PAUL AMBROSE CROGHAN (1934-2003)whom I first knew in 1962 in the field behind the "Airport Hotel" adjacent to the footpath which then led from Ringway Road to Moss Lane, Styal, was instrumental in founding the "EBBMAS-Aero" enthusiasts' society and later assisting with the formation of "P.B. Enterprises". He was a poet and song-writer, and in 1964, in the rhubarb field adjacent to the then 1st Moss Nook scout-hut on Ringway Road opposite the junction with Shadow Moss Road, he used to entertain the spotters with his songs about IATA. Many of his poems were published in the "EBBMAS" magazine "Centreline" and the "P.B." magazine "Winged Words"; he also wrote many fine railway poems and poems about Manchester. Many of these have been lost but I have been able to save some of the best and they are reproduced on this website. Please click on the appropriate link below the picture. He also did some oil-paintings of railway locomotives; five of them are reproduced here from photographs taken in 1977.
GRAHAM OUSEY (ON RIGHT)(1937-2008)
was another well-known character from the 1960s, and a member of P.B. Enterprises throughout most of its existence.
(The other person in the photograph is Peter Elliott, who was a member for approximately three years, an employee of the Halifax Building Society.)
The start of what used to be the footpath from Ringway Road to Moss Lane, closed on 30th May 1963, can still be distinguised in these views taken almost fifty years later, on 7th May 2013. To the left of the path, behind the "Airport Hotel", there used to be a grass field where spotters congregated; that was where I started "spotting" in 1962 and first saw P.A. Croghan.
The location of what in 1964 was the rhubarb field, which spotters knew variously as "the approach" and "the outside place", where the "EBBMAS-Aero" society was formed in 1964/5, could also just about be distinguised on 7th May 2013.
22nd May 2013: P.B.H. and David McCartney placing a tribute to G. Ousey in the airport memorial garden (adjacent to the memorial to a former airport director, G.J. Sweetapple), and looking at the now rather hidden control tower block which they knew from the 1960s.
