70 YEARS AGO  1951 in this Month of APRIL.

Crashed in Ringmer East Sussex1951  P1o81 hawker hunter crashed in Ringmer!               My school mates and I found the pilot in a wooded area!     

Now read the statistics of POLICE involvement  and their information given at the enquiry on the 11th May1951. at Lewes Crown Court.

I didn`t know the results until 2020!  I was shocked when I read that PC Denman told the jury that he organised a search party and FOUND the pilot.      ( The truth is written in this Post)   Fast forward!

MY STORY

I can remember living on Goslings  farm near Laughton but I  have no memories of much happening  apart from me falling into a pond and my brother John pulling me out. On another occasion I  climbed onto my Uncles motor bike and it fell on  top of me  and trapped me underneath. I shouted for ages for some help but because John was deaf, he didn`t hear anything. It seemed as if I had been trapped for ages and I used up all my strength struggling to lift the bike up, but at 4 years old I wasn`t strong enough and I laid trapped until my Mum came out to use the outside toilet which was adjacent to the  motor bike shed and I called out to her and she was able to help me get untangled. Mum mentioned the incident to uncle Charlie and I got a right telling off because a brake lever was broken in the fall.

My brother  John, who during his childhood had eight Mastoid  operations spent a lot  of time as an inpatient in Great Ormond Street Hospital until he was 8 yrs. old during the time of being hospitalised he attended school. His last Mastoid operation being in 1945 and  he came home for good in 1946 and was still deaf  and  relied on lip reading to understand  what had been said. We slept in a double bed together and I asked him  several times  if he had spoken to dad about the problem with his bike  and he kept saying What! He knew I was talking to him, but he could not understand what I was saying and after about six “Whats” he  said, “Put the light on, I can`t hear!”  ( I can still hear him saying that.)  Being able to read my lips he was able to understand what I had said  and he replied, Yes Dad says the thread has gone on the pedal and he would look at it over the weekend to see if he could repair it.     I asked Mum for some thread and she did not have any, so I used cotton instead, but I still could not get the pedal to stay on. ( You must remember, we were only10 and 8 years old at the time.) Dad being dad  always found a way of fixing most problems and he was excellent at utilizing to make things serviceable.

It was then that I realised that whilst we are out playing together I had to remember  to make allowances for his deafness and not to leave him to go off on my own. From then on I kept him in my sights at all times and did so right up until  1948 when he was issued  with a National Health hearing aid.  Prior to 1945 the Royal Air Force paid for all of his treatment and hospitalisation until dad was demobbed.

We then moved to Hobdens farm Whitesmith, and  it was there during the day  at the nursery school  when we saw the first of many “Doodlebugs” the Germans flying Bomb. We also watched “dog-fighting” above our house when our Spitfires were attempting to shoot down enemy planes.  The air-raid sirens  would be wailing and we should have been indoors and under the Morrison shelter during Air-Raids, but it was much more fun watching the fighting and I can never remember ever being scared.

At night  it was compulsory to have our house windows blacked out  to prevent German  aircraft pilots from knowing  where to  drop bombs or attack populated areas.

Mum told us that we were safe all the time a flame could be seen at the tail end of the flying bomb.  Probably the most dangerous time for us was when spitfires were attempting and succeeding to put the Doodlebugs off  course  by flying  wingtip to wingtip and  by dropping a wing very quickly causing a down draught which altered the gyroscope reading of the flying bomb and it would crash anywhere after it was forced  off course, which happened when a doodlebug was about a quarter of a mile away  from where we were living and it crashed somewhere near Uckfield about 5 miles away. There were times when the sky was  full of bomber aircraft, when the Germans were flying at high altitude on their way to bomb London and the Royal Air Force flying lower  heading towards the English channel  on their way to bomb Germany. The loud droning  noise of the aircraft engines went on for ages but on the return journey it wasn`t as loud because they were not flying in formation.

