Built in the 1840s to enable the first Earl of Yarborough, Charles Anderson Pelham, to survey his estate – and to celebrate his planting of 12 million trees there – the eponymously-named Pelham’s Pillar, svelte and stylish in Portland stone, and 128 feet up, veers into view for a moment when travelling towards the Humber in northernmost Lincolnshire. This is a region of flatlands, at the top end of the Lincolnshire Wolds, and so you don’t have to look very far to catch the pillar between the trees. Pelham could see everything. Everyone could see Pelham’s Pillar.

Yet, 100 years later, and Pelham might have been a bit cross. His neoclassical edifice was no longer the high-point from which to view the area – an airport, RAF Kirmington, had been built in 1941 to support the British war effort, as a Relief Landing Ground and Bomber command station. The airport housed No. 142 and No. 150 Squadron, which later merged into No. 166 Squadron. The pilots flew Wellington and hefty Lancaster bomber planes, and participated in raids on Nazi Germany, mine-laying, and supply drops. RAF Kirmington was one of the 46 airfields in ‘bomber county’ Lincolnshire. What Pelham had imagined with the pillar – a high point to see the lands he owned – was similar to RAF thinking: Lincolnshire was flat and rural, so it was a perfect place to build airfields.

Like many other military sites, RAF Kirmington was closed at the end of the war. It briefly became a site for disposal sales, but it was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture in 1953 and returned to farmland. There was private flying in the 1960s, and, in the 1970s, Lindsey County Council built an airport on the site, with hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on modernisation with the support of British Steel. It opened in 1974, as Kirmington Airport. A month later the name changed to Humberside Airport, to reflect the Local Government Act of 1972 which had created new counties.

In its recent history, the north of England – especially Lincolnshire – is often perceived as backward and unmodern. Similarly, the name of Humberside Airport is a vestige from a past which most people from the local area would like to forget. The new county, which spanned Scunthorpe, Cleethorpes, and Grimsby, and Hull, Beverley, Bridlington, and Goole, contained areas that did not have much in common. Signs for the county were vandalised, and it was eventually disbanded in 1996, and broken up into North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, Kingston upon Hull, and the East Rising of Yorkshire. Despite efforts to develop an international airport in the region, local tensions needed resolving. The name of the airport, like that of other local institutions, remained, partly due to costs. A recent campaign to rename it was shut down: the airport claimed Humberside symbolised investment in the region, and links to the Humber area. ‘Humberside’ has stuck.

Given recent news about Eastern Airways – a regional airline based at Humberside – ceasing operations, it is perhaps important now more than ever to consider how local and regional development really work, alongside national and international projects. Humberside flies to various locations, including multiple flights a day to Amsterdam, as well as offering seasonal dalliances with Palma, Mallorca. Eastern Airways flew to Aberdeen. Departure boards at the airport also have an array of strange-sounding destinations which sound like they could be from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The last time I went to the airport, one departure was to CENTRICA ROUGH 3B. This is not a lunar outpost, but a gas platform in the North Sea. Those fascinated by space, however, would still like Humberside: a 60-foot model of the Thunderbird 3 space rocket stands outside. One former airport worker recently admitted that the owner of the Thunderbird thought he was buying a model.

The airport is full of quirks, but it remains relatively unknown. This is a benefit. Passengers leave rave reviews: some claim visiting Humberside is like having one’s private airport, and Humberside is streamlined. There are no security queues, there are always chairs in the lounge. On flights, there are a handful of passengers. Around 150,000 passengers use Humberside every year. The journey to Amsterdam takes one hour. This was one of the other reasons for the creation of airfields in Lincolnshire during the war: the county is close to Europe.

In more peaceful times, this means you can collect your stroopwafel fast. It doesn’t, though, make for a leisurely experience. My mother and I once had gin and tonics flying from Amsterdam to Humberside. The aeroplane reached cruising altitude, and the drinks were served – and then, in what seemed like minutes, we were told to down them quickly: the tray tables needed to be placed back in the upright position. The pilot was beginning to land.

This descent, though, is frequently enjoyable. I have flown by the Belmont Transmitting Station – which used to be the tallest structure in the UK, until its top was lobbed off as part of the Digital Switchover – throbbing red lights in the absolute and ultra-black Lincolnshire darkness. I have flown over the Humber, past the ceaseless industrial movement of the port of Immingham, the largest port in the UK by tonnage in 2019, its buildings over-sized and otherworldly – with a backdrop of the Humber Bridge visible in the haze.

I’ve mentioned perceptions of Lincolnshire as being unmodern, and backward – but on flights from the airport you see its importance: its resources, its industries, its spaces. The airport’s history too is one that speaks to the significance of local areas, and local voices. If it hadn’t been for those private pilots in the 1960s, the potential of the airport might have been lost. Humberside Airport is, perhaps most importantly, an example of what infrastructure for rural communities can look like. The airport’s history since its opening has been packed with regional interactions: there were once flights to Norwich and London, including on Concorde, as well as to Dublin, and even Florida, but most were stopped by the late 1990s. While Humberside attracted those in cargo and the North Sea industry, passengers were low on the other flights, and in 2005 this was exacerbated by the opening of the Doncaster Sheffield airport – which itself closed in 2022, though it has hopes to possibly reopen.

There are some improvements to be made to Humberside. The nearest railway station is Barnetby, two and a half miles away. Whenever I’ve flown out of Humberside, my dad has driven up from Lincolnshire in his car. The airport parking is another perk.

Every time I fly from Humberside, I look out for Pelham’s Pillar, and wonder about our simultaneous desire for home and exploration, roots and travel, land, air and sea. From a rural world, from Lincolnshire, grew such possibility. Long live Humberside.