WW2 Plane Crash at Todwick & the pilot ghost (?)

[nearenuff]

hi jon

no the cave is in the quarry as you turn into the station pub car park go into the quarry follow the track dont turn into the brick works keep looking to the left where the factory endsyou will see a cave half way along the cliff face.or as you go out of kiveto towards the station there is a field and layby on left hand side park up go to the end of the playing field and on your right there is a gap in the fence which leads into the quarry cave on the right hand side.

in the early seventies this got a load of press coverage as being a bit strange,noises ect i even think the local tv crew turned up to have a look i am sure there will be more people on here with some info about it.

but for real ghost hunting i am surprised no one has said anything about jasper the ghost that haunts the saxon pub,he is a monk that walks from the old keeton hall in a secret tunnel that led from there and passes under the pub,loads of peoplehave spent nights in the celler looking for him lots of press about that.

sorry not to make pacman lane sister inlaw and family turned up from usa in the afternoon not seen them for 18 months had to do the family thing

[nearenuff]

news on plane crash or should i say all 3,during the war one came down near the old pit killing 2 of the german crew and the story goes thethird member was pichforked and thrown into the burning plane to die dont know how much of this is true but my mum swears she can remember seing a plane outside the pit offices when she was a little girl during the war.just out of intrest the anti aircraft guns were at peckmill farm at the old station turn left at crossroads where pacman lane goes straight on the farm is still there.

the second plane crash was just after the war was a british plane and did crash near ghost wood my uncle and his mates saw it and ran over the fields from there house overlooking the meadows the crew was killed and my mum can remember him being sick and not very happy when he came back.

the third plane crashed in the fifties,the plane an raf wellington skimmed houses at kiveton park before crashing into a field and exploding all the 3 crew members perished.the newspaper report at the time said blazing wreckage was scatterd over a radius of 200 yards and terrifioc heat prevented rescue work by the residents,who had heard the plane over the houses.it is thought that the pilot may have mistaken red warning lights on the roadwork on the side of the field as indicators of an emergency landing strip.it was where danby road area is now.

artical taken from the rotherham advertiser friday feb 25/2005complete with photo.

hope that helps you

[kev21662]

I seem to remember talk of a ghost in the Saxon Pub. It might just have been kids' stuff, though!

[kev21662]

Didn't there use to be an RAF station at Thorpe Salvin? Were the two British aircraft operating from there?

[timo]

Whether or not there are headless German ghosts haunting Todwick, I do not know. What I do know is that tales tend to grow in the telling. Hence the ludicrous and untrue folk myth to the ends that a German pilot was hurled alive into the furnaces of a certain Sheffield Steelworks, after his plane had crashed in WW2. The latter story is most likely a bastardisation of what may have happened to some poor, unfortunate RAF pilot, as captured flyers were often handed over to the German populace. The Todwick story is almost certainly untrue too.

 

Why do I say this? Because, aside from a cynicism borne of listening to macabre tales like the one above, I have it on good authority that the only German plane that crashed in Sheffield landed on Concord Park, Wincobank. The pilot was found dead.

 

Isn't it always the case that 'someone' knows 'someone' who was 'first at the scene'...

[Don_Kiddick]

Cheers Timo, that's buggered that thread up nicely

[barth8]

Years ago me and few mates was down there one school holiday and couple of lads went down to the wood while me and another waited near top of the field

 

As we was waiting for them a plane started circling the wood which we both wondered where it came from it got lower and lower and crashed in to the wood as we started.to run down to the wood to see what happened all the mates come running out the wood shouting run were getting chased. by who I asked Germans his reply.

 

We run as far as the bridge we didn't really talk about it one of the boys went down next day see if they could see anything and saw nothing out the ordinary. There is no way could prove what we saw we only have our word on it but we saw this and it still.freaks me out

[Penske666]

I'll try and find out some info - I'd guess the pitchforking is bull as the person who'd have done it would have been a war criminal and imprisoned. There weren't that many Luftwaffe aircraft to come down in our area as the anti-aircraft weren't fired all the time due to night fighters operating.

 

Most of the German stuff around Sheffield is from the Doodle Bug raid meant for Manchester on 24/12/44.

 

Kev - the RAF base at Thorpe Salvin housed Lysanders for covert missions

 

The only German plane with 3 crew were BF110 night-fighters so it's unlikely that it would have flown to Sheffield (think its out of range but will need to check a book)

Edited June 8, 2012 by Penske666
update

[lunartravel]

Know a fair bit about local ww2 plane crashes but never come across mention of todwick

[R Stocking]

I lived at Aston Common, I was born in the Police house which is now private near the motorway. My brother and I went cycling to Todwick and on our return whilst leaving Todwick we saw a Gloucester Meteor flying low towards us. It passed over us low and crashed into the field at the side of the old tennis courts. The pilot ejected but his parachute stuck into one of the tailbooms and he was killed. I do not know the date but it must have been about 1948 to 1950

Roger Stocking