SJD
If only the city fathers of the mid 1950s had shown the same merchant venturing spirit of preceding generations and had moved their airport to the north of the city instead of to the south, ‘little old BRS’ would be handling 777s and the like without as much as a by your leave.
They had the chance. The mainline railway was already nearby with a branch line even closer, although they could not have foreseen a major motorway crossroads just up the road. And there were no NIMBYs or an environmental lobby then.
Attitudes to airports have certainly changed. On the marvellous Wrington village website is a reproduction of the Wrington Village Guide for 1960. The nearby airport at Lulsgate is welcomed as a valuable addition to the area with a full description of its facilities.
The site encompassed three hundred acres then but with “ample opportunity for further development to the west of the airport” - you can almost sense the guide author hoping it would expand, unlike nowadays. The main "east/west runway" is described as being 1400 yards long and the airport was open in daylight hours with night flying facilities available. There were daily flights to the Channel Islands, Dublin, Paris, Manchester, Cardiff and Southampton with the two carriers being Cambrian Airways and Aer Lingus.