At the bottom of the road, from where we lived was a place called Stamford Buildings.  A Spitfire in 1942 left Redhill aerodrome on a practice

Joyce Hare Nee Mitchell-my wife
Mr. Mitchell was the hero! Grandad of Joyce.

flight and  the pilot decided to fly low under thick cloud and crashed into the old  Ex workhouse. The pilot died and one of the occupants,  Mrs Hughes was badly burned.

Uncle Charlie changed jobs yet again and we moved to Bushey Lodge on Lord Gages Estate. It was while we lived at 71,  Bushy Lodge Cottages Ripe Lane West Firle that the war in Europe ended.

Mum was in London, visiting my brother in hospital on  VE day and she arrived home in the evening, to see that Grandad Smith had arranged for us kids to have  a bonfire to celebrate the event. The fire had been burning for quite some time  and while searching for things to burn I trod on a broken jam jar which cut the instep of  my foot and I remember  my Grandad who was looking after us dressing the wound, by sticking a cigarette paper over it and telling me it`ll be alright and I still have the scar to prove it!

When my kids and grandchildren asked me about the scar I told them it is an injury that I suffered during the war. ( Well!  it was on the last Day) The war continued in Japan until the Americans decided to drop a couple of Atomic –Bombs on their Country which brought on a quick surrender by the Japanese Military.

When dad was demobbed and returned home from the war Lord Gage allowed us to move into another property of his at 6 The Dock Firle leaving Uncle Charlie still living at Bushey Lodge. After two and a half years at the Dock, Lord Gage required the cottage for a farm worker and we were evicted and moved into a council house in 1950 at 12, Broyleside Cottages in Ringmer. I remember that we had a choice of two houses to live in and mum chose 12 Broyleside cottages because the rent was 8 shillings, 3 shillings cheaper than the one in Green Close opposite Ringmer School. 8,SHILLNGS= 40 PENCE—11,SHILLINGS=55 PENCE.

12yrs

I went to Ringmer School at the age of 12 my  brother was 14 and

National Health First hearing aid

unfortunately my brother because of his deafness needed to wear a hearing aid, and was a reason for some of the kids to bully him, they called him Deafy and Harey balls and on one occasion they filled the receiver with mud. Another time they pushed him into Stinging nettles and  he was covered in nettle rash because we wore short trousers in those days. I was forever involved in defending him against kids much older than myself and sometimes I would come off worse, but that didn`t stop me trying to  protect him. On one occasion during a dinner break I saw three kids having a go at him in his classroom and without any fear  at all I went running in using the desk tops as stepping stones and I grabbed the biggest lad, Jugler Wickens around the neck expecting to take him to the ground, but he was so big that he remained upright and lifted me above his head as if I was a rag doll and hung me on a coat peg by my jacket collar where I stayed until I was lifted off.

In 1950 the reigning Heavyweight boxer of the world LEE SAVOLD came to England to defend his title against the British challenger BRUCE WOODCOCK He stayed with Professor Hapee a local farmer in Ringmer to train for the fight and it was when he was at the farm that I met him and we shook hands and he told me that I should take up boxing and  gave me a signed photograph of himself. I was 12 at the time and it gave me confidence to continue protecting John.  My uncle Joe gave  me a pair of boxing gloves and I  took them to school and  we were allowed  to have “One Handed”  boxing in the  rear playground at playtime where the teachers  would be able to keep an eye us , while they were having tea in the domestic science room.  The kids  would form a ring in the playground and  inside the ring, one glove boxing contests would take place, this meant that the hand without the glove MUST remain behind the back. This rule remained unbroken for several weeks, until a time  came when one of the older contestants who was  being humiliated by a much smaller lad, decided to let fly with both hands, this incident was seen by the headmaster who  immediately banned boxing at Ringmer school in 1951 and I went home with bruises to my face and eye, carrying my boxing gloves home for the last time knowing that I was the winner by disqualification.

At 12 years old before going to school I did a 7 mile paper round every morning starting at 07.00am  and on Saturdays I collected the money for a weekly wage of  3 shillings and 9 pence / 18p  decimal. The first 15 deliveries were on the country lanes over the  distance of 5 miles and  took me about 45 minutes. Then I had a distance of two miles to cycle before doing a block delivery of six at the  prefabricated houses about half a mile from where I lived. From start to finish it took  about 1 and a quarter hours to complete. When I reached the age of 13 years I did Sunday mornings as well, for an extra 7 p and was earning 25 pence a week.

