About the new sponsor
My name is Chaz Bushell.
I moved to Great Sankey when I was 9 years old back in 1969. I lived within a mile of the Burtonwoodbase and in fact now live within a ¼ of a mile of the southern perimeter, as was.
As such the Base was a big part of my memories of growing up in the area. Although most of the greatest activity at the Base had been and gone by that time, it was still a special place in the eyes of a young lad like me. As I got older I learned more about its great history and understood the importance of what it had meant to thousands of people since the Second World War up to today.
Nothing of any real measure has been saved about the once great heritage that was Burtonwood base, the greedy developers only wanted it’s airfields to make money , the local authorities were happy to take it’s cut!
Even to the point of bull dozing A&E site, the last hangers remaining, to leave that just like most of the rest of the site, unsellable, waste land! Not one thought to preserve heritage and history was given or cared about!
Then after all that, my friend of many years, Les Granfield ,told me that the site he had created and run for over 10 years was to be dropped by the Association, I was stunned. All that history, all those memories of all those folks was to be lost!
It lived on only in cyberspace, yet even that was to be bulldozed!!!!
I own a small, one man business right near the Base, so I thought what can I do to save this last place on the Web with a real connection with Burtonwoodbase?
So I’ve sponsored it. I’ve bought the domain names and will support it for as long as I can. The Webmaster, Les, has agreed to maintain it when time permits, just as he always has. The site will remain largely as it is; all pictures will remain on there, assuming those that supplied them agree to leave them there. The message board will remain, with its well over 400 pages of memories and contact info and hopefully be continued to be used as it has been these last 10 years.
The bean counters can tear down the buildings, but they can’t kill the memories and I hope those that have used Les’s site will continue to do so and long may it be so!
Chaz Bushell 1st March 2010