A historic visitor to Manchester Airport

Manchester was early onto the aviation scene with airfields at Alexander Park and Wythenshawe, before opening the world's first municipal airport at Barton in 1930. But then, as now, Barton suffered from boggy surfaces in winter, and in what was then a heavily industrialised area it also suffered poor visibility. In 1934 the national Dutch airline KLM's Chief Pilot, Captain Smirnoff, rejected Barton as unsuitable for its international services and removed Manchester from its list of destinations.

Manchester City Council decided to open a new airfield to replace Barton at Ringway in Cheshire. Several farms were purchased and work began in 1935 on converting the farmland into a well-drained grass airfield (they had learnt their lesson from Barton; Ringway was a couple of hundred feet higher than Barton, and didn't suffer boggy conditions). The new Ringway Airport opened in 1938.

On 17th May 1937 de Havilland Hornet Moth G-ADND was en-route from London's Great West Aerodrome (which today is Heathrow) to Barton when it ran into poor weather. Unable to reach Barton, the pilot, Duncan Menzies, put November Delta down on the partially complete new municipal airfield and thus became the first ever aircraft to visit Ringway. On 18th May it positioned to Avro's Woodford airfield nearby, and finally made it into Barton the next day, 19th May.

On Tuesday this week G-ADND flew into Barton, and yesterday (17th May) to commemorate that first Ringway landing, it flew into Ringway, now known as Manchester International Airport. It stayed overnight in the Ocean Sky executive jet hangar, and this morning (18th May) I watched it take off on runway 05L and position to Woodford, re-enacting that flight on 18th May 1937.

 

Duncan Menzies, November Delta's pilot in that 1937 landing

November Delta landing at Manchester yesterday

The Hornet Moth taxys past the Runway Visitor Park

Posing with the daily A380, just arrived from Dubai

The Moth's crew this week; left is the original pilot's son, Peter Menzies. 

Right is ND's current owner, David Weston

November Delta's panel

Duncan Menzie's Log Book showing those movements in May 1937 in G-ADND

Landing at Barton

Taxying in at Barton

Ringway Airport opened in the following year, 1938. It comprised a terminal, viewing terrace, control tower, and hangar with a concrete apron and well drained grass runways. However, 1938 was not an auspicious time to open an airfield as World War Two broke out the following year. Ringway became RAF Ringway, a training base for paratroopers who were dropped over nearby Tatton Park. 

Many aircraft were constructed in the Manchester area during the war years, at Avro's Chadderton works, Fairey's at Heaton Chapel, and others built under licence in Trafford Park. These were transported to Ringway in sections by road, and assembled in the hangars built for that purpose (some of which still exist) before being flown out to support the war effort. The very first Avro Lancaster bomber flew from Ringway.

These heavy aircraft movements proved too much for the grass runways, and the MOD put in hard runways which, after the war, were inherited by Manchester City Council when Ringway returned to civilian use. It wasn't until the 1970s that the extensive dispersals and hard standings, opposite The Romper pub and alongside the old Style road, were built over. And of course in 2001 the second runway opened, obliterating the site of the South Side hangars where I had flown from myself with the BTJ Group in the '80s and '90s.

Today, Ringway is Manchester International Airport but it is still in local authority ownership (55% of the shares in Manchester Airport PLC are owned by Manchester City Council, 45% by nine other Manchester area local authorities at 5% each). 

There is little left of the old Ringway today. Diminutive November Delta was a anachronism among the almost continuous stream of heavy jets taxying out for take off, or touching down on Manchester's runways this morning as she made her way to the holding point, swinging from side to side in true taildragger fashion so her pilot could see where he was going past the nose. Her Gipsy engine's (just like in Chipmunk Sierra Lima's) unsilenced blattering barely audible above the whine of turbofan engines of the big jets.

Back in 1937 it would have been very different. A wood and fabric biplane on a green field in a quiet corner of rural Cheshire.

Today was a commemoration, not a recreation, of that 1937 historic diversion. 

