CYCLING AVIATION ROUTE #3 | history on a bike! A bike ride from Norwich to Hindolverston

So much aviation history to cover!
POI #1 City of Norwich Aviation museum is the first point of interest and quite frankly could be the only place you ride to! So much to see..
POI #2 Caston – B17 & Hampden Bomber crash plaques
POI #3 Melton Constable – Wellington Bomber crash site
POI #4 Hindolveston – Wellington Bomber crash site
POI #5 RAF Foulsham
POI# 6 Foulsham – B17 collision with Bristol Beaufighter
POI #7 Bawdeswelll – De Havilland mosquito crash site

hello and welcome to Norwich Railway Station Ready for aviation route [Music] three Hello Another cycling journey through the heart of Norolk On today’s cycle route I’ll be exploring forgotten airfields poignant memorials and the sightes of dramatic World War II crashes I’ll be uncovering stories of heroism tragedy and resilience tied to Britain’s aviation history Strap in as we pedal through time and memory tracing the flight paths of history So the route starts as usual at the railway station at Norwich Center and the first point of interest is the City of Norwich Aviation Museum here just by Norwich airport The museum is home to a fascinating collection of aircraft and artifacts Step inside to discover the strategic importance of Norolk in the Second World War This region was once dotted with dozens of RAF airfields Some are now quiet fields others lost to time but here they are remembered in full force The museum also remembers the contribution of the United States Army Air Force with a display attributed to the 458th heavy bombardment group who flew B-24 Liberator bombers from Horscham St Faith airfield just across the road Now the international airport at Norwich The museum has got all sorts of exhibits here from the first world war onwards right through the second world war and up to modern day times Nearly all of the aircraft exhibited were once based and flown from Norfolk airfields including the English electric lightning and the Nimrod which was based at RAF Marum The Nimrod was a maritime patrol aircraft with three primary roles anti-ubmarine and surface warfare search and rescue coordination and later electronic warfare Although not operationally based in Norfolk the Harrier was flown from RAF West Rain as part of a triation evaluation project during the years 1964 to 1965 Perhaps one of my favorite exhibits here is the set cap Jaguar These were based at RAF Culture up until fairly recently The Jaguar was a versatile twin engine supersonic jet developed by the United Kingdom and France It was primarily designed for closeair support and nuclear strike missions It has also been used for reconnaissance and interdiction roles Wow just look at this Vulcan bomber It’s a Delta wing Absolutely enormous The Vulcan Delta Wing Bomber initially served as a key component of British nuclear deterrent during the Cold War Later it transitioned to a conventional bombing role notably during the Falklands conflict where it was used for long range raids Apart from military exhibits there’s plenty of civilian aircraft here Here’s an old AirUK aircraft that got taken over by KM Air Anglia was a privately owned airline formed in Norwich airport in 1970 The airline recorded no accidents or incidents in its 10-year existence until 1980 when it merged to become Air UK And once again in 1997 when it was rebranded as KM UK and of course if you’re interested in rotary is helicopters as well I don’t fancy flying this one very much I don’t think I’m going to get very far without road ahead It’s a fascinating museum well worth a visit It’s £9 for entry for an adult and there’s a great cafe on site City of Norwich Aviation Museum is the first point of interest and a great place to start this route Leaving the museum riding west out of Horsen St Faiths and through Horseford it’s not long before you’re in the countryside enjoying the wood canopy covered [Music] roads This area just northwest of Norwich is characterized by several woods and plantations that have stood for centuries At H Engingland the village displays a set of medieval stocks and a village sign with an aircraft on it representing a dehavland [Music] mosquito As I ride into Corston I approach the next point of interest nestled just outside the wall of St Agnes Church [Music] From the museum it’s about 14 km through Horseford Woods to the next point of interest I’m at Corston I’ve done 25 km and this is point of interest number two This memorial commemorates two crashes The first crash was of a Hampton bomber part of the Royal Air Force The plaque says “This plaque is in memory of those that were killed in a handley page Hampton bomber of 61 squadron which crashed into the blue stone plantation on February the 10th 1941 during World War II killing all the crew The second plaque commemorates the loss of the B7 