SO the pendulum has swung back again and the green acres of Perdiswell are once more in the frame as a potential new ground for Worcester City FC, as efforts continue to return the club to its roots.

But all arguing for and against the plan would have been immaterial had the wartime use of the area gained more traction once peace broke out in 1945.

For during the Second World War, Perdiswell was a busy airfield, used both for training pilots to take on the Luftwaffe and also testing planes made in the engineering heartland of the Black Country.

There was considerable hope in some quarters that Perdiswell could develop into a municipal airport after the war, but lack of space shot down the idea.

Possibly just as well, because although there was plenty of room to land a Spitfire, the runway now needed to cope with a trans-continental passenger jet would probably stretch three parts the way to Droitwich.

In fact this large area of flat land been looked at as a potential airfield for quite some time and as early as 1914, using a landing strip mown across the pasture, pilot FW Goodden gave an amazing flying display.

He looped the loop three times and “flew at some surprising angles”, according to reports. FW’s only beef was that many folk chose to watch his aerial acrobatics from adjoining fields and didn’t pay to enter the enclosed area.

“I do this for a living,” he protested. “Not for fun.”

By the mid-1920s it had become fashionable for towns to look around for potential airport sites and Worcester  Corporation considered four -  Henwick, Pitchcroft, Powick Hams and Perdiswell.

Of these Perdiswell got the nod because it was flat, close to the city centre and didn’t flood. Had the plan gone ahead then, Worcester would have had the most convenient civic airport in the UK, being only two miles from the city centre. But there was a land wrangle and subsequent delay

Until a civilian operator’s licence was obtained in 1937, Perdiswell was used as an unlicensed airfield to host air displays. While in 1932, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) also landed there when he arrived to open Worcester’s new

river bridge. However, bouncing across the grass gave the future king severe travel sickness, which a civic lunch probably didn’t help.

When work started, more than £14,000 was spent creating a level grass runway running parallel with Droitwich Road and erecting a number of buildings.

Soon the new airfield became quite busy, attracting famous flyers like Amy Johnson and

Sir Alan Cobham. Top jockeys riding at Worcester also used it, including Gordon (later Sir Gordon) Richards.

During the Second World War, Perdiswell was in constant use as an RAF Elementary Flying Training School, mostly using Tiger Moths, although Austin’s Aircraft Division at Longbridge also tested Fairey battle bombers there.

Two Link Trainers with dummy cockpits were set up and became familiar landmarks.

Because of the nature of the operation, some overshooting of the runway occurred and on one occasion a 16-years-old girl was killed by a plane crashing into Bilford Road. Other planes plummeted out of the sky to kill pilots at Crown East and Fernhill Heath.

Then there was the story of American film star Clark Gable, who was  supposed to have been on board a military plane, either as pilot or crew, which overshot and crashed into Droitwich Road. Problem was lack of first hand accounts. Was it him or just someone who looked like him? We’ll never know for sure.

After the war there was no future for Perdiswell as a commercial airfield because it was too small, but in the late-Sixties there were plans to re-open it as a landing strip for local business and industry.

However, the locals objected and the project never got off the ground.