13yrs

When I was thirteen years old my parents allowed me along with two other mates of mine to camp out overnight for the first time ever. We were so excited packing everything that we had to take. Everything that we needed fitted nicely into the morning paper delivery bag which was attached to the rear carrier on our bikes and off we went on our venture. We had decided to camp out at the weir next to Andrews Farm at Barcombe Mills. We pitched the tent in a field which belonged to the Cornwell family. Having done all of the necessary jobs we stripped off our clothes and I remember feeling embarrassed because I didn`t have proper swimming trunks and my mum had made a pair out of a pullover by sewing the neck up and fitting elastic around the waist. I put my legs through the arm holes and headed towards the river. Initially I jumped into the water and swimming was alright but it was when I dived into the water that I ended up with a problem of being Trunkless because my homemade pullover/trunks had shot off my legs and because the water was murky they couldn`t be located, well not for some time, so until they were found I was running around with a towel round my waist. It was while I was wearing the towel that I saw a person partly hidden behind a bush looking in our direction for quite some time but thought no more about it. I think it could have been that we were mistaken for girls which caused the following events. The evening went well and after having something to eat and a kick about with the football we decided to go skinny dipping just as it was getting dark when and we couldn`t be seen by anybody who was using the lane. The time was around midnight when we dossed down for the night and I remembered to put the axe under the pillow just in case it was needed during the night. We talked for ages and it must have been about 2 am when all of a sudden the zip on the front of tent was pulled down and a face with a torch shining up from under the chin which created a horrible sight and made us freeze on the spot. He turned off the torch as he entered the tent and after a short  time switched it on again and  shone  it close to our  faces making it impossible to get a glance of him and while this was going on I was so frightened that I couldn`t move a muscle and the axe which was under my pillow was of no use for protection either because fear took over and I didn`t remember that it was there and if I had I doubt very much whether I would have used it. The intruder sat at the entrance of the tent for quite a while in darkness and before leaving he told us not to tell anybody about what happened or we would be in trouble. We were too scared to look outside to see if the person had gone and we didn`t manage to sleep for the fear of “him” returning so we just laid there without talking until daylight when we were able to see to get up and start packing our things ready to head for home. We talked about our ordeal and decided that we wouldn`t tell our parents about what had happened as they probably would have been horrified. We couldn`t afford to go home too early because we would have needed an explanation so we agreed to stop and have breakfast first before leaving and then take our time to do the packing up. Once daylight came we didn`t mind staying on longer as it wasn`t so scary as it was in the early hours of the morning and the later we arrived home the easier it would be for us because our parents wouldn`t ask questions.

So we set off to collect material to make a fire and when we returned with some wood we saw that the tent had been ransacked and the culprits had been the cows who had shared the field. Our presence deterred them from coming too near to where we were camping but they became inquisitive once we left the site and they trampled on everything and our breakfast was ruined before we had a chance to cook it, so we wrapped everything in the ground sheet and put it in a WW2 pill box which was close by and although it was a disappointing ending it gave us a genuine reason to return home earlier than expected and not feel guilty for failing to mention the 2 am. experience!

There was one person at Ringmer School who gave me grief from day one and we were involved in several physical moments during the first 3 years together, but it was mainly pushing and shoving each other until one day he said that my mother was only fit for having kids and I took exception to his remark because she was pregnant with sister Gillian and I was feeling embarrassed about the age difference and annoyed by what he had said and I “flipped my lid,” jumped off my bike, ran across the road and knocked him off his bike and we ended up fighting on a pile of builders sand, which  came to an abrupt end when I jumped two footed on his head.  Several years later in 1995  “Broyle Lane Kids” had a re –union, Charlie Bateman and myself spent time together talking about the past and when the evening ended he came over to say cheerio and mentioned that the evening was probably the first time that we had spent time together without having a punch –up!!

