RAF LINDLEY now MIRA Technology Park

THIS VIDEO
This ongoing Video Diary by myself John Neal, sometimes known as John Longcroft-Neal, as the whim takes me.

TODAY’S SUBJECT is a commemoration of D Day by cycling to MIRA Technology Park near Nuneaton and exploring the history of RAF Lindley with defence to my father’s role as a pilot in the RAF in WW2. Also I move on to Stoke Golding Church when in WW2 the church spire was dismantled so as not to obstruct incoming aeroplanes landing at RAF Lindley.

GENERAL STUFF
I am retired from two careers of primary school teaching when I was deputy head of a Middle School and Primary School, and as a self employed Chalkboard Artist from 2002 until I reached the grand old age of 65 in 2016. Since I retired it’s like a second childhood but with more expensive toys.

SORRY BUT my website does no longer exist. Use these links below to buy my FOUR FULL LENGTH VIDEO $10.00 (approx £7.50) directly via Fastspring
1.a
’ Better Handwriting for Adults’
http://sites.fastspring.com/jwrenimages/product/betterhandwritingforadults
2.
‘More Handwriting for Adults’
http://sites.fastspring.com/jwrenimages/product/morehandwritingforadults
3.
‘Introduction to Chalkboard Art’
http://sites.fastspring.com/jwrenimages/product/introductiontochalkboardart
4.
‘More Chalkboard Art’
http://sites.fastspring.com/jwrenimages/product/morechalkboardart

I have also written a book ‘Cursive Handwriting for Adults’
published by Ulysses Press and can be purchased from:

AMAZON UK

AMAZON USA

My FACEBOOK Page https://www.facebook.com/Johnnealartist

I play guitar and write songs and have written about 14 songs for the local BBC radio station. I run a weekly (weakly) evening Acoustic session at a local pub and have been doing so for 14 years now. I also started an afternoon acoustic session in a quite large cafe in Nuneaton. Both premises were former songwriting clients of mine.

Much of the music I use on this channel is taken from epidemicsound.com free to use on Youtube for a reasonable monthly fee, and sometimes I suffer you with my own music.

Gear that I use:
DJI Mavic Mini 3 Drone.
Iphone 15 Pro for camera, generally front facing so I can see myself in frame. Super quality especially if I keep the lens clean.
Go Pro11
Gimble is a Q2 Smooth by Zhiyun, I ought to use this more often because it was expensive.
Canon G7mk2
Sony IC recorder

Omnidirectional Lavalier Microphone

Rhode videomic to do voice over on computer
Video editing with Final Cut Pro X
Polarduck Mini Tripod for mobile phone. This is so good and under £10.00 I bought two.
Lamcou bendy leg tripod
Smatree Tripod / mono pod
Mono pod is a Manfrotto Compact MMC3-02 and is very useful for getting high angles that look like low flight drone shots and so easy to carry on my bike along with the mini tripod.

My bike is a e28 Estarli electric bike.

https://www.estarli.co.uk/

Money from ARTWORK SOLD will go to the MONA FOUNDATION
for details see https://www.monafoundation.org

I am a follower of the Bahá’i Faith and some of my philosophical ideas may show through in comments that I make, but, by and large, I’ll not make direct reference to my beliefs.
FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/131048357093583
See www.bahá’i.org

To hear my Bahá’i INSPIRED SONGS, (and others) GO TO:
https://soundcloud.com/jrwren/sets/bahai-inspired-songs

I also enjoy gardening but lay no claims to have any expertise, and you might catch me out in the countryside of Warwickshire and nearby Leicestershire on a walk with my wife or on a bike ride.

Please comment below to inform further plans for my vlogs. I’d love to hear from you. If you don’t you will just get whatever bubbly ideas float to the surface of my slightly muddled elderly mind.

well good morning John Neil here it’s uh Wednesday the 5th of June 2024 and it’s the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Landings and we have some connections here so I’m going to go up to Myra H harba I think it’s now called which used to be an RAF station let’s have a closer look I have to put these on one they look make me look cool secondly they keep the flies out my [Music] [Music] eyes oh well the sun is out I’m heading north towards ham Village but I’m going to turn left at the A5 and head towards my technology par well here’s a slight irony it says private property and there’s a regular bus service going past which is excellent uh yeah this is the entrance to the Myra Technology Park used to be called aing ground and prior to that it was a an RAF station it turned into approving ground I understand in about [Music] 1949 um I’ve got some pictures of that but uh before that for only about 3 years from 1943 to 1946 it was an aircraft base the RF Lindley as it was called and then it was first turned into this uh in 1940 they started building here and it wasn’t an insignificant place because it had very long concrete runways so the expense must have been phenomenal and there were in the the area here about six airfields I can only recall at the moment uh RAF as was Bram coat bwell Lindley this is just Rand anden let alone other cities and places in the country fascinating really now making my way back along Wood Lane you come across this building from the second world war and with the windows and the two little chimne is I presume it was habitable and not just for storage and it’s situated right on the edge of what was the Airfield as we swing around to the right we can see that the main Runway will have been this road just beyond the trees and points straight towards Stoke Golding and the church and its spire so let’s go down that end of the road and have a look [Music] hey hey hey he he he hey hey hey [Music] I’ve come along this road which is the far end of Myra The Proving Ground and you can still hear I hope in the background be a nice audio background for me of the um cars rizing by let’s take those off and uh I’ve touched on the these stores before but I’m just focusing a little bit more because um it’s dday tomorrow 80th anniversary of so um and I do have a connection with that and let me tell you about it I said I had a personal connection because this is my dad who flew dtas in the second world war and in his log book he records that he flew into as he puts it Nan which was ARF Lindley and he had with him as it says here leading aircraft woman Neil which is my mom they were both on leave because my dad’s parents my grandparents lived in Leicester not so far away I stopped at highlan fields at the end of the runway as it was on RF Lindley and over there look is the church Spire of stoke Golding if we look at the map from Google Earth you can see that the main Runway one of three is dead in line with the church at sto golden so airplanes coming in this way to land into the wind southwest might find the church spy at Stoke golden to be in the way the village of stoke Golding is slightly on a hill and so the Spire can be clearly seen on the horizon look so I’ve got the Drone now at its maximum height of 400 ft and you can see Stoke Golding in the middle of the picture there so if I swing around you should be able to see where the runway is and there it is looks like I might need to move over a bit to the right so this is quite fascinating because this is the very view I presume that my dad would have had way back in 1944 flying the dehand ansen with my mother on board and in fact I have to say she was pregnant with my sister [Music] June moving on let’s go on to stoke Golding and have a look at the church and the story about the spire [Music] hey hey hey [Music] [Music] good morning all right that’s your information okay that’s the and there’s a um a concrete platform outside where they have the um the blocks all numbered so they could replace them exactly when time actually I think that’s an epic looking bike don’t mind don’t mind at all bit of History right now apparently around the back here Caroline says there’s a block of stone where they stored all the rocks and here we are not this must be it so this is a concrete block that was put together during the war to hold the stones from the spire [Music] well just leaving Stoke Golding and uh met with Caroline who was in the church there doing a coffeee morning very nice lady and one or two others as well and she told me a little bit about the Spire that was uh taken down during the war time and sure enough it’s it’s in a deadline of the approach to one of the main runways so I put to the Drone up and uh as a favor I’ll see if I can send her a a still shot of the church from the air and uh yeah that was very good very good indeed uh there’s a block around the corner isn’t there of concrete where they stored the uh Stones that’s it then thank you very much for watching this and uh yep you will see me next time okay bye-bye [Music] [Music] he he [Music] [Music] hey [Music]