Zooker,
This is what happens when you build an airport on a hilltop marsh. I think, to be fair, nobody could have predicted the golf course river farce but it's the sort of thing that could only happen at LBA !
I've been on duty at LBA a few times when we were practically the only airport open. Not 1993 though, that's before my time. It's quite a bizarre sight to behold, with Flybe, City Airline, VLM and God knows what else parked in every conceivable corner. It doesn't happen very often but it makes for an interesting shift when it does.
As this is a radar thread, may I ask what approach radars you were using at Manchester back in the eighties ? I remember the Marconi (264 ?) close to the (then) 24 threshold and a circular red and white stripey thing closer to the hangars.
As for Steeleye Span, I wouldn't say I was a fan. I remember "All Around My Hat" in 1975 and "Gaudete" a couple of years before. Jimmy Young once played "Padstow" on his Radio 2 programme about twenty years ago. Maddy Prior is, or was, the lead singer. That's about it ! A bizarre question, mind you. Why do you ask ??