Misty and mud in Bluebell Wood
Heinkel HE111 H-5 A1+CK in Bluebell Woods.
(Distance covered = 1.5mile/Ascent =+75m)
This day Heather was at a Championship at Musselborough but her and her Mam had a lift, my task for the day was tidying the garage and taking a lot of junk to the tip.
I figured if I finished my task off quickly enough I could sneak off up the hills in the afternoon and perhaps go and have another look for the Dornier on Madam Law in the Cheviots, however it took until mid afternoon to sort out the garage and it was also raining so I hatched an alternative plan to go and check out a crashsite in some woods near Morpeth.
Parked in a large laybye adjacent to the start of one of the paths into Bluebell Woods.
Our Golden Retriever 'Misty' is getting on in years, I think in doggy years she is now 77. She isn't up to going up the hills with me anymore but the walk to the crashsite in Bluebell Woods was well within her range, so on this wreckhunting trip I had company.
Misty at the entrance to Bluebell Woods, not impressed with the thought of walking up all those steps.
above and below:-More steps
At 77 years old needing a rest at the top of the steps was understandable.
By the time I'd called in at the tip then continued onto Morpeth it had stopped raining, so the walk through the woods was quite pleasant. To make it a bit more of a challenge I didn't take a map so the only reference I had for finding the location where the Heinkel crashed was my memory of a photo I had seen in a book called 'Air crash Northumberland'.
Misty having a great time
in the woods.
above and next two photos:-An information board in the woods, complete with a map which sort of spoilt my challenge of finding the crashsite without the aid of a map.
Even without the help of the map on the information board the crashsite would have been very easy to find as it's immediately adjacent to St George's Hospital and there's a distinct and obvious gap in the trees where the Heinkel hit the trees and caught fire.
The Heinkel burnt out in the gap in the trees where the buckets are situated.
The Heinkel was shot down by a Boulton Paul Defiant night fighter, with an engine on fire it made a forced landing in a field adjacent to St Georges Hospital. The crew of five survived the crash and were captured by Orderlies from the Hospital.
At
the time of the crash the lawn I am standing on was a field, the Heinkel
crash landed on this field then slid across it before hitting the trees
where Misty is standing. The gap in the trees is obscured by the foliage
on this photo.
above and below:-Crashsite of HE111 in Bluebell Woods.
Because this crashsite is so accesible, any wreckage would have been easily recoverable, both at the time of the crash by the RAF recovery crews and since by souvenier hunters, therefore there is nothing much left other than the gap in the trees caused by the crash and an area of what looks like burnt earth.
An area of bare burnt looking soil
in the gap in the trees.
As there was no sign of any peices of Heinkel and no memorial on site I thought this was going to be another one for my failures list but after scratching around in the leaf litter around the burnt area I managed to find a few tiny fragments of the Heinkel. There is probably quite a lot more pieces lying around concealed by the foliage and leaf litter but without the use of a metal detector I think I did very well to find the few scraps I did. Not much but enough to merit this ones inclusion on my 'Crashsites visited' list instead!
A few scraps of Heinkel 111.
I did find several larger pieces of metal and lots of bits of glass but I couldn't be sure these originated from the Heinkel crash as a park bench has been placed on the path right next to the crashsite which, judging by the two buckets full of empty beer cans and bottles would appear to be a popular drinking spot for the local teenagers.
The park bench with two bucketfulls of rubbish in front of it, these
are also situated in the gap in the trees where the Heinkel crashed. The
area of burnt soil can be seen on the right of the photo.
Mistys had enough of looking for bits of Heinkel.
above and below:-These four mudholes were not to Mistys liking!
On the lookout for the ultimate mudhole.
And there we have it!
Happy as a pig in shite!
Not those bloody steps again!
I do like taking photos of waterfalls.
Not quite an epic hike in the Scottish Mountains and I didn't find quite as much wreckage as on my previous wreckhunting trip to the Monadhliath Mountains* a week earlier, but neverless this was an enjoyable little walk, the dog had a great time in the mud and it did count as crashsite number 119 visited.
Click this link for
a little bit more information about the crash
www.newmp.org.uk/article.