22/05/2026
We will have Keith Hicks local historian on our fundraising day doing a talk on.
WINGS OVER SEFTON
The story of aviation on the West Lancashire coast from 1910
Just seven years after the Wright brothers had successfully flown the first aeroplane at Kittyhawk, USA, Southport, Freshfield and Waterloo became the location for several of the pioneers of British aviation.
Keith traces those early years of 'string bags' flying off local beaches through to the present-day Southport Air Show. Emergence of Hesketh Park Aerodrome, early commercial flights off Birkdale beach to Blackpool and Manchester, plus visits by Sir Alan Cobham's Flying Circus, stir memories from long ago. This area's crucial involvement in the two world wars, notably Crossens-based Southport Vulcan during WW! and RAF Woodvale, commissioned in 1941 for the defence of Liverpool and its post-war role, provide a fascinating insight. Transatlantic flights to the USA in 1936 and 1937, flown off Ainsdale beach, together with the pleasure flights of the iconic Sidney Norman Giroux, known to everyone as 'Giro', recall an evocative era. The exploits of Southport Aero Club and its aero-modelling equivalent, also ensure they remain fresh in the memory.
1950s Maiden flight of the Avro Vulcan over the Mersey Estuary
