Album of aeronautical newspaper cuttings and photographs

This collection includes an album of aeronautical newspaper cuttings and photographs, some dated 1911. It also contains 29 photographs within a small 'Kodak folder' with 'Shoreham, Summer 1913' written on the cover; and 20 loose postcards of early aircraft, one photograph in a card frame.

The album of newspaper cuttings and the associated photographs and postcards are a rare survival from the early years of aeronautics in England. It was possibly collected by an enthusiast. The cuttings focus on early flights, air races and flying accidents around the Brighton area and Shoreham Airport, which opened on 20 June 1911. The cuttings mostly date from 1911 - 12 and 29 of the photographs are from 1913, recording key moments from aeronautics' earliest history. The photographs include many early seaplanes, aeroplanes and a racing car. Some of the aircraft are identified such as the Cody monoplane or ‘The Bleriot monoplane at Shoreham’.

The framed photograph is of an aeroplane outside a hangar with sign saying ‘Radley’. This may well be shed no. 5, where James Bradley modified a Bleriot XI racing monoplane in February 1912 (around this time the sheds became known as hangars).