Seeing the latest figures prompted me to go into my archives and I've come up with the 1958 statistics, courtesy of Ian Allen ABC British Airports, 1959 edition.
Total aircraft movements through SEN amounted to 61,659, bettered only by LAP (as it was known then) at 129497, and Croydon at 64,656.
Air Transport Movements totaled 19,519 and was beaten by LAP 117,295, Manchester 26,722, Lydd (Ferryfield) 24,371 and only just by Glasgow (Renfrew) at 19,563.
Passengers passing through SEN in 1958 totaled 183,230, which placed us tenth, behind LAP, Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast (Nutts Corner), Lydd, Prestwick, Blackbushe, Gatwick and the Isle of Man.
Freight handled was 23,397.6 short tons, which placed SEN third in the country behind Lydd on 71,231.7 tons and LAP on 55,404.2 tons.
Interestingly, Luton is shown as having only 10 (yes 10) ATMs in the year with no passengers and Stansted 556 ATMs and 20,003 passengers.
How times have changed with the disappearance of many of the former historically great airports and the emergence of new ones but SEN has survived and hopefully will grow and continue to prosper in the future.
Good news today about the new operator and route, perhaps this will be the little snowball that starts the avalanche!