My Father Worked At Heston Airport.

A Memory of Heathrow Airport London.

Hello. My father was Harold John (bob) Mann. He worked as an Air Traffic Controller in the Control Tower, in what was then Heston Airport ('Aerodrome'?). We lived at Heston, in Durham Avenue. We moved there before 1952 - I know that because my younger brother Ian was born in 1952, and I think I was just about to start school at 4 and a half.....( I was born 1948, so I hope that makes sense ! ) How very different it was then. It was so QUIET ! A plane going over was a real novelty. My brother Michael and I always rushed to try to identify a plane, a Meteor, or a Constellation....Nowadays, planes are roaring in and out every few minutes. Add in the traffic noise, and it makes the acoustic environment most uncomfortable. I was sorry to leave our home in 1956, , but I'm so glad we did, now, since the area has become so vastly overcrowded and urbanised. Heston used to be a village, from where you went 'up to Town' (London). Now it is just another part of the sprawling metropolis, and in my opinion, that is not an improvement. I well recall the open fields, with the mature (elm?) trees, and the farmer, with his horses pulling the plough. That, and 'waving wheat' was NOT 'imagination', as my dear friend Brian Roberts , also of Durham Avenue, confirmed. The archetypal ' English Countryside' look at Heston was lost, as more and more people moved into the area / country. Tower blocks and a 'concrete jungle'.....We humans 'went forth and multiplied' far too much. We will be a victim of our own success, since we have failed to curb the population explosion. However : does anyone remember Bob Mann ? Or Peggy Mann ? Or even me, Rosemarie, or brother Mike? Mike used to play cricket with the Webb brothers , in the street, and one day I was allowed to join in. Brian Roberts was also there, and I suspect it may have been he who instigated the idea of letting me score a century ! They all kept dropping the ball, or 'accidentally' letting it go over a hedge, so I could carry on getting 'runs' ! I was exhausted! I must have been all of 6 years old ! And normally excluded from the boys' games. I daresay that will be the one and only time I will score a century at cricket ! I would love to read anything you can relate about their time at Heston. My father, by the way, got his next job at Blackbushe Airport, near Camberley. We moved to Lightwater, near Bagshot, in 1956. That also has changed vastly over the last 50 or so years. Best Wishes, Rosemarie Mann, now age 66, near Southampton.