Halifax LK878 crashed in woodland towards the centre of this photograph, the village in the foreground is Thirlby.
Longtime Felixkirk resident Mrs Dorothy Almond was one of the first to reach the crash site as a sixteen year old girl, she would create a painted slate and place this at the crash site in later years. This would become the first memorial to be erected at the site. This slate, although faded is still at the crash site but is now housed in a wooden mount to protect it from the weather. The photo above shows the slate as it was in the 1980's (photograph by Mr Eric Barton). Whilst I have no reason to doubt this information I was contacted some years to say the engraver was a Mr Roger Miller (or Roger Wade Perry). The photograph shown below shows the slate housed behind perspex making it difficult to photograph (in 2009) shown below (photograph credit to me, Rich Allenby).
On 29th March 2003 a large memorial stone, plaque and bench were dedicated at the crash site in a well planned ceremony. Three Beagle Pup aircraft from nearby Bagby airfield and a Hurricane based at Breighton near Selby, took part in a flypast. Wreaths and poppies were also laid in front of the stone in memory of those who lost their lives in the accident. This memorial came about through the efforts of businessman and the landowner Mr Ken Blundell. Having learnt of Mrs Almond and her dedication to the site he funded the memorial himself as a thank you to Canadians who had been kind to him during his RAF training during the War. Mr Ken Blundell sadly died in just over a year after the memorial dedication but his son Christopher Blundell now lives and owns the land on which the aircraft crashed. The efforts of aviation historian Mr David Thompson should not be overlooked in the dedication day, through his work the family of Sgt O'Sullivan were able to attend the memorial service. Also in attendance was Mr Derek Lanning who had been a member of Geoff Walton and Richard O'Sullivan's original crew. Mr Lanning had attempted to trace Geoff Walton's family but sadly learnt that Geoff's sister has died a year previously.
A general photograph of the memorial area in the woodland at Felixkirk.
A more detailed photograph of the memorial stone.
The memorial plaque.
A number of small fragments of the aircraft have been located in the woodland since the creation of the memorial area and many of these smaller items have been placed near the memorial. I have however not got any good photographs of many of these parts but this only came to light when I gave this webpage a major update in December 2011. A number of small parts do contain typical Halifax "57" prefixed part numbers with one such part shown above.
These two parts were found in reasonable condition, both parts remain unidentified though the one shown below is probably engine related as the part has a "FB" prefixed number on the right of the photograph, generally FB in aircraft that carried Bristol Hercules engines related to the two Bristol designers Fedden and Butler. The part above could be control related as a cog system was linked to the control column of the Halifax.
This photograph above is of a curved piece of bakerlite and is probably part of the aircraft's DF loop casing found on the outside of the aircraft just behind the cockpit.
A small wheel with numbers similiar to a clock.
