Pioneering vicar’s leap of faith
Last updated 05:32, Friday, 27 June 2008
When Mrs Dorothy Jane Relph died, aged 92, in December 1976, the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald stated that her early occupation was as a maid at Crosby Ravensworth vicarage from 1908.
The vicar was a pioneer aviator and the Herald said that Miss Page (as she then was) worked at the vicarage when the Reverend Sidney Swann was building his aeroplane and “spent many hours at her machine sewing the material with which the wings were covered”.
It was at an aviation meeting of the Aero Club at Blackpool in October 1909 that Sidney Swann had been inspired.
A prize of £1,000 was offered by the jam millionaire, Sir William Hartley, for the first aeroplane flight from Liverpool to Manchester.
Up for the challenge was Colonel SF Cody who was the only competitor until the Daily News on November 19, 1909 announced a rival: “On Wednesday the Reverend Sidney Swann, vicar of Crosby Ravensworth, arrived at Aintree with a monoplane of new design and apparently he intends to fly.”
The two were old friends as well as rivals, the Reverend Swann having taken an interest in Cody’s kite-flying experiments some years before.
The newspaper said: “Until a week ago Mr Swann had no idea of constructing an aeroplane, but seized with enthusiasm he gave the order to a motor firm, the machine was finished on Tuesday night and on Wednesday Mr Swann was at Aintree ready.”
In The Clergy of Crosby Ravensworth, David Risk explains that this was a high-wing monoplane powered by a 40hp engine which the Austin Motor Company had constructed.
It was delivered in kit form and the Reverend Swann assembled it, but with no room in the hangar, the Daily News stated it “has been put together in the open air and covered over to protect it from the frost”.
Much interest was shown in the local press and the Carlisle Journal gave regular reports on progress.
This was best summarised by Mr Risk who wrote: “Over the next two months Swann worked on his aircraft, repairing and modifying after repeated setbacks, and returning to Crosby Ravensworth to take Sunday services.
One witness was William Roper of Wetheral who wrote to The Cumberland News in 1958 stating: “As a schoolboy at Aintree, near Liverpool, I frequently watched Mr Swann attempting to fly.”
To be close to their aeroplanes Cody and Swann “were both living in adjacent roads in Aintree”, said Mr Roper. “And Mr Swann always cycled to and from the racecourse on a very heavy machine with a double bar under the seat.”
With no experience of flying it was perhaps fortunate that Sidney Swann could not get airborne, “partly because his engine seemed incapable of delivering enough power”, said David Risk.
Neither pilot was successful but with a new prize of £10,000 offered by the Daily Mail for the first flight between London and Manchester, Swann returned to Crosby Ravensworth to build a new machine using the vicarage coach house as a workshop, continued Mr Risk.
On April 5, 1910 this second aircraft, a bi-plane with the same engine was “ready for covering with fabric”, stated Peter Connon in The Shadow of the Eagles Wing, and “the main planes were moved into the drawing and dining rooms of the vicarage for two seamstresses to carry out the work”.
While Mr Connon says that the seamstresses were Belle Taylor and Emma Hodgson they must have been helped by Dorothy Page.
One of the joiners who built the framework was Jim Relph and this was perhaps how Dorothy became Mrs Relph.
But as the Reverend Swann had no real idea of what to do, his son – also called Sidney but often called Ernest to tell them apart – said: “One day he would have the tail behind and then on the next decide to try it in front.”
Once completed, the aeroplane was “a wonderful contraption of bamboo poles braced together with wire”, said his son: “Unfortunately the Arrol Johnson engine which he obtained was too heavy for the power which it developed and so it was extremely difficult to get the thing in the air, especially as my father weighed nearly 14 stone.”
A suitable flying field was found, said David Risk “in the flat 40-acre field to the north of Meaburn Hall and for a hangar Swann borrowed the marquee which the Crosby Ravensworth Agricultural and Horticultural Show committee had recently purchased”.
All was ready for trials on April 22 and 27 but the aircraft failed, with structural damage and poor engine power.
While the engine was sent to London for overhaul, the £10,000 prize was won by a Frenchman.
“With the engine returned and running smoothly,” said Mr Risk, “Swann made two further attempts on July 9 and 11, 1910”.
To everyone’s surprise said the vicar’s son “into the air it did get, but thank God not far; when eventually he came down in a flock of sheep (one of which was killed) he thought it was time to call it a day”.
The Journal of July 26 marked the end by saying: “The flying parson has burnt the plane which he had built.”
To recoup some of his outlay he first sold the engine, but this was little compensation. The Journal said: “He had not been very successful during his 12 months of experiments, flying 20 or 30 yards, after spending something more than £1,000 on his machine.”
More on the exploits of the Reverend Swann are given by Peter Connon, including the fact that Swann was the vicar of Blackford and St Aidan’s in Carlisle before going to Westmorland.
