Announcing the Arrival: 50 Years of Jersey Airport - 1987

climb to 3,000 qnh one zero one two three three two zero one two three that's my story we were far too unsexy to run when you know a 22 and I've seen the arrival of British Airways site be a five-to-one 6 from Manchester 50 years and what to show for it a modern Airport working to the highest standards at times amongst the busiest in the British Isles 25 million passengers have passed through its doors leaving or arriving few have stopped to think about how it all started what else stories photographs film memories of a gentle raid when Jersey Airport was the biggest single building in the island and the most expensive when critics said it was too big and would never be used when the airport was a curiosity imposed on farmland in st. Peter a place to visit with great excitement at weekend built in 1930s style run by a handful of staff what would the staff of 1937 recognise at the airport today well I'm afraid not a lot one of the two original hangars are still standing behind me and is in use of the arrivals hall the airport terminal itself of course was never demolished it's still here just swallowed up in years a rather ugly expansion but if you look carefully the main entrance it's the intact give or take a few changes Graham Gorham the architect have the idea that it would shed light onto the foyer unfortunately successive airport authorities have seen fit not to cover the swedish marvel terrazzo floor over which millions of people must have walked in 50 years either coming or going I wonder how many of them realised that it was right here that the airport was opened on a sunny day the 10th of March 1937 in the hope that this place will serve this generation and future generations of mankind I declare this airport open said mrs. Babs Coors the wife of the bailiff Alexander Kitaj as she unveiled the act of the states which created one of the most modern aerodrums in Europe before a tour of the airfield for the guests the bailiff himself said the airport would stand to the glory of God for the service of the king and for the good of the people stirring stuff but croutons and everyone else on opening day knew it had taken a lot of perseverance to this far amidst public opposition it started on the beach at West Park in December 1933 bill Thurgood a coachbuilder from where started Jersey Airways with a tiny de Havilland dragonfly to Portsmouth affair 3 pounds the hundreds who lined the seawall was skeptical but the company survived Jersey's first really successful and lasting air service even if the pilots did have to dodge the tide it was fun in the summer but the winter was a different matter for pilots passengers and ground staff using this tied layers trip could be a hair-raising experience Jack Boswell joined the Airways in 1935 and went on to work at the airport for 40 years where once crowds gathered to weigh their loved ones goodbye we talked about the days when West Park seemed less than ideal as the base for an airline that's been quite frightening for the passengers who were traveling on the aircraft you can just imagine southwesterly winds rain and seeing these waves would be a bit frightening they had to check in perhaps when it was pouring with rain and it didn't help us because in very breathe I had to crowd in the coach with us which meant that we had great difficulties in completing the paperwork which in very became a sudden man but we coped but people like Geron gaya Fortescue but al Berg Russia president of the piers and harbors committee knew that just coping wasn't good enough a proper airfield was needed an idea first mooted in 1930 by the Chamber of Commerce jerrod degree she took the proposition to build one on farmland at San Peter to the States in April 1934 he was helped by Alexander Kitaj then the Attorney General who negotiated with the farmers involved the cartoonists had no doubts about how synonymous his name had become with the great Airport project one thing was in katanas favour history for the people of Jersey have become the most air minded in the British Isles from the first aeroplanes in 1912 through a host of unreliable and fly-by-night air services to the private pilots who chose Jersey for weekend John's in 1933 10,000 people had turned up at the racecourse at dawn bridge to watch a special aerial pageant biplanes swooped in mock battles there was even an autogyro forerunner of the helicopter and the people of Jersey lapped it all out the island experimented with various sorts of sea planes to overcome the lack of a landing ground but the sea proved almost as unkind as the sand and several schemes ended in disaster when a Jersey Airways amphibian crashed on the Winkies in 1936 it brought into focus the need for a modern aerodrome on which work started in 1935 in December 34 the states had approved 60,000 pounds to build an airport terminal and two hangars but had to vote another 17,000 in March 35 because no firm would tender for the work in the end Clarence Farley oversaw the job for the firm started by his father Ernest Farley and son well