15yrs 

“GREENBROOK  MINORS” football team was established in 1953 by Mr John Brooks, who came up with the idea whilst the majority of us  met up with our mates on Ringmer Green most evenings during the week, so John suggested that a football team could be formed being named((Greenbrook Minors).He paid for the shirts shorts,footballs etc. We played  in the Sussex Minor League in a field adjacent to Half Mile Drove, The Broyle, Ringmer. We used a southdown single decker bus, without an engine as a changing room, which we had to  push  one full revolution of the wheels each month to overcome payment of rates. On the following month it was pushed back to it`s original position and so on. Ken Hobden`s father supplied the goal posts. The football team as I remember it was:- Frank Gearing – Bob Hunt – Ritchie Hare – Johnie Carter – John Backshell – Brian Ness – Ken Hobden – Alan Holter – Dougie Kingston – Tom Self – Alan Ford – Brian Barnett – Malcolm Eager – Mick Paine. We had a very successful, first season, losing out to  St. Mary`s Lewes to be runners-up.

GREENBROOK MINORS     FOOTBALL TEAM     1955

On my 16^th birthday I applied for a Provisional driving licence costing 5 shillings (25 pence) to ride a moped which belonged to my dad. The cost of a driving test in 1956 was 10 shillings (50 pence) and petrol was 3 shillings and 3 .pence   per gallon, ( 4.5 ) litres about 16 p or 4p a litre. Also during the SUEZ crisis in 1956 learner drivers were allowed to drive cars whilst unaccompanied. The reason being that driving test examiners had fuel restrictions on the amount of petrol  they were allocated because of the shortage of petrol supply from the middle east. Every motorist received petrol rationing coupons but they were not used because supply returned to normal. The photo is of a BSA winged wheel which was fitted with a 30cc 2 stroke engine and replaced the rear wheel of an ordinary bicycle and once it was motorised the motorcycle had to by law have number plates and a horn fitted. The bike was capable of speeds up to 30 miles an hour and required assistance by pedalling against a strong head wind. One morning as I was turning out of the lane where I lived a person riding a Cycle master went speeding by and I decided to show him who had got the best machine so I opened the throttle fully and leaned forward to cut down on wind resistance and went for the win! He had got about a 30 metre lead on me at the start and as the metres were being eaten up by the speed of the bikes I could see that I was gradually gaining on him in the race that he didn`t know was taking place and as the race progressed I was gaining ground more and more until eventually I was now on his shoulder and ready to make that big move, when there was an almighty loud screeching noise and my bike seized up. He didn`t know that he had won the race because he had no idea a race had taken place until years later after he had married my sister and was now my brother in law and I decided to tell both John Woollard and my Dad the real reason why the engine needed replacing.

When the engine had cooled down, fortunately it started okay but it had lost power. I didn`t tell Dad what I had done that caused the problem until years later He stripped down the engine and found the fault was a warped cylinder head. So he wrote a letter to BSA complaining about the inferior quality of the cylinder head and block and without hesitation they replaced it with a complete new engine, so at least I could say that the BSA Winged Wheel engine was in a much better condition than that of the Cycle Master. It took years before I could bring myself to tell Dad the truth about the reason “PERR” as we called her, failed to win the race and he found it all very amusing saying “at least we kept the winner in the family!”

P1081 Hawker Hunter crashed in Ringmer East Sussex

Sorry SPOT

On the 3^rd April 1951 my school mates and I decided to go to the chalk pit crater at the top of EARWIG CORNER and our dog SPOT came along with us, which he very often did! We had only been on the downs for a very short while when there was an almighty BOOM sound in the sky and  about 20 minutes later we saw black smoke rising from the ground at the East end of Ringmer, about half a mile from where I lived. We ran down to the road where we had left our bikes and headed for the smoke, followed closely by SPOT. We were only about 20 minutes away and arrived to see the burnt out fuselage of the Hawker Hunter P1081 which had crashed into a field close to the junction where Norlington Lane and the top of Broyle Lane meet, about 80 metres west of the Soldiers Graves.

