HISTORY OF THE AERODROME

MEIR Aerodrome opened in 1934 and was operated by National Flying Services and the North Staffordshire Aero-club. Early aircraft were refuelled using two-gallon petrol cans which had to be refilled at Leese’s Garage across the road from the airfield.

In 1935 The Sentinel announced that Meir Aerodrome was on the Londonbelfast-glasgow route of an airline called Railway Air Services, although the flights only landed at Meir if anyone was waiting. The stationmaster at Meir was radioed by the plane and had to weigh passengers to make sure the aircraft wouldn’t be overloaded. In 1937 Santa Claus himself touched down in a small aircraft at the aerodrome ‘from Iceland’ and was met by local children ahead of his journey to Lewis’s in Hanley.

During the war the RAF used Meir as the base for their No.5 Elementary Flying Training School and trainee pilots learned to fly Tiger Moths and Hawker Harts. Imitation roads were painted across the grass to confuse enemy reconnaissance planes, and while the Germans did take aerial pictures of Meir, they never bombed it. A concrete runway extending to over half a mile was added when the Rootes factory opened on the far side of the airfield at Grindley Lane. After the war the airfield at Meir was mostly used by ATC and Staffordshire Gliding Club, and it’s said that the final flight was made in 1973 by Eric Clutton in his homemade aircraft, which was known as ‘Fred’,