Southend Airport

A Memory of Southend-on-Sea.

I worked for British Air Ferries in the early seventies as a post room assistant and remember so vividly the sight and sounds of those lumbering great Carvairs and the clouds of bluish smoke and coughing engines.  I was also an Air Cadet with the 1812 squadron.  I remember marching up the road behind Aviation Traders and sitting on the grass near the end of the runway, listening to the Sky Larks in between the bellowing of one fat NCO.  These were the days before high security and terrorism.

I also remember peddling frantically down Hoblythick Lane on new years day in the ice and fog to see a huge array of airliners diverted to Southend Airport.  In my haste, I braked on the ice, didn't stop, and ended up splayed across the road with cut knees. Oh to be young again!  I left Southend in 1974 and now live in Norwich but still have strong attachments.