Long Odds
Gloster
Meteor WD714/WD772 on Collier Law.
(Distance covered = 2.5
miles/Ascent = 85 metres)
Quite often when researching crashsites to visit I am aware of an incident but don't realise where exactly the location is until I decide to go and visit that specific one. That was the case with the two Gloster Meteors that collided over Stanhope and crashed on Collier Law, I had driven past the location numerous times before while on my way to the start of walks elsewhere, but never put two and two together.
Because it was going to be a relatively short walk I asked the son and grandson if they wanted to go, and as we were going to be parking in a carpark on the Waskerley Way next to the Parkhead Station tearooms I asked the wife and the Son's wife, aka my Daughter in Law, if they wanted to go there for some Sunday Lunch while we nipped along to look for Meteor wreckage.
An old mine cart next to the B6278 advertising the Parkhead
Tearooms. I have driven past this many times and actually took this photo
on my way back from visiting another crashsite.
I had now managed to make this wreckhunting trip into a full on family day out; very nice, but as there were now woman involved it meant a much later start than I like and things were further complicated when we arrived at Parkhead Station to find it closed.
The Tearooms and carpark where we were going to leave the car
and Wives before walking along the Waskerley Way; which is the path in the foreground.
We now had a bit of an issue as we were now stuck with two Wives who wanted their Sunday dinner, and would no doubt not be happy if we left them sitting in the car while we went off on our walk. Fortunately Stanhope was only a couple of miles away and after driving around the Village checking out all the Pubs and Cafes on offer we managed to find one they liked the look of called The Riverside Bar and Grill, which was situated in the Heather View Caravan Park.
The Riverside Bar and Grill, in the grounds of Heather View Caravan Park, a lovely setting and according to the Missus a lovely sunday dinner.
Because we dropped the Wives off in a Caravan Park, which had playgrounds and an amusement arcade, the Grandson decided he wanted to stay with his Mam and Granma instead of coming with us on our walk, so just the two of us set off back up the road where we were able to eventually set off on our walk to collier Law.
Walking up the track to collier Law, a lot later in the day than expected.
One advantage of Theo staying with the woman was we could cover the ground a lot quicker. The landrover track we were now using to access Collier Law passed around the edge of an old quarry, there was quite a bit of detritus lying around including what we thought were engine blocks from a distance, on closer inspection they were large heavy lumps of stone.
The lumps of stone we mistook for engine blocks from a distance; no idea what they were or what they could have been used for?
We also found a patch of burnt ground containing lots of small metal parts and melted alluminium, if we had found this on the moor it would have been safe to assume it was where one of the Meteors had burnt out, but it's location on the top of a spoil heap at the edge of the quarry meant it was more likely where a land based vehicle or perhaps a caravan had met its demise.
Burn out area for something.
Unfortunately we didn't find any burn out areas or melted alluminium on the Moor where the Meteors are reported to have crashed, there is meant to be a large crater containing some small parts but we failed to find that. We were planning on searching more of the moor but we started receiving texts from the contingent at the Riverside Bar and Grill asking us how much longer we were going to be, so we had to abandon our search and head back down to Stanhope.
The moorland where small pieces of one or both of the Meteors have been found in the past.
As we were walking off the moor I got very lucky and walked right over what looked like a metal lid off a box of some sort. I wasn't convinced this was part off one of the Meteors but when I got home I had a quick google on the internet and amazingly managed to find a photograph of the exact same part on a website covering the restoration of another Meteor. Now I know for sure I was in the right place I will be returning for another search to try and find the crater that is reported to contain wreckage.
Above is the metal box lid we found on Collier Law and below is a photograph of two electrical Relay boxes from a Meteor in the process of being restored. I would have given very long odds for finding both the box lid and the photo.
I
will properly credit this photo once I manage to find the website it came
from again.
On the way back down to the car we went into the quarry to have a look in case there was any pieces of Meteor that had fallen in there, we did find lots more melted alluminium lying around but came to the conclusion, as we previously did with the burn out scar, that it was from a burnt out caravan not a Meteor. This conclusion was sort of confirmed when we found a caravan door lying on one of the spoil heaps.
above and below:-Some of the melted alluminium found in the quarry, there's always the possibility that some of this is off the Meteor but more likely it's off an old caravan.
