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Palmers Green Jewel in the North De Manio on the roof Suzanne Beard of Palmers Green Jewel in the North tells the story of Palmers Green’s most iconic photograph On a wintery afternoon in December 1912, pilot Jean de Manio was on his way from the aerodrome at Balls Park, Hertford, to Hendon in his 50 horsepower Bleriot monoplane. Unfortunately while his destination may have been clear, the weather had other ideas. Wind carried the plane off course and de Manio for a time found himself circling over St Paul’s Cathedral and Cornhill. A little later he was over twilit Palmers Green. Experiencing engine trouble he attempted a landing in Broomfield Park, but fell short and crashed into the roof of no 75 Derwent Road, at that time the residence of a Mr Andow, a postal official who cannot long have moved into his newly built house. There the plane came precariously to rest, one wing on the dividing wall, the other on the chimney stack and the tail portion hovering above Mr Andow’s front bedroom window. Sustaining only cuts and bruises, de Manio was rescued by two schoolboys, who ran to fetch a ladder from Southgate County School while de Manio calmly puffed on a cigarette. Those, indeed, were the days of aviation. 75 Derwent Road didn’t quite come off so well. A number of slates were gone, and the engine had fallen through into the box room, covering it in petrol. The Andows had to seek alternative lodgings that night. The spectacle was reported on by the Recorder on 19 December 1912
All ways led to Derwent Road, and the inevitable crowd gathered. I think it may be said that the majority of the inhabitants of this usually peaceful suburb felt the importance of the occasion, and I verily believe that they were even imbued with a feeling akin to pride that the first aeroplane to fall—I beg pardon, to fly—on to a house-roof should have performed that feat in their own neighbourhood. Sadly, de Manio died in a further accident a year later, before the birth of a baby son, also called Jean. As Jack de Manio, Jean Jnr became one of the most famous and
controversial radio presenters of the 50s and 60s. If it weren’t for the soft roofs of Palmers Green, the name de Manio might never have become famous. • Extract from The Recorder by kind permission of Enfield Local Studies Archive. The Recorder was published from 1907 to 1916. A searchable disc containing all 170 issues is now available from Southgate District Civic Trust. For more about Palmers Green history and people, visit http://www.palmersgreenn13.com.
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March Editio n Issue 13
Past Times
• St John’s Chur ch
Broomfield Sch ool • A new visio n
Woodcroft Wil dspace • A nature reser ve in N21
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by Enfield Local
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St John’s Church , 1907-1909
Pres ented by
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Gre en Estate Age nt