used for handling and dispersing newly built light bombers and then for pilot training, which carried on until it closed. It had other roles as an emergency airfield for lost or damaged aircraft and for receiving the many medical evacuation flights after D-Day before transfer to nearby hospitals.

“Many civilians worked on the base and many local families took in and looked after trainee airmen and women over several years. There are some tragic stories to tell and some happy ones too, while some just recount the everyday life there.”

One of the areas of controversy the book does feature is the Clark Gable mystery. On the morning of September 2, 1942 an American USAAF Douglas Dakota transport plane with a film crew on board took off from Pershore Airfield but got into trouble and crashed across Bilford Road (one of many similar accidents) as it attempted an emergency landing at Perdiswell.

Onlookers believed that among the crew making a hasty exit from the stricken aircraft was American actor Clark Gable or at least someone who looked very much like him. No-one could be sure because no-one got close and it was a time when the Clark Gable “look” (swept back hair and a neatly trimmed moustache) was all the rage among young guns of the day.

But Mike has unearthed an account by the late Max Sinclair, a Worcester historian who was a lad at the time. Max – who was also apparently related to one of the contestants in the 1824 All England Bare Knuckle Boxing Championship on Pitchcroft – said his mother worked in the Officers’ Mess at Perdiswell and two British RAF officers told her the film star was in the co-pilot’s seat of the crashed Dakota. Which, lacking any other account, is as good as it gets. Either way CG didn’t hang around to sign any autographs.

Now had it been his female equivalent Betty Grable, there would have been an organised photoshoot of those million dollar legs clambering out of the cockpit and we would have known for sure!