On 18th July 1941 this pilot was undertaking a solo training exercise when the aircraft flew into the hillside on Bransdale Moor at around 04.30hrs. He was
undertaking searchlight exercise and flying in cloudy conditions at the time. The reasons for the crash occuring were blamed on a member of ground staff back
at Church Fenton who had vectored the pilot (and another one which would crash soon after only miles away) over high ground instead of an area where the exercise
should have been carried out. The pilot somehow survived the crash, which seems pretty much a miracle given the terrain. Interestingly the 54 OTU ORB states
"18.07.41. P/O Woodhead KILLED in Blenheim L1449 {which was not the case, he survived!} On searchlight homing exercise. Was vectored over Cleveland Hills, flew
into hillside. Cat.E.". The hillside had pine trees planted over the site in the late 1970's and wind damage to these trees makes finding anything at the site
almost impossible today.
Blenheim L1117 crashed in the same area in 1940 and is already detailed on this website. The two crash locations appear to have been confused over the years and although this waterfall location is generally regarded as the crash location for L1449. One thing which appears to confirm this as being L1449 is that some of the
parts at the waterfall have yellow paint on them, yellow paint was added to training aircraft to identify them, as L1449 was with a training unit then it could quite understandably have had yellow paint on it's surfaces. L1117 did not serve with a training unit so it was probably unlikely to have had the paint added. A further clue
is that sections of a flying helmet were located at the site, had this been L1117 then the crew died and were almost certainly in a bad state when recovered, it would
be very unlikely that their flying helmets would be in a good condition and be removed at the crash site.
Blenheim L1449 was built to contract 527114/37 by the Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd. at Filton and delivered to the RAF in January 1939.
After acceptance it was issued to 23 Squadron at Wittering in February 1939. It was later transferred to 60 OTU at Leconfield on 28th
April 1941 and finally to 54 OTU at Church Fenton on 4th June 1941. It was destroyed in the above incident, sustaining Cat.E2/FA damage on 18th July 1941.
Pilot - P/O Edward J Woodhead RAF (66608) - survived but almost certainly seriously injured.
I first visited the crash site in the early 2000's and located very little though most of what I did find was in the stream. After severe flooding that
occured during the summer of 2005 John Skinn and I revisited this crash site in September 2005 to survey and changes. The torrential rain that occured during
the space of afew hours in June 2005 caused massive floods to areas to the Western area of the North Yorkshire Moors. This crash site being one that was
effected by the river levels, we wanted to see what damage had been done to previously located wreckage. The area below the waterfall has suffered badly
from the flood, the waters had removed everything from the river bank and carved out a fresh river channel. All wreckage that did exist at the very foot of the
waterfall has now gone. There was a cylinder from one of the engines at the site in 2004, this is now gone as had the tyre which also remained - the latter I
was to find in October 2006 washed about a mile down stream ! The cylinder is probably now covered by a big landslip down stream.
Both the aircraft's engines were still at the site in the 1970s. Both are believed to have been recovered since these photographs were taken. There is a suggestion that an ATC group using a helicopter got one out, the where abouts of the other is not known. (Photographs by the late Mr Norman Helm, via Mrs C. Helm).
Two photographs from the collection of Mr Graham Sharpe taken when he visited. My thanks to Mr Sharpe for these photographs.
Myself with some wreckage found on my first trip to the crash site in May 2002, which is 2009 was still at the site - remarkable considering I have had these photograph on the internet since then !
Wreckage found in tree roots in 2002 (left) and was photographed (right) in 2007 after being washed and the wording "WINCH" was found stencilled on the part.
In October 2009 I was passing the area and a number of peices have been uncovered by persons unknown. The photograph above shows a typical Blenheim part number -
the Blenheim "FB" prefix on a stainless steel part.
A further peice with the number shown below, again with the "FB" prefix but the with the "F" oxidised away.
Edward Woodhead's date of commission is not yet known, following this accident he recovered from his injuries to some extent. He was made F/O on 18th May 1942 but when he was made F/Lt a year later he was working for the General Duties Branch. Post-War he remained in the RAF and transferred to the RAFVR on 6th July 1949. He relinquished his commission of F/Lt on 6th July 1954 when it is assumed he left the service.
