A scenic stroll around the northern Pennines-part 3
De Havilland DH60 Moth G-AARE on Cross Fell.
(Distance
covered = 6.75 mile/Ascent =+430m)
After three previous visits to Great Dunn Fell I had managed to find six of the 9 known crashsites in the area. I still had to find the DH60 on Cross Fell, the Hawker Hurricane in the region of Great Rundale Tarn and a second Avro Anson that crashed to the north of Cross Fell.
There is no known clues to the location of the 2nd Anson site other than it is somewhere north of Cross Fell. There is a published six digit grid reference for the Hurricane, which I had previously searched and found nothing, but there is also a wartime grid reference that puts it near Little Rundale Tarn. Then there is the DH60 which crashed just below the summit plateau of Cross Fell.
above and next two photos:- 3 photos of the differing weather at the start of my 3 walks around Great Dunn Fell, part 1 above and part 2 and 3 below. I've actually been here 4 times now but the first time I parked in the village of Knock, which then meant a walk via the Meteor on Knock Fell of 15.6miles and 1093 metres of ascent.
After unsuccessfully searching for the DH60 amongst the rocks on Cross Fell on two previous visits and then reading about several other people unsuccessfully searching for it as well, I had filed it away well and truly in the 'FTF' folder; that is until I was given a 10 digit grid reference and some photos of the site by an Aviation Archaeology expert who specialises in the North of England's wartime history.
The weather quickly deteriated to zero
visibility and very string winds.
As well as having another go at finding the DH60 site I figured while I was back up on Cross Fell I could nip back over to where Anson DJ453 crashed to take a better 'Then and Now' photo to compare with a photo taken at the time of the crash.
Above and below:- The best I could do because of the atrocious weather. 2024 above and 1943 below.
After finding roughly the right spot for where the 1943 photo was taken I then had to wait for well over half and hour for the visibility to clear just enough to see the rocks in the background. As I was standing patiently waiting I was also slowly sinking into the boggy ground so I had to keep moving around, it then started to rain so it ended up as a case of 'that'll have to do'.
Over the other side of Cross Fell looking for DH60 bits.
If I thought the weather was bad at the Anson site it was going to get a lot worse once I climbed up onto Cross Fell's large summit plateau. Up there it was blowing an absolute hooley and that combined with the moisture in the cloud I was now walking in made it a little less of an enjoyable walk as it could have been. I made use of the large shelter on the summit to get out of the wind then had some bait before taking a compass bearing to set me in the right direction for the DH60 site.
At the DH60 crashsite, even with a 10 digit
reference it was still difficult to locate any pieces.
Once I dropped of the south side of the summit I was out of the worst of the wind and it was a lot more pleasant. I think without possessing the more accurate grid reference I could have come here another 20 times and still not found anything as the wreckage comprised of just a couple of pieces of metal and a few fragments of wood, all well concealed in amongst the boulders. There was reports/rumours that the engine was still here but I saw no sign of it, it could possibly be there, but buried under the rocks.
A bit of a view once out of the cloud.
My plan after finding the DH60 site had been to walk back to the car via the Lockheed Hudson, HP Halifax and Supermarine Spitfire crashsites, I had visited all three of these sites before*,**, but in pretty bad weather, so my intention was to revisit them to acquire some better photographs. However as the weather was no better on this day I aborted that plan, as it would have been a bit pointless, and instead retraced my route back along the Pennine way pavement. Going back along the Pennine way also provided me with the opportunity to enjoy the hurricane force winds along the top of Little Dunn Fell again.
above and below:-Peeking under the clouds were the best views of the day on the way back to the car.
