Avro 504 C5818 at Ampleforth College.
On Armistice Day, 11th November 1918 Avro 504 E3585 made a landing in the grounds of Ampleforth College with the pilot and passenger, being two ex-pupils returning to the college to inform the college Armistice had finally come. Later in the day it appears to have been damaged while taking off stranding the two RAF airmen.
The following day two other Avro 504's were dispatched from Redcar to collect the stranded men. On 12th November 1918, one of these aeroplanes, Avro 504 C5818, crashed into railings while landing below the college, these railings used to surround the cricket field and were next to the old tramway and is shown on the photograph below. The aircraft's back was broken but the pilot is not believed to have been injured. The school then had four RAF airmen to look after for the night and two crashed aircraft in their grounds. A lorry was later sent to gather up the wreckage of both aeroplanes.
Another reference found locally gives the 7th April 1919 as the initial crash date which would out the second on 8th April 1919 though a lack of leaves on the trees on the photographs of both damaged aeroplanes would tend to lean toward the November dates being correct.
Pilot - Name unknown.
The pavilion visible in the photograph above is still in existance, the disused tramway track bed is now a road. The location of the crash site appears to have been covered over by the landscaping of the playing fields to level cricket pitches to the west side of the tramway / road.