we imported Rhonda I think it's a segment stray pad to come into the British Isles from America and today because the tiny instruments but it was quite a cetacean offering them and that with other equipment we leveled the ground we had a appalling winter I remember the Union Post described as our father is building a seaport on Airport looks like that there were many people who were contacted have done it I think I know that we were there the lowest tender or to carp you were well known for tennis courts but the next lowest and I don't think there any other local tenders no I'm sure there wasn't some other news fella I can remember too that people the lowest and indeed the committee wanted to give the contract for the landing for the levelling two-on-two car and for the drainage work to Follies I've spared my father to take a job as they know you'll have a lot or nothing we got bored because they didn't back to give episodes and to ask for another eight thousand pounds but the piers and harbors committee did have to go back to the States time and time again as the cost of the airport escalated an extra 27,000 pounds in November 1935 for night flying which was unforeseen 30,000 in February 1936 for special facilities and 17,000 for leavening another 21 veggies in November 1936 by which time the airport was almost ready the opening was set for March 1937 a year behind schedule then the piers and harbors committee announced that the official opening would be a private affair the public would not be allowed in for fear they damaged delicate instruments it caused a storm of protest led by the Evening Post which said the states had once again proved themselves hopelessly out of touch with public opinion but the decision stood in the public were denied the chance to see the building and all that delicate equipment staff were appointed Chris Phillips was to be the controller on 600 pounds a year Charles Ross was the assistant controller and Charles Russia's deputy was Jack Herbert first of all that the place was too large it would never be used then it was too costly and we were lost at all popular.i we were in brown uniform in those days and I went into town on business frequently and I got badgered by the public so I used to take my universe I had to go into town areas going in the cities one day I went in in beautiful brown uniform and the commissionaire west's was in brown uniform and somebody came up to me in King Street and asked me what's on my cinema tonight back on the beach the days of racing against the tide were coming to an end for some an airport would never be so romantic as the days when jazzy Airways pilots went for a swim between flights or hatched plots to see who could be first to land at the new airfield don't Breton all was determined and he would be the very first to land on Jersey Airport and when he was told by the engineer I can't remember his name I think was leave he said oh you have a slight oily captain Brett door and that was the excuse he wanted and as a result he landed at the airport for this only to be rectified in fact he could have quite easily flown back to the mainland but it was obviously they had to put some story out to satisfy the state's members presumably but he was determined he was going to be the first and he was and I can well remember the day because he was really highly delighted that he would beat the official evening even though the airway staff moved away from the seaside flying was still described in nautical terms the architects for the airport were Norman and Durban and of their work the magazine the architect said the buildings present both in form and color the clear-cut workmen like lines usually associated with the ship aesthetically this is sound since many of the attributes of an airport are identical with those of a seaport the consultants have striven to achieve a combination of the precise working of a railway station with the comfort to be found in a modern office building he had several services to to Hestia the day I've got enough and to Portsmouth of course our surface was large in those days it was no and we also had the same total weather to get there of the fog which delayed his good suitably we only had one watch of staff sufficient staff for one watch and we used to start about quarter past five and if it was twelve sometimes we be still there at two o'clock the following morning the Bekaa game at quarter past five I couldn't stand it now with a permanent home Jersey Airways could operate regular services and for pilots there were modern facilities like wireless and even a white strip across the landing ground to allow takeoffs in fog four passengers a timetable for 1937 with the new airport on the cover by bringing the Airways of their mulcaster Street office or at the airport itself telephones and Peter's 200 you could book a passage to London to three pounds single or five pounds return excess luggage went by steamer for the railway companies now had an interest in the Airways and the post-office finally awarded a contract to carry the mail the first airmail arrived on