Message 1 - Plane crash on Dent Fell near Cleator, Cumbria
Posted on: 17 July 2005 by ritsonvaljos
Dear Mrs Gibson,
Living in West Cumbria and knowing a the area around Cleator, Cleator Moor and Dent Fell I really enjoyed reading your contribution about the Cleator plane crash. In fact, a few days ago I posted an article about a different plane crash in West Cumbria. In addition, I was on Dent Fell yesterday (Saturday) but I don't think you can learn much about the crash there these days.
I believe I may have come across the details of the plane crash you witnessed, based on information obtainable at the Cumbria Archives Service. I will however qualify this reply. Some information about plane crashes is still restricted so there may be other details I have not seen.
So far as I can tell, there wasn't a German plane crash at Cleator during the war. While news about British plane crashes in Cumbria was often not mentioned in the newspapers, you would have thought German plane crashes would have been reported.
There was a British plane on a training flight that crashed. It was a H / Hurricane Mk I plane from 81 Group. It crashed on Dent Fell near Black How Farm, Cleator on 26 June 1942. So, Mrs Gibson if you are aged 73 now, and this was the plane crash you saw, you would have been about 9 or 10 years old. Do you think this was perhaps the one you saw?
A reference book I consulted about plane crashes in the Lake District mentions that eye witnesses of this crash said it went out of control and then crashed into the fell. At the time, it was flying in formation with two other Hurricanes. The engine had to be pulled out of a crater by a tractor.
The pilot in this crash was killed, as the one you remember was. I think this pilot was the only one in the plane at the time. I looked up this pilot's details in the CWGC records. He was Sergeant (Pilot) Benet Nicholls, 28 years old, and the son of George and Catherine Nicholls from Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He is buried in the Catholic Churchyard at Warwick Bridge, near Carlisle (north Cumbria). There was a training base for aircraft near there, so possibly that is where the plane had flown from.
Anyway, I hope this information might help you, Mrs Gibson. This plane crash must have been seen by a lot of people in Cleator Village.
I was born some years after the war, but I have heard how a lot of news was passed round by word of mouth. Possibly at the time the word was passed round that it was a German plane that crashed rather than a British plane because this was better for morale. Any chance you can remember who told you it was a German plane? It would be interesting to hear more about it.
Thank you Mrs Gibson.
Best wishes,
ritsonvaljos
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