Situation of pilot

The Pilot had ejected so us kids and the dog set off to look for him , expecting to find him alive somewhere close to the crash area, but after about half an hour searching the fields we came across a wooded area  about 1/2 mile away from the crash scene when SPOT appeared to get excited and went in, with us in pursuit and would you believe there was the pilot still strapped to the seat. He had landed into the crown of a tree which had snapped off some of the top branches and one of the branches  appeared as if it had entered his chest. He was about 20 feet high in the tree looking downwards, with his arms dangling.  He was not  wearing goggles or a helmet and his ruffled hair was hanging down from his head.

Location of pilot

ADDED information! Year 2021  The coppice was 120 yards north of the TRIG point and  in the 1950`s was a  regular play area for the Trott  family children.

It was In  August 2020 this year whilst searching the internet I stumbled upon the version given regarding  the P 1081 crash. I read the  results of the  official crash report  of the incident held in Lewes Crown Court on the 11th May 1951 which was recorded as being accidental death for the pilot and  the crashed P1081  still remains a ” mystery!” That is where the factual    information  of  the inquest should have terminated, because the following claims  made by Police Constable Denman and  Police Sergeant Hunt were untruthful!

 I was astonished by the incorrect information given  by the Police at the hearing,  regarding the situation of the pilot, which the Sussex Agriculture Express newspaper reported.  

   The police stated that  they  searched  the area and found the pilot.   That was not true, it was us kids, me and my dog who found the pilot and notified the police.

 Sussex Agriculture Express reported that the police found the pilot in a coppice.  He was  still sitting in the seat which  had passed through the trees breaking off  the branches  which slowed down the fall and cushioned  the impact with the ground. ( that was not true!)

  At the inquest It was reported that the pilots watch  was  missing from his possessions, rather than say the watch was not found therefore making it look as if somebody had stolen it.               

         No way is the  written report by Sussex Agriculture Express of the crash  anywhere near that of being accurate!  It could have only been  after the pilot had been forcefully pulled  from the tree and dropped from the height  of 2oft, to ground  when the  seat would have been embedded  in the soil.  It would  have then been possible to undo the seat belts, check pockets, or REMOVE a watch. (which was never found!)

 Having found where the pilot was we made our way back to the P1081 crash site and INFORMED THE POLICE   PC Denman and sergeant  Hunt where they would find the pilot  lodged in a tree.   It was stated by the POLICE that they saw the seat embedded in the ground with the pilot strapped in the seat.

We found the pilot Wimpy Wade Lodged in the crown of the middle tree about 20 feet above ground. The pointed broken branch which prevented impact with the ground still exists

If that was the case, they arrived at the coppice, much later  in the afternoon after we had explained to them  the whereabouts of the pilot , who was jammed between branches in a tree when we left

 The pilot was strapped in his seat and lodged between  broken branches in  the crown of the tree!  If the police insists that they found the pilot on the ground strapped in the seat, it would have been much, much later in the day, after we had informed them of the pilots whereabouts, which would have given  the fictitious” search party” enough time to lower the  seat to the ground, before the Police arrived to investigate the situation. If the seat had  been lowered gently  it wouldn`t  have  made  a depression  in the soil, but there was one.

It is as if  “MY TRUE STORY” of 1951,  written by me  in 2014 for my children, my grandchildren and my great grandchildren to read, has been stolen from me and replaced by inaccurate  crash reporting, instigated by the police report to  the Sussex Agriculture Express Newspaper.

My theory is that the pilots injuries were too gruesome to pass on to his relatives, so they decided to soften the blow and published a kinder version of how he died. That I can quite understand! But to read that the “Local Policeman” took the credit for finding where the pilot landed, when it was me who directed him to the coppice.   The Pilot Wimpy Wade,  his goggles,   his helmet and  several pieces of the P1081  canopy were also found and handed in by us Broyle- Lane  kids and Les who was down on holiday, staying at his grandparents home.

We  saw the pilot hanging in the tree and  were unable to do anything to help the situation, so we ran back to the  P1081 crash scene and informed the policemen, PC Denman  the local copper and a Police Sergeant Hunt of the pilots whereabouts!

