London, Scottish and Provincial Airways were registered on February 2nd, 1934, by Stanley Bell of Nottingham. Four airspeed couriers were ordered but ultimately only 2 were delivered. He started his first experimental flight between Croydon, Nottingham, Manchester and Glasgow on March 19th, 1934. Following the delivery of the second machine a daily service was opened up between Leeds, Nottingham, Le Touquet and Paris on August 6th 1934. Both aircraft were now based at Sherbun-in-Elmet aerodrome, near Tadcaster, West of Leeds. Like many of the small airlines of the time it led a ‘hand to mouth’ existence. On one occasion just before a departure to Paris two ‘bowler hatted gentleman’ appeared with instructions to impound the aircraft against an outstanding £300 fuel bill. The Courier already had three passengers aboard and with great ingenuity Bell invited the Bailiffs to inspect the aeroplane; once inside Bell slammed the door and immediately took off. Upon arrival in France the unwitting extra passengers were promptly detained for arriving without passports! The story goes that the creditors were so amused by the incident that they granted Bell a further three months credit. On the 13th August 1934, one of the airlines planes crashed near Sevenoaks. Unable to meet future payments the airline ceased to trade soon after. Redgrove p39 describes the one-off mail service. “On 23 May 1934, the London, Scottish and Provincial Airways Ltd, conveyed a special mail at the request of the Post Office from Nottingham to London. The mail was dispatched from the Post Office Exhibition then being held in Nottingham and among the letters carried was one from the Lord Mayor of London, while another was addressed to the Postmaster-General (Sir Kingsley-Wood). The mail was conveyed by a post office Motor van from Nottingham to Tollerton Aerodrome (3 ½ miles distant) loaded into Air Speed Courier G-SZAC and flown by pilot F.Jaques to Radlett, Herts, from where the mail was conveyed to London by motor. The journey by air occupied 42 minutes. A flat rate of 4d per letter was charged and all covers were franked with a 4d stamp cancelled with the Nottingham postmark of 2.15 p.m. of 23 rd May 1934.”