On the 3rd of July 1948 three aircraft took off from Woodvale at around 14.45hrs for a cross country training flight to Morpeth. Prior to taking off the Met report was checked and the flight was given the go ahead. Thirty five minutes into the flight and flying at 6000 feet this aircraft flew into cumulonimbrus cloud. The other two aircraft had by now already turned back, this aircraft suffered severe turbulence, the lost height to about 3000 feet. Whilst flying on instruments the pilot then lost control and probably aware he was over high ground he bailed out leaving the aircraft to crash at the head of Swaledale. The aircraft crashed at Coldbergh Edge at a near vertical angle and bury much of itself into the ground. The parachute ripped his the way out but the pilot landed reasonably safely, spraining an ankle on landing on land above Kirkby Stephen. He began to follow a river down stream but was met by two farmers who had seen the crash and were making their way up. He was later taken to hospital.
Pilot - F/O Peter Geldart RAF(Aux), slightly injured.
This incident appears to have put the pilot off flying, he then became an Air Traffic Control Officer. He passed away in October 2004.
Fellow Yorkshire researcher Graham Sharpe found the site in August 1976 by accident whilst looking for the remains of a Halifax (which actually crashed on Great Shunner Fell, although this was not known at the time). The photograph above shows a panel with the "NM814" stenciling clearly visable. The crash site was later dug in 1988 by the Whittingham family who recovered much of the remaining aircraft including the instrument panel, propeller and Griffon engine.
I visited the crash site in November 2007 with Ken Reast, Albert Pritchard and Dick Barton. The results of the dig some twenty years previous are still evident, the partly back filled hole is clearly visable.
Very little remains at the site but enough to identify the site as being that of a Spitfire. Two small peices containing part numbers were located. Both are actually early model Spitfire part numbers but such peices were used on later models, the number above begins "30008", which is a MkI part, the peice below begins "33008", which is begun life in MkIII Spitfires. Both parts were from wing sections.