Ballooning accident near Elvington.

During mid-June 1911 two balloons owned by balloonist Mr Auguste Gaudron were used at the week long Grand Yorkshire Flower Show and Gala, at Bootham Park Hospital, York to carry passengers into the air for aerial views of York. One balloon carried the balloonist with passengers who flew untethered flights around the York area. The other balloon, also owned by Gaudron but flown by one of his attendants, was tethered and was used to take around eight people at one time into the air, rise to a set height governed by the rope length released and then return to the ground when an engine on the ground wound in the rope. On Thursday, 15th June 1911 at around 17.30hrs during one rise of the balloon the tethering rope broke when the balloon was being hauled back to the ground resulting in the balloon rising uncontrollably and floating off with eight people in the basket. The trapdoor in the base of the basket also fell off leaving the floor with a large hole in it. Once clear of housing on the outskirts of the city the balloon's attendant attempted to pull a string that opened a gas release valve on the balloon but the string then broke, this automatically closed the valve and the balloon continued to rise. By this stage it was estimated to have been at around 8000 feet off the ground. Passengers stated in a newspaper interview that the attendant climbed out of the basket, up rigging and onto the balloon to open it manually though this only released the gas slowly and he climbed back down. While the balloon then descended there was no control of this and it took some time. It may have reached a height of between two and three miles before the descent begun and one of the female passengers nearly fell through the hole in the floor of the basket while at great height. A number of people followed the balloon and these included the owner, Auguste Gaudron in a taxi as well as people on bicycles. Eventually the balloon came back down to earth in the area around a mile south of Elvington, the basket struck and initially stopped in a tree on what was described as "Well's Farm" and "Shaw's Farm" on Elvington Lane, around seven miles from Bootham Park. Some of those who had followed reached the balloon at around the same time as one of the passengers climbed through the bottom of the basket and dropped some fifteen feet to the ground. Unfortunately before any others could get out the balloon it drifted off again, dragging the basket across three fields. The ropes below the balloon eventually caught on another tree but the basket was left hanging around twenty feet above the ground. The remaining eight passengers and pilot had to jump through the trapdoor on the base of the basket, through tree branches to the ground leaving several with injuries. Several suggestions were considered to down the balloon once everyone was on the ground including shooting the gas bag with a shotgun. This never happened because the wind caused it to free itself from the branch, and with no weight in the basket, it drifted off in the direction of the coast. At 21.30hrs the steamer Hamburgsund picked up the balloon around fifteen miles off Spurn Head complete with twigs and leaves in the basket, they landed at Blyth with it.

Pilot / attendant - Mr / Ctn P Limery.

Passenger (first to climb down) - Mr Claude Decir / Decar. Acrobat with Mr Wilder's Variety Company.

Passenger - Mr William Serples / Serplis. Variety artiste with Mr Wilder's Variety Company.

Passenger - Mr Harry Vical / Nicol. Variety artiste with Mr Wilder's Variety Company.

Passenger - Mr Thomas Harbottle. Carter, York Co-Operative.

Passenger - Miss Gertrude Houseman. In company with Harbottle.

Passenger - Name unknown. Lady from Bishop Wilton.

Passenger - Name unknown. "Deaf and dumb" man with the Bishop Wilton lady.