Lucky Strike Lucky Strike was returning from a raid on the submarine pens at Keel Germany on the 5th of January 1944 Unfortunately for the crew a bomb failed to release and remained hooked up on board The crew chief tried to dislodge the final bomb with the twist of a screwdriver but in doing so unintentionally dislodged a 410 gal auxiliary fuel tank The crew began the trip home knowing that they did not have enough fuel for the return journey Lucky Strike was anything but lucky that fateful day as it was forced eventually to attempt a landing on farmland near Corston narrowly missing the church Tragically two of the American air crew didn’t survive the crash landing [Music] Colston is a beautiful village with some historic buildings Then it’s onto some narrow single lane roads skirting the old airfield at Alton Street past the church of St Peter and St one of the many flint built churches along the route before reaching the main halt road B1149 Remember to turn right unlike me I can’t understand how I couldn’t follow my own route but it did happen So remember when you reach the Hayden Estate gate house turn right northbound towards Corpus The route then goes through Briston once again passing some pretty little cottages and houses Along the route between Corston and Briston you may well see quite a few old railway structures For example things like this old bridge and that’s because there’s a lot of disused railways around this part of North Norolk running into Melton Constable which I’ll tell you a little bit more about when we get there This whole tree line used to be an old railway and so this railway bridge now sits in the middle of nowhere A route to catch up then from Corston It’s around the old airfield at Alton Street onto the B149 Remember to turn right towards Saxthorp and Corpost and onto Melton Constable Melton Conspull is first attested in the Doomsday Book of 1086 and notwithstanding its rural location the village became an important railway center on the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway or the M andGN Melton Constable a railway village It’s commemorated on this lovely plaque on this arch And that’s because Melton Constable used to be a major locomotive works It was also the confluence and joining of several different networks that happened to come through Mountain Constable And there were actually quite a large number of sidings just down here The railway station stood here from 1883 until it was removed in 1964 I suppose the name of the street is a bit of a clue This is Wellington Road the location of where a Wellington bomber crashed The plaque has a good picture of the Wellington and the crew and also shows the scene of the fatal crash which was the railway bridge just off hillside which the Wellington bomber crashed into On the night of the 16th of August 1941 at 2135 the Wellington bomber took off from its base at RAF Bimbrook in North Lincolnshire for a mission over Cologne The aircraft took damage from enemy flack and limped back across the channel towards England and made first landfall over Norfolk The pilot Charles McVey was probably looking for a suitable alternative landing site to put down at Already struggling to maintain height on seeing some lights and thinking it may be the aer drone McVey dropped down only to find out that the lights were for railway signaling and crashed into a railway bridge at Melton Constable Of the six crew three were killed and the others were taken to the Norfolk and Norwich hospital but they did survive Using the station plan and Google Maps I located the bridge that McVey hit cross referencing it with my drone one can see that the lines of the railway into the station may have looked similar to the lines of the runway lights bearing in mind that this was wartime and it was a blackout with minimum use of lights at night As it happens it was discovered that a 2,000lb bomb remained hung up in the bomb bay which without this considerable extra weight the machine may have been able to reject the fated approach with better climb performance enabling it to avoid the inevitable crash into the bridge when the pilot all too late realized that this wasn’t a runway The route now travels south 5 km to Hindelston Separated by just a few miles is the site of another crashed Wellington which occurred 2 years later in 1943 It’s remembered at the war memorial Plane went down on the 11th of December in 1943 and it crashed into a field by Park Farm which is just down this road This is the field just to the west of Hindustston where the Wellington bomber crashed Now with the use of the aerial photograph that was taken at the time and Google Maps I’ve been able to positively identify this wood that’s got a very specific shape And it’s clear that the Wellington crashed in this field on the 12th of November 1943 Just after midnight the twin