Panshanger Airfield is an anchor

SIR – I agree with those correspondents underlining Panshanger Aerodrome s importance. Though I no longer live in Welwyn Garden, one of the first things that make me feel at home again when visiting, is the sight and sound of those Cessna and Piper

SIR - I agree with those correspondents underlining Panshanger Aerodrome's importance.

Though I no longer live in Welwyn Garden, one of the first things that make me feel at home again when visiting, is the sight and sound of those Cessna and Piper propeller planes buzzing around overhead.

This is no small point.

There has been, in recent years, a growth in interest in what has been called 'psychogeography', namely the study of how it is we are attached and connected to the everyday places in which we live. The smallest things - birds, trees, trains, the sound of the milkman - all weave together to form a collage of sensory experiences that help us anchor ourselves.

In a world in which places such as shopping centres, airports and even football stadiums increasingly look alike it's important to hold on to those idiosyncrasies that remind us of the fact that we could not be anywhere else.

Those planes from Panshanger - as some of your letter writers mentioned - provide a link back to a famous aviation past, one that - in the form of the Hatfield-built de Havilland Mosquito - helped to defeat fascism.

And in continuing to fly they link that past to the present.

They are an integral part of the aerial tapestry of the town and long may they be so.

Dr Drew Whitelegg, Atlanta, USA.