Back at Chorlton's own Aerodrome

The aerodrome, circa 1924

You can never get enough of stories about aerodromes, especially when the aerodrome in question was here in Chorlton.

So I am back with Hough End Aerodrome,* and in the interests of accuracy it was actually called Alexandra Park Aerodrome, taking its name from the nearby railway station.

The site had been chosen by the War Department in 1917 partly because this was still open farmland and also because of the railway line which meant the aircraft could be transported direct from factories in Newton Heath and Stockport to the airfield and assembled on site.

Its operational life had two short periods.  It lasted as a military aerodrome for just a year from May 1918 till May 1919, and operated as civil airfield until 1924.

During the later phase it operated flights to London, Southport, Blackpool and Amsterdam.  But for great chunks of this time there was uncertainty about its future.  Almost as soon as civilian aircraft began using aerodrome there was a debate about whether it should be taken over by Manchester Corporation. Much was made of its closeness to the city centre and the boost it could give to the economy.  Birmingham Council had already bought the West Bromwich Aerodrome and this was a 40 minute car ride from the centre compared to just the ten minutes it would take to get to Albert Square.  There was also a strong belief that the Air Ministry would sell for a very low price.

But reading the newspaper reports of the period there is a sense that it was still not as successful as it could be.

One journalist commented that “the aerodrome has known many vicissitudes.  The travellers on the railway between Manchester and Withington have seen it alternate between a place of stirring activity during and just after the war and a place of flat desolation untroubled by the whirr of a single propeller, the great sliding doors of the hangars firmly closed, the weather gauges streaming out in indication of breezes that interested no one.  Now and then awakened by the measure activity of a civilian service or its pulse has been quickened to a very swift beat by it being a station for the round Britain air Race.”*

Part of the problem I suspect was just the cost of flying.  A flight from Manchester to Paris would shave six to seven hours off the journey by rail and channel crossing but the fare would be 9 guineas making it a third more expensive than the conventional trip.  Moreover this assumed that the service had been subsidised “by £10,000 to cover the installation and inauguration of a service.” Which even then might as one newspaper reported only be used by businessmen “whose time is worth money, earns say £2000 a year, which is £2 an hour, [who would] save six hours and so make between £8 and £9 on the deal.”**

The demolition of the hangars, 1924

The case became even more important with the development of the surrounding area for housing.  Soon the argument ran there would not be enough land for an airport.
The Egerton estate appeared to view with favour a Corporation buy up and promised to hold off selling the land till a decision could be made.  

But in the event there was no Corporation buy out and by the terms of the original lease agreement all flying use stopped five years after the war’s end and on September 24^th 1924 all the buildings and power plant were put up for auction including nine hangars and other buildings, two generators, cables electric fittings, boilers, heating piping, water piping, baths, wash basins, lavatory fittings and other items.”****

Already some of the wooden huts had been used by the City Police to house its unmarried officers.

And that pretty much is that for the aerodrome, leaving me only to record that the name of the Alexandra Park Railway Station was changed to Wilbraham Road in July 1923, almost a year before the airfield closed and that the station itself closed in 1958.  It’s one last buzz of activity coming when Granada used it for the venue of its Blues train show in 1964.  But that is another story.

Pictures; courtesy of Nora Templar and now in the Lloyd collection

*Alexandra Park Aerodrome, Ministry’s Lease Expiring, The Manchester Guardian August 22^nd 1924

** The Alexandra Park aerodrome. Pros and Cons of Purchase, The Manchester Guardian September 27^th 1922

*** Sales by Auction, The Manchester Guardian September 6^th 1924