Childhood Memories

Manchester Airport today is huge, almost engulfing the small village of Styal, where my father was the village policeman and where I spent my formative years. I attended the village Primary School, which still functions. Styal Mill, well known as an historical site, was a working mill in my day, although I saw it close and fall into dereliction. Today, it is handsomely restored and attracts visitors from all over the world.
My father made sure that, if I wanted anything, I had to work and save up, so I delivered newspapers around the village and did a thousand and one odd jobs in order to buy my first bicycle.
Once I was mobile, I would cycle across Cheshire to Buxton, Chester, and many other places. The world was now my oyster. One short cycle ride was to Ringway Airport, as it was called then. Ringway was a former RAF station with several large hangers, which were used to store fertilizer intended to be flown abroad to assist with the groundnut scheme in Africa. On the far side of the airport was a small kiosk which attracted me as, there, tickets were sold for pleasure flights, costing a couple of pounds a time. They were far too expensive for me to consider but, always hopeful, I hung around until, one day, the pilot of the single-engined Auster aircraft asked me to mind the shop whilst he took passengers on a twenty minute spin. When he returned, to my absolute delight, he invited me to take the seat next to him in the plane and have a quick tour around the district. I shall never forget that first experience of flying. There was the Police House, the garden looking neat and trip. There was the village and the school. It all looked just like a model village.

Unknown to me then, I was to fly thousands of miles during the course of my life. Today, as I remember my first flight, I am sitting in a hotel room in New York, having been stranded for a week, due to the cancellation of flights all across Europe. We have come a long way since my childhood but an event such as we have just experienced makes me remember how vulnerable we are in today’s world. A volcanic eruption costs millions. I shall send this article by email, but one cannot imagine the consequences for commerce and industry if the internet failed, by sabotage or accident.
I still fly. I have to, in order to do my job, but I have to confess that I do have real concerns about the effects on the environment of flying. Just a few short weeks ago, I was in the South Pole, very near to the base where Shackleton and Scott launched their expeditions. The signs of global warming were unmistakable. I don’t have easy or ready answers but I do listen carefully to what scientists suggest, and do my best to be careful. We’ve all come a long way since the early days of Ringway, and not all progress has been bad by any means. However, there are dangers, and we ought to remember that and do what we can to make sure that we don’t run into total disaster.

Terry Waite CBE, New York

Article from issue 32 june/july 2010. To order this issue go to the Northern Life online store.