V1 Flying Bomb site, Edgworth, Lancashire.
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V1 Flying Bomb site, Edgworth, Lancashire
Another of the V1 flying bombs launched in the attack on Manchester on Christmas Eve 1944 fortunately failed to find its target and landed here at Red Earth Farm near Edgworth, 6 miles north west of Bury, Lancashire. The V1 fell at 5.44, causing damage to buildings within a mile radius. There were no casualties.
I reckon the impact point is where the horse is grazing, going off a small B&W photo of the impact crater taken 28 years ago. The present owner told me they moved there in 1983, the year the old photo was taken, and one of the first things they did was drain the moorland (where the V1 fell) and turn it over to pasture.
The Farm is now an equestrian centre, but the owner’s description of where she believed the missile came down matched that of author Peter J C Smith, and she kindly gave me permission to scout about the paddocks looking for the most likely spot. A few sweeps with the metal detector revealed nothing more than one might expect to find on farmland, and the signals I got – given the land had been completely turned over – were as likely to be horseshoes as chunks of V1 bomb.
See here for an overview of this attack;
Please see this photo for an overview of the attack.
Details from Flying Bombs Over the Pennines by Peter J C Smith, 1988.
Cool shots Ian , the locals seem very friendly 🙂
I bet some of those signals would have been bomb casing fragments . They could not have completely cleared all of them if houses a mile away were getting damaged . Its hard to appreciate the power of these things !
Great shots, they look like friendly Horses..
Great capture!
Beautiful horses!
happy enough hosses for a V-1 site! you guys have some amazing accessible history there, in america all the great sites (civil war, rev war) are off limits! have a nice weekend Ian-
great work ian love the plane picture thats amazing mate….
Amazing what you can still find after all this time and with no visible signs either – nice work as usual Ian
Thanks everyone.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/47218202@N02]
Thanks Nate. There’s history everywhere you look in Europe, which is a shame as history is not popular in UK schools and I believe this is the only country in Europe where kids can drop out of history altogether aged 13 to concentrate instead on Business and Media Studies or Citizenship Studies.
But over the centuries we have enjoyed throwing bits of metal at each other in a relatively small geographical area to such a degree that it would be impossible to clear everything or make these places off limits. There’s links to the past on the hills, in farmland and towns and cities. As a history nerd, that’s great for me!
Neigh Neigh and Thrice Neigh
brilliant shot – love it!
nice one ian
Great composition Ian! What a fantastic shot!!! %-)
Wishing you a wonderful Easter! %-)
Nice horses, they don’t seem bothered about you being there either.
I lived on the adjacent farm in the early 1980’s and I know exactly where the crater is ……. when I was a kid I saw a man metal detecting the crater and he pulled out small pieces of aluminium . He thought he’d also found a piece of gyro scope …..
the crater is not on a flat piece of ground but above the farm on a ridge in heather above the main field on the left of the drive as you approach the farm which borders the fields of wickenlow farm next door …