The “Weekenders” at Wymeswold Aerodrome

VROOOOOOOOOOM! Is that a bird? is it a plane? Well if you lived near Wymeswold Aerodrome then it was almost certainly an aircraft, and after Looking Back featured an article about how 50 years ago residents complained about the noise of the planes flying over the town, a gentleman whose grandmother lived just over the road from the old aerodrome has been in touch.

Frank Hallam, 69, from Buck- ingham Drive, Loughborough said that his father, Arthur Frank Hallam, was a ‘weekender’ in the RAF and that him and his sister used to imagine that it was his father flying the planes as they landed at the aerodrome.

Frank said that although his father worked at William Cottons in the town centre, he would volunteer at the Aerodrome on a Saturday and a Sunday both before and during World War Two.

Frank said that himself and his sister would often go to visit his grandmother, Lizzy Hallam, who lived in a cottage on Wymeswold Road, and he said they would go and play with a medicine ball in the paddock opposite the cottage that would back onto the aerodrome.

He said: “We would often watch all the planes landing and would like to think that it was dad flying them, and would wave at them all.”

Mr Hallam said that he remem- bers his father cycling from their home in Loughborough to Wymeswold, and said that he also remembers his father going to Germany for two weeks as part of the weekenders.

• Do you recognise any of the faces in the photos that Frank sent in?

Or do you know anything more about Wymeswold Aerodrome? Please contact Liam Coleman on 01509 635806 or email liam.coleman@trinitymirror.com

Pictured is Arthur Frank Hallam and other members of the weekenders at Wymeswold Aerodrome. Mr Hallam is on the right of the photo sat down and is wearing glasses.

Pictured is Arthur Frank Hallam and other members of the weekenders at Wymeswold Aerodrome. Mr Hallam is fourth from the the right of the photo.

Pictured is Arthur Frank Hallam and other members of the weekenders at Wymeswold Aerodrome. Mr Hallam is on the right of the photo wearing glasses next to the aircraft engine.