engine Wellington bomber took off from RAF Little Horwood on a practice cross-country flight piloted by RAF Flight Sergeant Meridu and his crew The plane was on radio silence and its whereabouts was relied upon by the acoustic locators of the Royal Observer Corps The flight appeared to proceed normally for the first hour and 15 minutes The aircraft was then sound plotted by the Royal Observer Corp heading in a northeasterly direction at an estimated height of a,000 ft But shortly after it had gone out of earshot there was a tremendous flash and the sound of an impact was heard At once the members of the observer corps realized that the plane had gone down Inspection at the scene of the accident indicated that a structural failure had occurred at a comparatively low altitude The aircraft had struck the ground at a very steep angle disintegrating and then burnt There was no evidence to show any attempt had been made to abandon the aircraft All the crew on board perished It’s incredible to think that this peaceful part of Norolk rural agricultural was uh the scene of a devastating air crash [Music] 1943 From Hindoverstone we’re going to head south towards [Music] Falam In World War II RAF Falion played host to RAF number two group Bomber Command and it opened in May 1942 The airfield was equipped with three tarmac and one wood chip runways Falam was one of the few airfields to be fitted with Pho in 1944 That was a fog dispersal system which used fires at the sides of the runways to burn off the fog and highlight the runway position I’m now at Falam site of an old RAF air base There’s a commemorative stone here just in front of an old pillbox The road around the airfield is partly overlaid on the old Perry track and taxiways From Hindustan it’s a short hop over the airfield at Falam to point of interests five and six I’m in the village of Falcham and there’s a memorial plaque here very inconspicuous one on the side of this farm building and it’s commemorating a midair collision between a B17 and a Bristol bow fighter But I was just talking to the gentleman that lives in the building over here And he was telling me that the difference in brick work between this end of this building here that I’m pointing at and over here is due to the fact that the aircraft came down and crashed into these buildings or part of the debris from the midair collision came down and struck this building On the evening of August 31st 1943 11 US air crewmen boarded their B7 for a night training flight The B7 nicknamed Eager Eagle was part of the 305th bomb group and it took off from its base at Chelston in Northamptonshire That same night two British RAF air crew boarded their Bristol bow fighter and they also got airborne because there was a red air raid alert on both aircraft flew without navigation lights At 2330 hours overhead church farm at Falam Eager Eagle collided with the bow fighter catastrophically damaging both machines The stricken aircraft careered into the ground damaging farm buildings in the crash and were both destroyed Only two of the B7 wastist gunners were able to bail out Consequently the remaining nine air crew on the B7 and two on the bow fighter were all lost and perished that night Right next onto Borsy and the site of a mosquito crash into a church The final point of interest on this video is the church at Borsey It’s the location of yet another crash site this time involving a mosquito registration Kilo Bravo 364 The plane was one of 12 aircraft from 608 squadron which set out from Beexwell Norolk known as RF down and market to attack Gelson Kersian in Germany on the 6th of November 1944 All 11 of the mosquitoes successfully dropped their bombs and then returned back towards Norfolk However cloud and icing conditions were encountered Kila Bravo 364 is thought to have become severely iced up during the return descent And it was considered likely that at the time the pilot lost control and was unable to maintain height At 20 45 hours the mosquito struck All Saints Church setting it on fire Parts of the aircraft carried on and hit Boic House and Chancer House opposite causing considerable damage to both Debris was spread over a wide area The dear and fire brigade and firefighters from the American air base at Adelbridge that’s western Longville attended and it took 4 hours to control the blaze Both pilot and navigator were lost A piece of the machine is preserved in the church as a memorial to the tragic incident The final part of the route takes you across the busy A1167 to Swan Morning past Robert’s Barracks and then onto Western Longville and routting through Tavernum back to the station at Nuridge where this ride terminates I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride and look forward to you joining me on the next one the last of my aviation route rides And until then bye for now [Music]