Between 1784 and 1786, Bristol witnessed a ‘Balloon Craze’, which had begun in France and soon moved across the Channel. On the 3rd January, 1784 Michael Biaggini hosted the ‘exhibition of the Floating Air Balloon,– 30 ft. in circumference’. The charge was 2s 6d, and although never flown the balloon attracted much public interest and the proprietor permitted those who were interested ‘to see the method and process of filling the balloon with inflammable air’ upon the payment of an extra 2s 6d.
Later that month, Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal reports that on Saturday January 24th at ‘eighteen minutes past one’, James Dinwiddie (1746 - 1815) launched a 15ft. circumference air balloon from the Backfields, near Stokes Croft, ‘amid a vast concourse of people’. The balloon achieved a flight of 20 miles before being taken into military custody by Lieutenant Ogle of the 61st Regiment, who, with a party of soldiers, was on a recruiting drive at Hilperton, near Trowbridge.
A later balloon exhibition, this time of Mr Joseph Deeker, proprietor, was installed at Coopers’ Hall in March 1785 to raise money for the flight. In addition subscription tickets were sold for a grandstand view of the ascent, these being available at 10s. 6d. for the front, and 5s. for the back places. Once the money had been raised the balloon was installed in a field adjoining ‘Mr.Rawlings house in St.Philip's’, from where it was to be launched on Monday, April 18th, 1785. Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal gives a long account of the flight, which began at 3.45 pm. Due to strong winds, it travelled 26 miles in half an hour, descending 20 miles east of Chippenham.
