12th March 2026 • The HERALD • Page 31 v SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES v ABOUT US Our roofers are the best in the business and are ready to give your roof a full and completely FREE inspection Drexel won the modern equivalent of around £170,000 at the meet, which was invested back into the ying school in East Boldre. When the Bournemouth meeting ended, the two men set o back to the New Forest in their Blériots. Drexel arrived safely. But McArdle, battling gusty wind and mist, became disorientated, circled the New Forest several times, ran low on fuel, and came down at Fordingbridge, around twenty miles short. Locals clamoured to see the machine on the ground, perhaps the rst time some of them had ever seen an aeroplane up close. By September 1910, the school’s rst pupils were arriving. It wasn’t cheap to enrol. A ying course cost £80 (around £12,000 in today’s money) to achieve a Royal Aero Club Certi cate. Finally, in November 1910, a er operating since May, permission was nally given. e timing suggests 1935. Drexel later joined a volunteer American air unit in WW1 and lived until 1958. What stays with me is how improvised it all was. A Blériot delivered by rail to Brockenhurst, hauled by horse and cart to East Boldre. A “runway” cut out of heath and scrub while permission was still being argued about. Record attempts watched by crowds who, many of whom had never seen an aeroplane before. And yet out of that mixture of muddling through and sheer audacity, a ying school took shape, turning out certi cated pilots at the dawn of powered ight. Whilst it didn’t last long, for a brief moment in time the New Forest was right at the forefront of pioneering aviation. And then, over the next 35 years, the same patch of Forest would see aviation return in a far darker form, with around 100 men dying within ve miles of that early “runway”. But that’s a story for another edition of e Herald. 1910 and the Birth of Flying Over the New Forest Continued from page 30 Advert for the New Forest Aviation School lobbying and in uence helped, and I can only assume that Lord Montagu’s support helped push permission through. e school trained a number of pilots, before closing in January 1912. Around 38 pilots gained a certi cate through the school. McArdle returned to Bournemouth and died in Information Technology is now a vital part of all our lives but unfortunately everyone is at risk of cyber crime, regardless of how much they use the Internet or how much IT knowledge they have. Hythe & Waterside (H&W) Rotary were, therefore, delighted to welcome Jon Smith to their speaker evening recently when he gave a very informative presentation on Cyber Security. Something that can easily cause devastation to even the most knowledgeable Internet user, H&W Rotary members and their guests were guided through a good number of security scams and how to avoid them, helping them to keep safe in today’s hi tech world. KEEPING SAFE ON THE INTERNET H&W Rotary President Ian Wheeler (left) and Jon Smith
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