"The crowd continued to increase, till the adjoining gardens, fields, and hills seemed one forest of people; and all the windows, roofs, and the very trees, in the immediate neighbourhood, were covered with spectators ..." Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, 29 September, 1810.

On September the 24th 1810 Bristol's first demonstration balloon flight set off from a field behind Stoke's Croft.

James Sadler, commonly known as the 'Father of English Ballooning' and local chemist William Clayfield took off in their hydrogen-filled balloon just after lunchtime. Its green and light purple canopy with a central band of gold lettering must have been a magnificent sight to the crowds who watched in awe below. So many people had turned out to watch the spectacle that the Bristol Volunteer militia were need to control them. At first the intrepid balloonists flew towards Leigh Down, where they proceeded to parachute a small basket containing a cat down to earth. Fortunately the cat, who was subsequently named 'Balloon' by the local doctor, seems to not to have suffered from the ordeal.

The balloon continued on its flight passing over Clevedon before crossing the Bristol Channel towards Barry in South Wales where fearing they would not make land before ditching in the sea the men threw as much as they could out of the basket - including Mr Sadler's hat. The balloon rose rapidly and then drifted down the channel before landing on the sea about four miles off Combe Martin. Both men were then rescued by lifeboat.