Friday 7 November 2008

De Havilland Vampire T.11 XE854

De Havilland Vampire T.11 XE854:Memorials
Neglected Crash Site Memorial
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2

By an industrial estate in Rawmarsh, there is an unmade lane. Down this lane there is an empty house. Behind the empty house there is derelict half-acre of waist-high nettles.

100 yards through this there is a scruffy thicket of trees. Inside the thicket there is a low, gated wall.

Inside the wall there is a tangle of brambles, and in this tangle there are two memorials and a bench commemorating the fatal crash of a Vampire jet in 1959.

We'd never have found this without Pat Cunningham's 6 d.p. coordinates.

The standing memorial is from the pilot's aunties and uncles, and the one on the ground from his parents. The neglected state of these memorials is a sad sight.

UPDATE the memorials and the pilot's ashes have been moved to new locations

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Excellent.Had no idea of this sites existance whatsoever,and Ive been pursuing aviation archaeology for nine years now,and Ive lived in Rotherham all my life.
Looking on google earth it looks this site is in danger of being built on by house developers,so I will chase up info on preserving it, especially since the pilots ashes are there as well.
Do you know of any living relatives....fascinating stuff