the 1st of June in 1937 the Airways was trading ahead they were first to fly the new de Havilland flamingo but it and the house in days of Jersey Airport were short-lived as impending war cast its shadow in 1940 Jersey Airways staff were evacuated to Donna bristle though some came back in June to help Islanders who wanted to get away staff at the airport got their orders including wireless operator Bob Lawrence the orders we headed there but the radio Department was the fact that we were all had to get out of it of course and on no account was any of the gear to be damaged on that they were by that time there was only three great officers left which was attempt the like taffy Morgan eric tonesha and myself and we agreed between the three of us that we would try and get the equipment away they weren't really sets in those days for direction-finding and so we decided we pack it up with the help of Jack Herbert who organized the pen technicians for us we managed to ship the equipment away by what I understood after after the war that we were told by mr. Bouchard that unfortunately I think it was at Weymouth the whole lot got bombed and it was destroyed the ship the lot went that was in the Homburg way all your work was in vain well more or less yes at least Jerry didn't get it on the morning of the first of July 1940 a lone German aircraft dropped ultimatums demanding surrender this aircraft came back again and flying quite now and went out someone's and landed it from zero nine the Charles Ross said well we'd better go out and see our new visitor we went out in this aircraft accident bracelet acted up very slowly to the apron whether it's two machineguns covering us and it stopped engines still running and the German officer got out and pulled out his revolver and pointed his basis as head general and I don't want any trouble and revolvers back again and he wanted to talk the bailiff it was lightning turn and then it's three o'clock the bailiff came out government secretary Jared Evans and some others of a favored type of cotton and the airport was all the island rather was handed over outside of my office the ignominy of jerseys brand-new airport under German rule a German soldier standing next to the sign the Royal Air Force put up during their brief stay before withdrawing to leave the Islanders to their fate a local firm having to refuel German fighters it was five years before the RAF again took control at the airport in May 1945 and this is what they found oh it's a heck of a mess I think the Germans they obviously hadn't used it as a airport because the gas of the film was mined and the grass was at least 2 feet high and the place was full of empty wine balls they think they've been using it there's a night spot anyhow the RAF were in charge like their tenant crombie and first of all the engineer's came out and removed all the mines then he rains for some German prisoners of war to come up to help tidy the place up and we had to struggle to cut the grass we borrowed some bellows from various farmers and borrowed some German horses and started to cut the grass and the crafty Germans had bought some little piece of coiled wire about six or eight inches long and distributing all over the place of course when the blowers hit one of these things the grossest jammed up and to come talk about a lot of clearly things peacetime brought a new airline British European Airways created by the Labour government which much against the islands wishes took over Jersey Airways in 1947 in this time of ration coupons Jersey seemed a good place for a holiday and B ei used a fleet of wartime Dakotas to oblige some passengers brought their own lunchbox not realizing with the airline served sandwiches and the pilots in stewards often wore their old RAF uniforms because they had no other when they landed in Jersey they were guaranteed the sort of welcome that size means our Airport lacks today it was such a friendly call a happy ship and everybody was sociable to look to one another and friendly was excellent as we got bigger of course usually atmosphere changed and there were staff students meetings of rid of there the older by 1948 it seemed that everyone wanted to run an airline in Britain and just about everybody did one thing they all had in common besides often lasting only a summer season was a desire to fly to Jersey so that in those post-war years the island was a microcosm of British aviation some of these fledgling airlines survived and serve us till today others were swallowed up by bigger fish and some collapsed under the weight of regulations imposed as flying became more a science than an art in the 1950s when the world and his brother were keen to come here Jersey tourism were quick to point out that the island was undoubtedly well-connected ever since the annual holiday became a national institution holiday makers have come to Jersey the most southerly of the British Isles I'm the son they come by the sea routes from Southampton and Weymouth and by direct air services from the main cities in Great Britain and those who come one come again charming