Balloon mishap at Flanshaw, Wakefield.

On 6th October 1927 a well publicised balloon ascent was arranged to take place from a piece of land vacant land in front of the Woodman Inn, Wakefield with a reasonably well known balloonist / aeronaut, Mr Charles Brown, of Sheffield, was booked to give an exhibition flight. The date was chosen as the Duke of Wellington was due to pass through Wakefield on this date and this event was arranged to coincide with this, though the duke's visit was subsequently postponed the ballooning event continued. A large crowd was present for the gas filling and the ascent. Owing to illess Charles Brown did not attend but his brother came in his place. At 17.00hrs the aeronaut got into the car and the tethering ropes were released. The balloon immediately rose up and disappeared into and through clouds above Wakefield and was lost to the sight of those on the ground. A short time later the balloon reappeared descending below the clouds but with the balloon collapsed. The balloon must still have had some gas in it as the whole descent took around two minutes. It eventually crashed into a field at Flanshaw, around two miles west of where the ascent took place and just about all the descent was witnessed by those still at the launch site. It was initially feared the aeronaut would have lost his life but when a larger crowd reached the site it was found that two boys had witnessed the crash and had pulled the aeronaut out of the badly damaged car. Remarkably he had only sustained a broken leg, a dislocated ankle and some head injuries. He later stated that prior to the impact with the ground he had climbed out of the car and up netting toward balloon. On impact the car was totally destroyed but this broke his fall and he survived.

Aeronaut - Mr Roger Brown. Injured.