Balloon Corner, Welham Green

Stone at Balloon Corner. Inscription on stone at Balloon Corner.

NEAR THIS SPOT AT 3.30 IN THE
AFTERNOON OF SEPTEMBER 15TH
1784 VINCENZO LUNDARDI THE
ITALIAN BALLOONIST MADE HIS
FIRST LANDING WHILST ON HIS
PIONEER FLIGHT IN THE ENGLISH
ATMOSPHERE.
HAVING HANDED OUT A CAT AND DOG
THE PARTNERS OF HIS FLIGHT FROM
LONDON HE RE-ASCENDED AND
CONTINUED NORTH EASTWARD.

Balloon Corner Facts

Balloon corner is at the junction of Parsonage Lane and Huggins Lane in the centre of Welham Green.
Part of the garden of a house in Parsonage Lane was bought to accomodate the stone.
Despite the text on the stone, the dog continued the journey with Vincenzo.
The cat was travel sick and that is the reason that the balloon made its premature landing.
The cat was left in the care of a local woman.
There was also a pigeon on board (in a cage).
The balloon was 18,000 cubic foot and helium filled.
It flew from the Artillery grounds at Moorfields and landed in Standon Green End, in the parish of Thundridge, North of Ware, Herts.
Apart from the stone the flight is also remembered by the naming of Vincenzo Close, off Dellsome Lane.

Vincenzo Lunardi

Vincenzo Lunardi's balloon.
Click here to read letters written by Vincenzo Lunardi.
Click here to read more about the flight or order historic pictures from www.printsgeorge.com the kind supplier of these pictures.

The balloon. The man.

Standon Green End

Signor Vincenzo's flight ended in Standon Green End. Balloon Corner has a sister stone which is a boulder on which a plaque has been mounted. The inscription states:

Let posterity know and knowing be astonished that on the 15th day of
September 1784 Vincent Lunardi, of Luccca in Tuscany, The first aerial
traveller in Britain mounting from the artillery ground in London and
traversing the regions of the air for two hours and fifteen minutes.
In this spot revisited the Earth on this rude monument that wondrous
enterprise, successfully achieved by the power of chemistry and the
fortitude of man that improvements in science which the great author
of all knowledge patronising by his providence the invention of
mankind, hath graciously permitted to their benefit and his
 own eternal glory.

	Click here to read letters written by Vincenzo Lunardi. Click here to read more about the flight or order historic pictures from www.printsgeorge.com the kind supplier of these pictures.
The balloon.		The man.