We were not part of the search – team which PC Denman organised when he said he  found the pilot still strapped in his seat.

We were the  ” team of Three kids”  who  had found the pilot lodged  in a tree about 20ft. up in a coppice 800 yards from the crash -site. 

Having given them  the  information  where  the pilot was, we were then asked by the police to leave the crash scene, which had  been cordoned- off, waiting for the RAF investigators to arrive. 

PC Denman took advantage of our absence from the crash scene and passed  on the incorrect information,  to the local paper.

 Only authorised people were at the crash scene, waiting  for their arrival.

Apparently the pilot Squadron Leader WADE had put the plane into a steep dive and the BOOM was the noise of the plane breaking the Sound Barrier which did damage to the tail section of the plane and was the cause the pilot failing to gain control of the Hunter on the Test Flight. The following day we went back to the crash site and the RAF crash Investigators were busy doing their work with the area cordoned off so we went searching for other pieces of the aircraft ie. the cockpit canopy! which was lost before the crash happened. About a mile away we found parts of the shattered Perspex cover to the cockpit which had shattered and we carried them back to the RAF Investigators who were already in possession of the goggles and helmet which  had been found by other youngsters.  We all kept a piece of Perspex to remind us of that very sad day. With my piece I carved out a finger ring.

 In 2020, having researched and read the official report, a wrist watch was said to be missing. It was the  “Broyle Lane” kids and Les. who found the pilot , the helmet, goggles and canopy and  handed them in. As for the wrist watch, if the pilot was  wearing one, it could have only been taken by an adult at ground level!    

The Police did not have to do any searching, which they claimed they did to find the pilot strapped in his seat on the ground !  An ideal place to take a wrist watch!

When we left the scene to go and report our find to the police , the pilot was wedged in the tree, seat uppermost which needed to be dislodged before anybody could reach it. Having fallen 1,980ft before crashing into the crown of a tree at 125miles an hour another drop of 20 feet to the ground was necessary to be able to unstrap the harness , empty the pockets and take the pilots “wrist watch”! If there was one!                       

                     I   wrote this Post in 2014 knowing that every piece of  the information written by me  was 100% accurate so I “published the post ” for all to read.

Why did the “official report of the hearing” given by the POLICE to Sussex Agriculture Express on the 11th of May 1951 of  the crash, differ so much from what really happened.

The verdict  of the inquest was judged on the Police statements which included that they searched and found the pilot themselves, no mention of us kids telling them where to go to find him.

A  fictitious story was concocted regarding the position of the pilot strapped in his seat on the “ground” where  they searched through his possessions and undone the straps, when  in fact he was still up in the crown of the tree, wedged between the branches, still wearing the watch, if there was one!

When we arrived on the scene there was no sign of any disturbance of earth below the tree, which confirmed that the  pilot/seat did not crash to the ground. ( as stated !)

The earth disturbance must have happened when the “assisted”  20 ft drop  from the tree to the ground was activated, which  made it the ideal spot to see if the watch was on the pilots  wrist, also to check through his pockets and undo straps!

It seems that whatever statements the police made at the hearing/inquest, were recorded as  being accurate. Surely, the inquest investigation into the crash is to  report the facts!

P1081 Hawker Hunter 1951

Years later 1998 I visited the crash site with my nephews with our metal detectors with the hope of finding something, but to no avail because the RAF investigators had found everything there was to find.

In 2012 my grandson and I visited  RAF Tangmere Museum and I mentioned to members of the staff that I was at the crash site of the Hawker Hunter P1081 on May 3rd 1951 within 30 minutes of it`s impact with the ground. I did not go in to any depth or detail  because  their record of events  differed from mine considerably, so I quickly changed the subject and talked about being a Morse Code wireless operator in the RAF and I was invited to use a morse code key to send a message which was legible after 54 years without any practice. Before leaving the museum I bought a book which I still have which gives an inaccurate account of the crash being on the South Downs.

IT IS NOW  YEAR 2021  70  years since the crash. The Sussex Express  local newspaper on the 2nd of April this year covered the event. The outcome of the enquiries verdict was accidental death for the pilot and the crash was still a mystery! The misleading  inaccurate statements given by the police  in 1951 remained  he same.

