Incoherently Rambling

Crowden Horseshoe - taking in 1951 Meteor Crashsite on Black Hill

Just over an hour transfer time to the starting point at Crowden YH and what looked like a cloudy start to the walk was in prospect....  however it turned out to be quite a contrast to how the day actualy panned out.

Peter, John and myself (Gary missing his first walk for a while) set off from the Youth Hostel carpark and headed up through the gorge between Bareholme Moss and Hey Moss. We followed Crowden Little Brook as far as sheepfolds... the prefered route chosen was to stay as close to the brook as possible which made for some pioneering footsteps rather than the nearby but well worn path at Hey Edge.

Crowden Little Brook

towards Sheepfolds

Looking back towards the distant Bleaklow

Sliddens moss in the foreground with Holme Moss transmitting station on the horizon

Here we took our co-ordinates and were able to navigate to the crash site of 2 Meteor jets that crashed in 1951

"At 9:15am on Thursday 12th April 1951 a flight of four Meteor jet aircraft took off from RAF Linton-on-Ouse near York for a training flight. Flying the lead pair were Flight Lieutenant David Merryweather Leach (WA791) and Flying Officer Tony Hauxwell (VZ518). The flight was to climb to around 30,000ft where the two pairs would carry out attacks on each other.

The weather forecast for the day was for complete cloud cover from 1,500ft to 20,000ft, but on reaching 30,000ft the four aircraft were still in thick cloud and radioed Linton on Ouse to inform them that the flight would be returning home. All four aircraft turned back towards Linton-on-Ouse, though after having descended back through 20,000ft Flt Lt Leach reported he could see what he thought was Leeds through a break in the cloud and he and F/O Hauxwell were going to proceed down. The second pair could not see through the cloud and not being entirely sure of their position radioed their intention to remain at 20,000ft. After some 5 minutes the lead pilot of the second pair, Flying Officer Leslie Hayward, attempted to contact Flt Lt Leach with no success. RAF Northern Radar at Lindholme near Doncaster attempted to contact the pair again with no success.
Following this a search was mounted with wreckage being spotted later in the day with a ground team reaching the scene the following afternoon. The two aircraft had continued to descend through cloud and without ever breaking out of the bottom of the overcast cloud and had flown into the top of the moor in formation. The marks left by the two aircraft are still clearly visible as is wreckage of the 2 aircraft strewn over 1\4 mile os Sliddens Moss"

impact scars

memorial cross

its incredibly sobering to see this!

From here and for the next 90 minutes we encountered somewhat of a slog though the waterlogged peat and extremley rugged landscape....  however the next stop was the Trig point at Black Hill and a well earned pit stop at Soldiers Lump

Trig Point - Black Hill

The return journey would take us back down the opposite side of Bareholme Moss and following

Crowden Great Brook

looking towards Crowden and the YH just showing at the far end of the valley

Bfb on Laddow Rocks

looking back at Laddow

the descent

Rakes Rocks

back to base

Thanks to Pete for contributing some of the images after my batteries let me down at the Trig Point

The walk was around 9.5 miles long and took in some incredible landscape and stunning scenery.... and just to make sure we got it all......the sun shone all day!