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Polzeath has many connections to pilots, which isn’t surprising because there can be few places on earth that have been surrounded by as many airfields!
A hundred years ago though, there weren’t actually any operational airfields locally, with Crugmeer (Padstow airfield) having closed at the end of WW1.
It wasn’t until WW2 that the building boom in airfields in the Polzeath area began. This story predates WW2 and sadly, like many others in the history of aircraft technology, doesn’t have the happiest of endings.
If we go back to the Pentireglaze Estate map of 1924 you can see the name “Waghorn” on a Gulland Road plot. This short dead end road starts opposite the New Polzeath car park and the Waghorn family have owned most, if not all, of the houses on the left side of Gulland Road over the years but today just own beautiful Rabbit Hill at the end.
In 1924 Henry Richard Danvers "Dick" Waghorn was 19 and a cadet at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell where he graduated in August of that year, and was awarded the Sword of Honour as the best all-around cadet. His father was a civil engineer but I believe died when he and his younger brother David were only 4 or 5. Perhaps that’s why the 1924 map is marked just Mrs Waghorn.
In 1929 Dick was the fastest man on earth having broken the world speed record in front of an estimated 1.5 million spectators. If you find that hard to believe there’s a Pathe newsreel that shows just how many people lined the Solent to watch him , including his new wife Dolly and their Alsatian dog.
After the Schneider Trophy win and record breaking, Waghorn continued with experimental and high-speed flying but tragically died in 1931 at the age of 26 when the Hawker Horsley biplane he was testing crashed. He and his passenger both parachuted but Waghorn was severely injured in landing and died two days later.
David Waghorn, his younger brother, was also an RAF pilot and in 1931 became a member of the High Speed Flight. He reached the rank of Air Commodore by the end of World War II, but was killed in 1945, on active service flying a Spitfire.
Both Waghorn brothers played important parts in pushing the boundaries of aviation which directly influenced and inspired the designs and technologies used by R.J. Mitchell in the development of the Supermarine Spitfire.
Spitfires were stationed in Cornwall at RAF Perranporth in 1941 until the airfield was decommissioned in April 1946.
Part of the 1924 Pentireglaze Estate map. Gulland road, not yet named, has a plot marked Mrs Waghorn. Rabbit Hill which today’s Waghorn family own, is the pink plot two to the right marked W M Mollinson. I believe the plot was originally used as the tennis court for the W M Mollinson house built above it.
Dolly Watson became Dolly Waghorn in June 1929. Their son, John, was born shortly before her husband died and she remained unmarried until she died in Cornwall in 1980
Both Dick (Henry Richard Danvers) Waghorn and his younger brother, David Waghorn, were associated with the Royal Air Force's (RAF) High Speed Flight which was a special unit dedicated to high-speed aviation and closely linked to the Schneider Trophy races. Originally based in Folkestone it was based in Calshot by the time they joined it.
The Supermarine S.6 was designed to eliminate as much aerodynamic drag as possible. To achieve this, it did not have conventional radiator or oil cooler intakes. Instead, the aircraft used surface radiators. The wing surfaces were constructed with two thin layers of duralumin with a very small space between them. The engine coolant, a mixture of water and ethylene glycol, was circulated between these layers, acting as a surface radiator.
Oil Cooling: The engine of the S.6 had a high oil consumption rate. The vertical fin of the aircraft served as the oil supply tank. The skin panels of the aircraft also acted as surface radiators for oil cooling. Additionally, the fuselage panels were corrugated for strength, and small parallel passages transferred lubricating oil from the fin tank to the engine, further cooling the oil.
Fuel in the Floats: The fuel supply for the Supermarine S.6 was carried in the pontoons (floats). These pontoons were not only crucial for the seaplane's ability to take off and land on water but also served as the primary location for fuel storage.
Fuel Type: The aircraft used a unique fuel mixture consisting of 11% aviation gasoline and 89% benzol (benzene and toluene). Tetraethyl lead was also added to this mixture to limit pre-ignition.
Fuel Consumption: Due to the engine's high rate of fuel consumption and the limited fuel capacity, the S.6 was unable to run at full power during the Schneider race
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