I wish to comment upon an aspect of the history of Hob Moor that did not appear in Stephen Lewis's fascinating reports (Evening Press, September 10).

As I looked at the aerial photograph I could not help but imagine this area criss-crossed with runways and fringed with airport buildings.

Courtesy of York's excellent city archives, I was able to include the aviation history of Hob Moor in my book The Airport That Never War, recently published by the Yorkshire Air Museum.

It may be of interest to readers to learn that Hob Moor was the first area to be officially designated as the site of York's aerodrome.

Among other things, this approval called for levelling of the site. Goodbye rig and furrow!

It is something in the way of a coincidence in the light of the plague history of Hob Moor, that it was the Ministry of Health that finally put paid to such ideas. They had town planning jurisdiction in those pre-war days.

The headline New Group Has Common Aim To Preserve Pasture, brought a smile to my face as I recalled another group who also fought to save Hob Moor.

This one comprised 5,000 local railwaymen who vehemently opposed any alteration to the status quo, but not because of any concern for ecology.

They just did not want their sleep disturbed by aeroplanes!

Norman Spence,

Cranbrook Avenue,

Boroughbridge Road,

Acomb, York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.