Tetney Lock
TETNEY LOCK: Helicopter base
Note: The B&W photo was kindly provided by Mr Graham Frost. The detail aerial picture is from Google Earth © and the area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
Operated by: Bristow Helicopters
Location: Just E of Tetney village, 2.5nm WSW of NORTH COATES aerodrome and about 5nm SSE of Cleethorpes town centre
Period of operation: 1965 to the early 1970s
NOTES: We have Mr Graham Frost, a great friend of this 'Guide' to thank for pointing out this location. It is interesting in as much as oil exploration in the North Sea started towards the end of 1964, so Bristow Helicopters were employed ferrying crews to and from right from the start. In those days they used Westland (S-55) Whirlwind and Westland (S-58) Wessex helicopters. It was very often a demanding and even dangerous business being involved in these operations on such a regular basis.
Graham tells us that the Westland Wessex 60 Series 1, G-ATBY, was certainly based here - for a while at least. This was registered to Bristow from 02.03.71 until 04.02.75. It then went to Nigeria as 5N-AJM and was quite probably operated there by Bristow.
What seems something of a mystery is why, having built this facility up from scratch, it was only used for a few years? Possibly because, with the intensity of operations increasing, and helicopters being very expensive to operate, sites right alongside the coast made even more sense commercially?
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