Plane sailing

THE roar of aircraft noise is part of everyday life if you live in Linton-on-Ouse.

It is something to which residents have become accustomed since an air base moved in next door in 1937.

Helen Kirby, parish council chairwoman, said: "It's like everything else. If you live next to a fish and chip shop you get used to the smell of fish and chips. If you live next to an air base, you just get used to it."

Originally used during the Second World War, the base has been dominated by Number One Flying Training School since 1957 and people working and training there make up about half the village population.

Station commander Group Captain Glenn Edge said: "It's difficult sometimes to tell where the village ends and the RAF station begins."

As part of the "excellent" relationship between the base and the village, Group Captain Edge said villagers were being encouraged more than ever to come onto the RAF base and use its facilities.

There are two military churches, a gymnasium, a nursery, hairdressers, coffee shop and a new bowling alley.

"We fly noisy aircraft, but we have never had a single complaint from villagers and that helps us.

"Our police will react if there is an accident in the village. If there is a fire in the village, I won't hesitate in sending our firemen out." The base helped organise last weekend's village festival and is also responsible for an Autumn Fair, Bonfire Night display and an annual Christmas dinner for local pensioners.

But, as tour of duty is two years, it means constantly changing faces in the village.

Said parish council chairwoman Mrs Kirby: "People make friends and then they go. You accept that. But it does mean that people come back to Linton."

Many ex-servicemen who flew planes from the air base retire to the village.

One of the key landmarks in Linton is the memorial cairn, which stands outside the village hall to commemorate Canadian Air Force pilots who were based at Linton during the Second World War.

Ex-Canadian Air Force personnel return to the village every year for a service at the cairn in May, while the RAF organises another service at the cairn on Remembrance Day.

However, before the air base came to the village, Linton was a very different place.

Mary Watson, who has lived there for 50 years, said the village, which dates back to the time of the Domesday Book, was a very small farming community until the airfield was built.

From 1714 onwards, much of the land around Linton was owned by University College, Oxford, after it was bequeathed by landowner John Ratcliffe, after whom the John Ratcliffe Library in Oxford is named.

It was not until 1947 that the college offered villagers the right to buy the properties in Linton that it owned.

Mrs Watson said that in 1936, with the threat of war in the air, the village began to be mooted as a place to build an airfield.

She said: "It started being built in 1937 and then we had Lancasters based here. I think that, at the time, villagers were not too happy about it being built. But now we just accept it. There are no problems and they are always very helpful."

The face of the village changed again two-and-a-half years ago when 50 derelict former Ministry of Defence homes at Linton Woods, just outside the village, were transformed into brand new show homes.

The Evening Press initially highlighted the problem of the derelict houses, which had been without occupants for seven years, and the campaign was taken on by local MPs and councils.

Meanwhile, the fluctuating ebb and flow of the River Ouse means a constantly changing face for Linton Lock, half a mile from the village.

The original Lock was built in about 1767, but was renovated in 1998 at a cost of £900,000, much of which came from a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

But last week's flooding totally submerged the lock, as well as several farmers' fields, though things are now back to normal.

One of the biggest current concerns for the community is the appeal it is running to raise funds for the village hall roof, which needs replacing in original blue slate.

Villagers need to generate £35,000 and, through fundraising events, they have £8,000 in the coffers.

Said parish council chairwoman Mrs Kirby: "It's a very pleasant place to live. We have a very good community and the RAF is very supportive.

"There's a lot going on here."

PICTURES: (top)ON THE MOVE: The canal barge Pegasus on the River Ouse at Linton-on-Ouse. INSET: One of the Tucano planes which fly from RAF Linton-On-Ouse

(bottom) Katie Swift outside the post office at Linton-on-Ouse