It brought back  memories of the police version of the inclusion of their involvement in locating the pilot!                                                                   I have decided to prove that  I passed on the information to the police.

Firstly :-

(1)  How did I know where the ” coppice” was?                                        (2)  How did I know which tree the  pilot was lodged in?                        (3)  Why would we lie about  the pilot being lodged in a tree, if he was  sitting in his seat on the ground?                                                   (4)    What have I done to prove it was we three Broyle Lane Kids  who were the first to witness the pilot suspended IN a tree! Not on the ground  as stated by the police!

SO !   To confirm that my version is 100% truthful

On the 13th April 2021 this year, I took off  on my own and visited  the coppice where we found the “pilot lodged” in a tree, 70 years ago.   I found the  exact spot where we entered the copse, in 1951 but I  was unable to be sure which tree it was, out of the choice of two.                               The following  day I visited the coppice a second time armed with binoculars to look for the wounds and the damage done to the branches which occurred on impact.

April 14th 2021.

I have taken photos of the tree in question from the spot where we entered the coppice in 1951 and  where I definitely saw the pilot attached to his chair, 20 ft high  in a tree.  Zoom in to the photo and you will see where the  branches have been sawn off straight , not smashed off whilst crashing though them at  a speed 125 MPH   which the police said cushioned the fall. Falling at that speed to the  ground  the chair would have damaged all of the branches below but that did not happen which proved the chair  was  lowered.

In the month of April there are no leaves on the trees in the coppice so it was easy for all three of us kids to describe to the police exactly what we saw.  I cannot understand how the police  can say that they found something completely  different!

My theory is, the concocted story  of  a “search  party” organised by PC Denman  to find the pilot was  a group of people without the  knowledge  of the pilots whereabouts, 0nly PC Denman  knew   because  I was the kid who told him. The team went to  the coppice and dislodged the seat, which crashed to the ground, making  an impression in the soil.

PC  Denman  was at the scene and saw the pilot sitting in his seat, although he stated  at the enquiry that he  was the person  who “FOUND” not  SAW the pilot sitting in his seat.,

There is still a shallow indentation in the soil  where the seat crash landed after it had been dislodged manually by the ” Team,” which enabled  PC Denman  to have access to the pilots possessions and to undo the straps holding the pilot to the seat.

That would have taken place well past  5.00pm after  we had given Police  Constable Denman/  Police Sergeant Hunt the  information  regarding the whereabouts of the pilot  who was suspended in a tree  in a wooded area about 800 yards from the crash site. At 4.45pm we were told to leave the crash site.

Police Constable Denman took all the credit  at the enquiry having lied about himself being the person who  organised a ( search party) which wasn`t necessary because the pilot had already been found  about an  1/2 hour  before, by us kids so he knew exactly  where the pilot would be located.

Information given at Inquest by PC George Denman. He was our local Bobby and knew me by name!

He would have seen the pilot very late in the day, sitting in the ejected seat that had fallen, breaking the branches of a tree which  had cushioned the fall.                   Initially, before being removed  from the tree by force, the pilot was wedged between the branches of  a tree and had been, for well over the hour when we found him, around 4pm.

At 4.45pm PC Denman  & Police Sergeant Hunt were still at the crash site.

Why did PC Denman make out that he found the pilot,  when  we three children  witnessed the truth, of  the pilot being wedged  between the branches of a tree. At the most only 6 people saw him in the tree, those being the so-called search party and us 3 kids. Others saw him on the ground, having been dislodged and dropped to the ground before they arrived at the scene.

