Aircraft Crashes in the White Peak

Imagine clearing snow from the road from Leek to Buxton when the Staffordshire Moorlands are wreathed in cloud. As you work, you hear the throb of four engines as an aircraft circles above you. Suddenly, there is the sound of a crash near by and the gloomy sky is lit up by a large fire.

Or imagine driving along the A515 from Ashbourne to Buxton early one morning when suddenly an aircraft appears in front of you apparently attempting to land on the road.

The Dark Peak is well known for a number of visible aircraft crash sites, which have survived despite the attentions of souvenir hunters and aircraft historic societies. The White Peak also suffered its share of aircraft accidents, but visible reminders are much harder to find. However, these 2 accidents have left different memorials that you can see on your travels around the White Peak.

The best-known White Peak crash site is at Grindon Moor, above the Manifold Valley. Here, in the severe winter of 1947 with higher villages cut off for weeks, a Halifax aircraft crashed whilst attempting to drop food to the Butterton area. Some thought that the flight was more for propaganda than a genuine mercy mission, quoting the presence of two civilian press photographers on a flight that took place the day before the road to Leek was finally cleared; this interpretation of events is given in John Higgins "Manifold Guide". However, Pat Cunningham's recently published account in Peakland Air Crashes (The South) tells a different story. Pat researched the accidents on the ground and also the RAF's Board of Inquiry reports. He noted that there was pressure to undertake a supply drop to provide powdered milk for babies; TB being endemic amongst the local cattle. Whatever the reason, the aircraft, flying from a base near Swindon, attempted an airdrop onto Grindon Moor in very poor weather. The crew had difficulty finding the drop point and on their third attempt, a wing hit the ground, the aircraft cart-wheeled and caught fire. All eight on board were killed. The RAF Inquiry found the flight to be "ill advised and the urgency of the task exaggerated". The accident is commemorated by a memorial plinth at the crash site (grid reference 063553), Even today, Grindon Moor has an isolated feel and the monument is an evocative spot especially in poor weather.

A stretch of unusual wall on the A515 identifies the second crash site. In 1943, a Wellington aircraft on a night training flight crashed just north of the Jug and Glass Inn at Newhaven.

A local story, quoted by Peter Clowes in "The Peak District at War", was that the pilot attempted to land on the A515 following an engine problem. That this stretch of road is the only relatively level and straight stretch between Ashbourne and Buxton lends weight to the story. Pat Cunningham concludes that the aircraft was flown into the ground, sliding across the A515 and demolishing the dry stonewalls. Both accounts agree that the two survivors from the five-man crew spent the night in the Jug and Glass inn before the rescue teams arrived.

According to eyewitnesses interviewed by Pat, the RAF repaired the damaged walls after recovering the crashed aircraft but, lacking dry stone walling skills, cemented the top stones into place. To this day, there is a stretch of wall alongside the A515 (grid reference 155616), which shows signs of mortar on the coping stones; this is best seen at the northern end of the lay-by near the Jug and Glass.

These are just two of the many crash sites in the Peak District listed in the "Casualties of the Peak" website. I hope I have shown that you do not need to be a "bog-trotter" to see some of the evidence.

Geoff Cole