Landscape / Farming

In 1979, a BAA proposal to build a new terminal at Stansted Airport and expand passenger numbers to 15 million a year saw concerted action throughout Essex to oppose the planning application. A film, directed by Donald Stewart, was produced by the Hadstock Society which set out to show how the character and social life of those villages under the proposed flight path and stacking areas was potentially threatened.

The Society ran several events to finance the production, and various aerial shots were taken using a helicopter, courtesy of the Vesty family. The film was accepted and presented as evidence in the Public Inquiry which was held in Quendon in June 1982. The Inspector, Graham Eyre, commended the film and later it won the Essex Chronicle Award of the Essex Amenity Societies.

However, the Inquiry approved the BAA planning application in 1983 accepting a big increase in passenger numbers but turned down the need for a second runway. The new terminal was opened in 1991. Although the planning result was not the outcome wanted or expected in Hadstock, the film captures village life here 40 years ago in a charming and delightful way.