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Whitby and the North York Moors Railway

On Tuesday I took the train to Whitby to visit the North York Moors railway. A Trans-Pennine Express took me from Manchester Airport to Middlesborough, from where I took the delightful Esk Valley line to Whitby. This must be one of the most scenic lines in Britain, single track with passing loops in the stations it initially climbs to Battersby then follows the valley of the Esk to the seaside town. Having checked into the B&B, I had a stroll round the town.

 Here's an old friend; Steam Bus 'Elizabeth' on her home turf in Whitby. On 15th October 2011 she was at the Runway Visitor Park, and driver Vernon allowed me to spend time as her fireman (see relevant entry in the blog). This time I was a fare-paying passenger.

Maker's plate showing 'Elizabeth' was originally a Sentinel Steam Lorry

Her owner and driver, Vernon ('Vern')

The church on the south headland by the Abbey

Harbour entrance, with the old Whitby Lifeboat giving pleasure trips

I noticed a boat offering trips for £2.50, so just had to have a ride. Here out of Whitby and heading for Sandsend, the next town.

After about twenty minutes, we returned to Whitby; the Abbey is visible above the harbour entrance.

Next came a pint of Copper Dragon at a pub overlooking the harbour. The yellow boat opposite was the one I took a trip on.

BR Standard Class 4, 'The Green Knight' is approved for running on Network Rail metals. Here she is at Whitby on Wednesday morning ready to take us up the valley towards Pickering on the North York Moors heritage railway. The NYM metals leave the Network rail Esk Valley line at Grosmont, about five miles inland from Whitby.

One of countless crossings of the Esk as 'The Green Knight' powers up the valley from Whitby

A couple of vintage tankers just outside Goathland 

North of Levishan 'The Green Knight' was detached from our train so it could work the next train north back to Whitby. It's the only locomotive in steam that day which has the equipment required to work on Network Rail metals. In the distance can be seen the smoke of that northbound train, and its engine will transfer to our train so we can continue south to Pickering.

....And that engine is 92214 (seen, above, at Pickering), a 9F ex-BR freight loco (though they also did sterling service on summer passenger trains - summer because they were never fitted to supply steam heating for the coaches). The only one of the class that carried a name was the last ever steam locomotive built for BR (in 1960), 'Evening Star', which was built at Swindon and therefore finished in Great Western green rather than black, and fitted with a GW copper chimney top. 92214 has been named 'Cock of the North' in preservation, a name which was actually carried by a Gresley locomotive of the London North Eastern Railway.

92214 as viewed from the leading coach of the train as she heads north from Pickering (working tender first; steam locos work just as well backwards as they do forwards). The sound was fantastic - the driver was working her hard and the staccato 2-cylinder bark form this immensely powerful locomotive was echoing off the valley sides making each mighty 'bark' a double one as the echos came back to my ears out of phase with what was emanating from the chimney top.

At Goathland I transferred to a southbound train (hauled by that most useful of locomotives, a BR Standard Class 4 Tank) back to Pickering. This is the view back from the rearmost coach.

This picture was grabbed as we passed the footpath that forms part of the Lyke Wake Walk, a long distance (40 miles) trek across the North York Moors, crosses the line. Back in the late 1960s I attempted this walk as a Venture Scout (with Alderley Edge troop) and the railway back then was an overgrown victim of the Beeching cuts. Restoration was still years in the future.

 Pickering, and having run-around the train our 2-6-4 tank engine (seen here from the rearmost coach) couples on to the northern end to take us back to Grosmont, where I changed to a train hauled by 'The Green Knight' again for the final leg over Network Rail tracks to Whitby.

On the journey north from Pickering I was leaning out watching the big tank engine sway from side to side as it barked its way up the valley when a deer dashed down the bank, skipped across the track just in front of the speeding loco, and scampered up the far bank. 

The final train from Grosmont to Whitby arrived in the seaside town at 17:00, so a full day on the railway had been enjoyed. If you like railways and steam it's a great way to spend a day; it might even become an annual event for me!

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This year's MCRUA trip - to Skeggy!

Yesterday was the annual outing of the Mid Cheshire Rail Users Association by train. The destination this year was Skegness. Well, it is so bracing, isn't it?