wasn't it but sophistication was creeping in Jersey airlines were by 1962 flying the dark Harold setting new standards of passenger comfort 45 minutes from Southampton in a pressurized plane so that you didn't need those boiled sweets anymore Jersey Airport responded to the explosion of the 50s and 60s by expanding first its runway there was a tarmac fund to replace the grass in 1951 and gradually the terminal lines of graham Dobbins design began to disappear it was no longer good enough to use the crow's nest as a lookout a proper control tower and all the telecommunications which went with it was needed radar direct telephone links to other major airports more money more facilities 1964 the runway was lengthened one of the four times it's been extended amid much controversy the harbors an airport committee saw the need to accommodate larger aeroplanes in the interests of tourism in the winter of 1965 there was an even bigger job resurfacing which meant the airport had to be closed altogether getting in and out of the island meant using a special be a helicopter linked to Guernsey then on by Vikon to the United Kingdom passengers got better facilities - with a new departure hall needed if nothing else to cope with delays during fog from which the airport has always suffered the building's crawled southwards and the runway went East prompting people to ask Lord Kadosh why they had put the terminal in the middle of the airfield his reply was simple they hadn't in the 60s traffic was phenomenal aircraft landed at the rate of 1 every minute in the summer air fares were relatively high compared with other parts of Europe or flying across the Atlantic but it didn't seem to discourage the thousands of tourists being disgorged into the tiny arrivals hall in part of the original Jersey Airways hang-up the hangar was shared by the airport fire service which was also forced to expand bigger appliances more knowledge required by the firemen of the inside of new aircraft using the Jersey route knowledge which was sadly put to use in 1965 1970 and 1980 with 3 fatal crashes but the biggest and most momentous change in the 60s was the advent of the jet in August 1965 a 111 of British United pioneered the first passenger jet service from Jersey to Gatwick the UAE's Freddie Laker was on board to send the service on its way and British United later British Caledonian have been operating it ever since jets brought all sorts of problems tricky landings on the airport's length restrictive runway to use a jargon term and above all noise a society was formed of residents of some feet of the parish in which the airport lies SPAD the Society for prevention of aircraft disturbance fought long and hard but achieve little it has taken the long process of European law to win spats battles after years of shattered eardrums 111's now have hush kitted engines and there's a whole new generation of jets using the quiet engines of the 80s fifty years on an airport that looks much like any other provincial airport in the British Isles still expanding the lines of a 1937 building which Graham draw bond rather quaintly described as a swallow in flight gone forever in the interests of safety security and size nearly 84,000 aeroplanes last year but never a year to top 1975 when 94,000 movements were logged in and out it's a seasonal airport a hive of activity in the summer quiet in the winter the Lloyd bloom wicker chairs of the 1930s have been replaced with the sort of uncomfortable seats you'll find in public buildings the world over money is important in a way unheard of fifty years ago for the airport is a trading area and has to show a profit and the people who provide the revenue are resigned to the demands of the balance sheet and the blandness of modern travel there is however still a curious esprit de corps amongst the airport staff large as it is especially upstairs where controllers handle aircraft from the time they enter the Channel Islands control zone high over the English Channel to landing on the runway in 1937 while the states debated whether the public should be allowed into the opening an angry letter writer told the Evening Post that fifty years hence Jersey Airport would be a nerve center of Western European coastal air trade and communication and he wasn't far wrong five two and seven are we zero nine seven seven zero eight zero degrees at eighteen twenty-two knots I'm just plus 1 qf e 1 0 0 3 J 2 1 0 1 3 Alice tell Iselle has written a book about the history of Jersey airport called announcing the arrival it has over 150 photographs some never published before and tells the story of the development of the airport from 1935 to the present day published by channel the book is available from leading book shops or direct from the television centers in Jersey and Guernsey price three pounds fifty

Channel: ITV Channel Television

Views: 12,481

Keywords: Jersey Airport (Airport), Airport (Film Subject), ITV Channel Television (TV Network), Jersey (Country)

Id: gitVZxkfUIA

Length: 25min 39sec (1539 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 25 2014