The China trip.
NA F86 Sabre 19349 on Holme Moss,
Fairy Swordfish P4223 at Heydon Head,
Gloster Meteors VZ518 and
WT791 on Sliddens Moss.
(Distance covered =
6.1 mile/Ascent =+303m)
Heather was off to China to do some Highland Dancing in the 7th International Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage, held in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province; an opportunity not to be passed up.
As I was on Dad's taxi duties to drive her to Manchester Airport to catch her flight to China I also had an opportunity not to be passed up; another excursion to the Peak District.
Setting off on my walk in less than perfect weather conditions.
On arriving at my starting point at a very large car park adjacent to the Holme Moss Transmitting Station the weather was pretty atrocious with strong winds and heavy rain battering the hillside. Forever the optimist I put on my waterproofs and set off walking anyways, in the hope it might improve as the day went on.
Around the back of the Station; still chucking it down!
This would have made a good navigating aid, trouble is it was hidden in cloud most of the day.
It wasn't actually very far to walk to reach the first crashsite on my route but after walking around to the rear of the Transmitting Station there were no further landmarks, so it was compass bearing and counting steps across the moor to find the remains of a Canadian F86 Sabre that crashed up here.
Featureless moorland and poor visibility.
Approaching the Sabre wreckage, visible
centre of the photo just below the skyline.
Unlike the two Sabres I'd visited on Kinder Scout* this one was not scattered over a great distance, instead; as is the case with a good few crashsites in the Peak District, someone had tidied all the pieces into one pile.
Collection of Sabre bits on Holme Moss.
One advantage of the wreckage being 'tidied' is it is a lot quicker and easier to photograph than if it was still in it's original state, but it's a bit like someone going to Stonehenge and collecting all the stones into one pile in the corner of the field, it just wouldn't be allowed, come to think of it taking one of the stones home as a souvenir probably wouldn't be tolerated either, nor would scratching your name onto one of them, but people think it's ok to do these things at crashsites.
Above and below:-heading off to Heydon Head.
There wasn't too much walking involved in reaching crashsite number two of the day either and as the cloud had lifted a little I didn't need to check the compass as much. There wasn't much left at this one and yet again it had all been tidied up into a neat little pile, so I didn't take much time taking photographs before setting off for "The main course", as Stuart would call it; remains off two Meteor jets that crashed together on Sliddens Moss.
Above and below:-A neat little pile of Fairy Swordfish bits.
Instead of making a beeline for the Meteor wreckage I followed a footpath up to the trig point on the top of Black Hill, this is named 'Soldier's Lump' because the Army laid the first trig point here and after encountering great difficulty in finding a solid enough bit of ground to build it they put it on a mound of earth.
Approaching Soldier's Lump.
After reaching the Soldier's Lump I found myself on the Peninne Way pavement which I followed south to the point where it passed within 500m of the most westerly bits of Meteor wreckage. This part of the walk was quite pleasant as the rain had taken a break and the cloud had lifted just enough to enable me to get an awareness of the surroundings.
above and below:-walking south on the Peninne Way.
Sliddens Moss from the Peninne Way.
Seems I'm not the only nutter out walking today!
Time to leave the Peninne Way, cross this
stream and head off piste to the crashsite.
I have been struck 3 times with the curse of the Happy Birthday Balloon; today I increased that total to 4 after spotting what I thought was the first bit of Meteor wreckage lying in a peat gully.
At least on this occasion this wasn't all I found!
Thankfully the remains of the two Meteors that crashed here haven't been tidied up into neat little piles so the wreckage still bears resemblance to a crashsite, so it took me a lot longer to walk around this one taking photographs of the well scattered wreckage.
Wreckage is scattered east from here.
One of the larger pieces still at the site; a slightly battered tail section from one of the Meteors.
The rain was kind enough to wait until I had finished photographing the numerous bits of Meteor before it returned with a vengeance, so I had a bit of a soggy bog slog as I continued east over Tooleyshaw Moor then down into Heydon Brook, before finally meeting up with the A6024 which I followed north back to the carpark.
above and below:-Crossing Tooleyshaw Moor.
In the bottom of the Heydon Brook gully, it
was quite a steep climb out of here up to the road.
I had originally planned to visit a 4th crashsite; 5th if you count the Meteors as two, it was a B24 that crashed not too far from the carpark but on the other side of the road from the ones I'd just been to. I changed my mind as by the time I was back at the car it was quite late in the day and the weather was having a bit of a hissy fit, so another one penciled in for a later date!
