Filthy weather today didn't stop us visiting the crash sites of two Thunderbolts on Cats Tor outside Buxton. The leading plane crashed in the crater in the foreground, and the following plane in the crater you can see me exploring in the background.
If you click through, you can see annotations on the bigger version...
Scraps from the leading Thunderbolt on Cats Tor.
Location:SJ 99502 75395
Pat Cunningham of "Peakland Air Crashes" suggests this as the site of a V1 explosion based on eye-witness testimony. The field the witness gave as the site contains quite a number of depressions, none of which look all that much like a bomb crater to us. Only one of them shows a trace of metal, and this one isn't it. We weren't convinced that there was any sign of a V1 impact in this field at all.
It's well known locally that there are only about three surnames this close to Buxton(cue "Duelling banjos" from "Deliverance"). This might be considered in evaluating the trustworthiness of statements of locals.
Location of this crater:SK 02998 73724
Location of crater with metal traces:SK 02982 73690
The elusive second jet engine, finally located, half a mile from the impact point on top of Kinder. Amazing that it was thrown so far. Turns out this was the very first thing we found on our first visit, we just didn't know what we were looking at at the time...
Location:SK 07546 90391
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What we think to be propeller "spiders" from the Liberator bomber crash site on Mill Hill. This site is a little more than two miles from the Grouse pub, not the one mile claimed elsewhere on the net (clearly by people with younger legs than ours).
Location:SK 05709 90677
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One of a few bits we found at the site of this Oxford crash by metal detecting. Second attempt on this site, failed to find anything back in October last year when we were clearing up Oxford crash sites in the area.
This is an aluminium pipe stained brown by soil, and painted pale green, rather than a copper pipe with verdigris. Click on the pic for confirmatory larger pics.
Location: SJ 98118 70910
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We visited this crater left by a V1 flying bomb explosion in 1944. There was surprisingly not a scrap of metal to be found around the site...
Location:SJ 95494 72683
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We found this surface wreckage on the walk back from the Vampire wreck site. It was almost one hundred yards from the commonly given location, and no-one has reported surface wreckage before to the best of our knowledge.
There seems to be a problem with Flickr, hence the slightly different appearance of this picture. A click on the pic still works...
Location:SJ 98545 71965
Scraps of aluminium found by metal detection at the 1954 crash site of this Vampire jet.
This site has unfortunately been raided and stripped of all metal since our visit by self-styled investigators with a Volvo mini-digger and heavy duty detection equipment.
Location:SJ 98612 71937
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Second of two Stirling bomber wreck sites today, this site apparently has a chequered history. First there was surface wreckage as reported by the "Peak District Air Accident Research" website, later it was a metal detector only site according to Pat Cunningham's "Peakland Air Crashes". When we visited, there was both surface wreckage, and sub-surface wreckage. Please don't use our coordinates to steal it. You could even add to it any bits you find for others to see. Imagine that!
Location:SK 03808 61161
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A couple of bits we found at the crash site of this American Lightning at Strines (not Strines Moor as stated elsewhere, which is near Sheffield) with the aid of metal detection.
For anyone new to wreckhunting,the greenish stuff around these bits is seen at many crash sites, and is quite indicative that you are looking in the right place.
Location:SK 03517 61511
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