YEAR  1953

I left school in 1953 and started work at the International Stores in Cliffe High Street Lewes. I did a two year  correspondence course apprenticeship working a 48 hour week and earning £2-1-7 pence and I had one and a half days off, Wednesday PM and Sunday. Ration books were still in operation and they needed to be presented when buying the weekly allowance of  2 oz. of butter and 2 oz. of cheese.  As an apprentice I was given only menial jobs to start with, like scrubbing the front entrance step every morning before the shop opened, cleaning both ladies and gents on a daily basis. Boning sides of bacon and if required washing out the maggots from inside the shoulder with cold water, which was a regular job I did before taking the whole side of bacon to the provisions section  to be sliced and jointed. I did make a mistake  on one occasion I used hot water  to wash out the maggots and nearly boiled the shoulder joint which  made the slimy area unfit for rashers or joints. Mr.S Pelling the manager was not over pleased and told me so. Another regular job I was given was filling fixtures and facing them up to look if every section was filled and I was told to remove the cardboard lids on the old jars of “Mitre” Internationals own brand  of Jams and lift the cellophane covers to remove the crystallized sugar which builds up when the shelf life has expired. I  was rewarded by a Penny a jar to encourage customers to buy Mitre rather than their usual brand. The most I ever made was 11 pence. It does not seem a lot but by adding a penny to  it was enough for me to get from Ringmer to Lewes and back by bus and still have enough to go to the cinema. When I had finished my apprenticeship I expected a pay rise which, would put me on a par with my mates who were earning a lot more than I was, but to no avail so I decided to get another job erecting television aerials where I could earn £4-00 a week or more, with commission. Unfortunately the firm stopped trading and I needed to find another job and managed to get one straight away working in the Sussex Radio and Cycle Stores shop in Cliffe High Street Lewes for the same wage. I worked in the shop selling electrical goods, kettles, radio`s, televisions etc. and was showing interest by repairing small electrical items fitting elements in irons and kettles and I also built a 20watt amplifier for my turn-table which only had a 5 watt output and that was really something in those days to own a powerful 20 watt amplifier. Having gained a little knowledge of repairing the obvious problems, exchanging valves replacing fuses. It was during the time of the SUEZ crisis when LEARNER drivers were allowed to drive unaccompanied when Reg Sabine the manager, asked me if I would consider driving the firm`s van to deliver repaired televisions and collect the ones which I was unable to fix myself. On the strength of my success with the repairs and the amplifier build he suggested to the owner to allow me a day release once a week to attend  Preston Technical college Brighton. It  was during the time at the college, I was shown how to make free electricity, by looping a bulb with copper wire and passing an electric current through the loop which made light.

After a few months Mr. Parsley the owner granted me the time off so I could attend Preston road Technical college, which I accepted and I thoroughly enjoyed  the day release and the one evening a week studying electronics. After the first year I needed to re –register for the following course and realised that by signing up again  would defer me from doing National Service until the age of 23 years. I explained to my employers how I felt and they were okay about my choice to give up my apprenticeship, so I gave a weeks notice, which they accepted and they told me that my job would still be there when I had finished my conscription in the Royal Air Force.                               In March 1958 having worked a weeks notice, I applied to do the compulsory Two Years National Service which was a requirement of all 18 year old male personnel who were A1 fit, with the exception of the agriculture workers who worked the land and the conscientious  objectors who refused to defend their country, so occupied the locked guardroom,  whilst they were at the camp.

As it happens I did the right thing, withdrawing from the college  because I was found to be colour blind and not suitable to continue an electronic trade as a wireless mechanic but it has always been at the back of my mind that I could have been an electrician, because I thought I could see colour as well as anybody, but I have been proven wrong after doing another test for colour blindness which I failed miserably. I was unable to recognise any of the numbers from the 10 slide test.                                                                                                                      During the mid fifties colour television was being discovered. The word OXO was  used  in the experiment. It flashed on  and off at terrific speed which created colour  on the black and white  screen and  TV repairers were asked to identify the colours they had seen and report back. Not knowing that I was colour blind at the time of the experiment, my report of the colours would have been of no use whatsoever.

MARCH  2021. 23,000,000 people about a third of the UK population of which I was one of the first who was  vaccinated against the CORONAVIRUS on December 8th 2020 with the second injection 3 weeks later.

June 2022 after having had a 4th  Covid  jab, I have managed to ward off  the virus.

My next Blog “Conscription plus twelve months.” gives you an insight of my National Service days in the Royal Air Force.

Dusty.