07:30, the leading class 66 diesel locomotive of our train (there was another on the rear of the 12 coaches) approaches Mobberley station, where we boarded

We travelled in a very comfortable ex-Virgin Mk2 fist class coach. Here, the train approaches Boston in Lincolnshire having travelled via Stockport, Standedge Tunnel, and Doncaster.

Boston Stump

Arrival in Skeggy. Some passengers had left the train at Lincoln for a look around that city, and some had done so at Wainfleet for a trip around the Batemans Brewery (in the light of subsequent experience of Skeggy, we should have done this!). Our train was 'The Lincolnshire Poacher' but the headboard says otherwise!

Amid occasional  gusty showers, we sought shelter in the lifeboat station

The lifeboat was available for public viewing, and the lifeboat house contained some interesting accounts of daring rescues at sea

The sandy, if bleak, beach

Looking back to the town from the beach

No business today for these beach donkeys as they huddle to find shelter from the wind and rain

The pervasive sound was the hollow popping of 2-stroke motor scooter engines. Skeggy seems to be a mecca for anyone with a Lambretta or Vespa - it took me right back to 1968 when most of my mates had one or the other.

The all pervading smell was that of chip fat. I have never seen so many fish and chip shops; there are four in this picture and a wider angle lens would show many more.

A brace of Lambrettas. Scooters were parked in all available spaces along the sea front.

Our rail journey took us through Lincoln (the return was by the same route as the outbound). Here is the famous cathedral on its hill. To make the picture perfect, there should be a Lancaster or Vulcan bomber in the sky above the iconic towers.


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Back to Broadway!

Chris and I have just returned from another trip to visit elder daughter Claire in the Cotswolds, where she works as a vet. The weather was not so kind as it was for us a year ago, but the B&B (The Windrush - http://www.windrushhouse.com/ ) was just as welcoming. We were there Monday until today.

Claire and some wisteria in Broadway High Street

 Tuesday was wet, and Chris and Claire went shopping in Cheltenham. I had intended to visit the Gloucester Warwickshire Railway, but discovered it was not running that day. By evening the weather had cleared up but was still misty. This is the view through the window from our table at the Mount Inn, overlooking the picture-book village of Stanton.

 Wednesday was dry, so we visited Hidcote Manor Gardens

 The view from the Manor House entrance

 In the distance is the National Trust guide who would later give us an interesting talk on the history of Hidcote and the gardens.

The gardens are arranged in a series of 'rooms'. Here are Chris and Claire in one of them.

 Claire in the 'Stilt Garden'

 Having spent Wednesday morning at Hidcote, after a pot of tea in the cafe there we drove to Winchcombe station on the Gloucester Warwickshire Railway, which was operating that day. Recently restored Great Western 2-8-0 no. 2807, a 1905 freight locomotive, enters Winchcombe with a train from Cheltenham Racecourse station

I had a word with the loco crew and secured a footplate ride on the engine while it ran around the train to position on the other end for the journey back to Cheltenham (Claire's picture)

 The view of Winchcombe yard from the footplate of 2807. The line north of here is temporarily severed by an embankment collapse, but the railway are proceeding with repairs and hopefully it won't be too long before trains can travel the entire length from Cheltenham to Laverton, and then on to the proposed extension to Broadway. The railway has plans to eventually link up with the Network Rail  main line at Honeybourne.

 Claire's picture of 2807 having run around the train using the track on the right, awaiting the points to change so she can advance down onto her train and be coupled on.

Claire catches a similar picture to one on the visit to the Keithley & Worth Valley Railway (see the blog October 2010). There I was climbing down from the cab of BR Standard Class 4 Tank Engine, here it's GWR 2-8-0 2807.

I make my way back to the platform, followed by the fireman and the driver

 The train, ready to depart back to Cheltenham

 Even though I didn't do any firing, it's thirsty work on a steam locomotive. So we enjoyed a drink in the afternoon sunshine outside The Swan Inn, Broadway.

That evening we had a lovely meal at the Horse & Groom in Bourton-on-the-Hill, bringing our few days in the Cotswolds to a pleasant ending.

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