Newton Heath
NEWTON HEATH: Company helicopter landing area
Operated by: Mather & Platt
Location: In Newton Heath, just NE of Manchester city centre
Period of operation: 1963 to 1967?
NOTES: In 2023 Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide' was watching a TV programme called The Footage Detectives, and a picture of the Brantly B-2B, G-ASEW appeared. Parked in front of the Mather & Platt, Park Works. Further enquires revealed that the pilot seen in the programme was Sebastion Basil Joseph Giani de Ferranti, and he owned G-ASEW from the 6th May 1963 until the 7th April 1967. Born on the 5th October 1927 he died on the 15th October 2015, aged 88.
During his ownership of G-ASEW he lived in Knutsford, Cheshire, south-west of Manchester. What we don't know is how often Ferranti visited this location.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Not one to let matters lie, leaving us guessing, Mike has very kindly provided the following:
In the first screengrab Ferranti is on the left, and on the right under one of Brantly's rotors in the second screengrab.
NOTES: One aspect of history that the pictures above clearly show is how quickly so much of our industrial heritage has vanished in recent decades. Just look at the sheer size of this factory. Mather & Platt was formed as a private limited company in 1892 and moved to Newton Heath in 1900. The company was sold to foreign investors in the 1970s.
I may well be mistaken of course, but it seems to me that most died in the wool Conservatives, since the Second World War at least, have no interest in manufacturing. Which strikes me as being somewhat odd compared to the rest of Europe, both west and east, when it appears that most of these countries, in the west especially, consider that any developed nation must have a strong industrial manufacturing base.
Indeed, under our Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, (1979 to 1990), the destruction of all major industrial activities, including mining and the docks, was a task she pursued with a passion bordering on an obsession. And of course, she succeeded. When my wife and I started our road transport business in west London, at the beginning in the early 1970s, most of our deliveries going "up north" was to industry in one form or another. A real eye-opener for me being a 'soft' southener.
Travelling around the U.K., and especially flying around much of the country in a light aircraft in 1992, it was very evident at just how devastating Thatcher's policies had been. Was this a good thing? I have no idea. My earlier experiences most certainly did not make me a fan of industry, so much of it being in old Victorian era buildings and factories, and awful places to work in. But, the world moves on and modern industrial developments show huge improvements in working conditions.
Even so, I would not have liked to work in such environments.
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