THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE ― These Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and are progressively growing to be the only record of life around Findon, West Sussex, England.  Everyday stories about real people..... in fact, a potted history of the village.  The topics today, are the history of tomorrow.

A NEAR MISS FOR FINDON IN 1956

Copyright Valerie Martin 2005

No one can be quite sure what is going to descend out of the skies over Sussex.   Usually it is raindrops.  It could be snowflakes..... or even worse a bird passing overhead.  There is not much we can do about such missiles landing on us.    

This brings me to the question, where were you in 1956?

In 1956 I was not living in Findon, (or in Sussex for that matter).   That year was the date of an air catastrophe not far from Findon.

Does anyone recall the Valiant bomber that brought terror to nearby Southwick when it crashed on Friday 11th May 1956 at 1.15 p.m?   Too close for comfort to Findon.

I do not remember hearing about it but I do recall seeing the Vickers-Armstrong Valiant at the Farnborough Air Show for a couple of years running.   If the Valiant had been a car, it would no doubt be called a classic now. 

On that fateful day in 1956 the Valiant bomber in question took off from the experimental flying section of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough in Hampshire at around 11 a.m.   So far so good.  

Its crew comprised the pilot, Squadron Leader Kenneth Orman , the co-pilot Flight Lieutenant Colin Preece, the navigator Flight Lieutenant K. Evans and Mr. Knight (who was a passenger and a Ministry of Supply technician).

It must be explained at this point that the aircraft in question contained some rather special equipment to test flight behaviour.    It just so happened that the main runway at Farnborough was undergoing re-surfacing at the time and this resulted in there being insufficient runway for an aircraft to take off with a full load of fuel.  The Valiant, therefore, had to land at Wisley in Surrey to refuel and it departed from there again at 11.45 a.m.   All was going to the revised plan.

Shortly after this the test equipment apparently became unserviceable and it was decided to cut their losses and make for Farnborough.   Unfortunately, as you will remember, this meant the Valiant was now too overweight to even contemplate landing on the Farnborough runway.   There was only one obvious answer, to fly at 1,000 feet, where the excess fuel could be burned off.

Our nearby Sussex coastline had been peaceful that day and tranquil until suddenly there was a tremendous noise as the bomber approached from the direction of the Power Station at nearby Southwick.  

At an altitude of 1,000 feet the Captain ordered the crew to bale out.   He had very little control over the aircraft at this point, or where it would end up..... on a town or an open field.  

The truth of the matter is that the Valiant, like the other V-bombers, was only fitted with ejector seats for the pilot & co-pilot.   For instance, the navigator in the back of the aircraft was without one.   It seems quite likely by the time the crew got to the escape hatch, it was decided they were too low to bale out and that staying on board the aircraft would give them their only chance of survival.

There was a gush of flames and panes of glass splintered from the windows of properties as the aircraft crashed.   Bangs followed.... sounds of tumbling  debris...... a garage roof was flattened by the blast and its door was scorched by the flames.

At the inquest (held later at the nearby Shoreham Town Hall) on three members of the crew, the co-pilot, Colin Preece, described what had happened —

"We found a clear patch between Selsey Bill and Shoreham and flew up and down the coast twice.   On the second turn around Selsey, Squadron-Leader Orman said that we had lost the use of the variable incidence tail trimmer.   As a result we had to switch to manual control, with consequent loss of power assistance".  

"He asked me to help handle the controls with him and that way we managed to fly up to 2,000 ft.    But we could not keep the left wing from dropping and the nose went down".  

"At 1,000 feet, Squadron-Leader Orman gave the order to get out of the aircraft.   This applied to all of us on board.   Shortly afterwards I "blew" the hood and pulled the ejector handle".  

The stricken Valiant with its engines screaming ploughed into the railway line, it unceremoniously bounced once and exploded in the air.   Burning wreckage showered over a wide area of Southwick.   Large pieces of rubble rained down on nearby properties and gardens alike and covered the Southwick recreation ground, yet miraculously not one person on the ground was seriously hurt.

One of the aircraft's giant landing wheels plunged through the air and subsequently hurtled into the playground at the Southwick Junior Boys School.   It was playtime and was crowded with pupils — but again no one was injured.   Were you one of those pupils perhaps?

Chris McBrien of Aberdeen was eleven years old at the time and still at the Benfield Primary School in Portslade.    He tells me that he remembers that lunchtime very well,  

"A load of us just fell to the ground playing dead as the big bang went off".

The aircraft ripped through the power cables beside the railway lines and spun them to the ground.   These power cables wended their way over the gardens of houses in Croft Avenue, spitting out brilliant flashes of blue sparks as the current earthed.

The Valiant's co-pilot had baled out and after hitting the roof of the railway station's booking office, ended up in a plot of allotments at the rear of Butts Road.  He related his story at the inquest ....

"The next thing I remember was being in the railway station receiving first aid.   Evans and Knight had no ejector seats but they did have parachutes and there was a door in the left-hand side of the Valiant through which they could escape.   I am sure that Squadron-Leader Orman stayed in the plane to make sure we could all get out".

At the time of the crash there was a passenger train actually on the railway track travelling from Worthing to Brighton and this was just about to pull out of Southwick Station.  The driver, guard and unsuspecting passengers missed death by fractions of seconds.   All trains from then on that day were diverted via Arundel until the following morning.

Three of the Valiant's aircrew died in the horrific accident.   One of the bodies (still wearing an unopened parachute) was recovered later in the garden of a house in Croft Avenue.

Not really surprisingly, fires were sparked off in fifteen properties after the aircraft's burning wreckage plummeted on them.   These were put out by two pumps from Shoreham Fire Station with assistance from East Sussex and Brighton Fire Brigades.

A specialist from Farnborough who examined the wreckage of the Valiant told the inquest that the primary cause of the tragedy appeared to be an electrical fault. 

The giant Vickers-Armstrong Valiants first flew in 1951 and were Britain's first four-jet bombers and our first strategic Cold War nuclear strike aircraft.    The Valiant that crashed at Southwick was one of a total of 111 Valiants built.  

These bombers during their lifetime also performed photo-reconnaissance and tanker roles for the R.A.F.    It was a Valiant that dropped Britain's first nuclear bomb on a test range in Australia (also in 1956).  Then a year later one released a prototype hydrogen bomb over Christmas Island in the Pacific.     Valiants also saw action in the Suez crisis of 1956, dropping conventional high-explosive bombs on Egyptian targets.

As late as 1958, the RAF claimed that Valiants could out-fly and outmanoeuvre any fighter in squadron service.  They were formally withdrawn in 1965 when Victor and Vulcan bombers took over their strategic role.   In spite of its record, the Valiant will always be remembered in our corner of Sussex as the one that fell out of the sky on neighbouring Southwick in 1956.

It seems quite unbelievably to me that there were two incidents of R.A.F. crashes in our area within the space of three days that month in 1956   Just after the Valiant episode, a Canberra jet bomber crashed in the English Channel off nearby Shoreham with the loss of its two crew members on 14th May 1956.

In December 2007, I heard from Elizabeth....."Hi Valerie, I remember this incident. I was seven years old, it was lunch break and I was in the playground of the Green School, Southwick. I was startled by the noise from a plane which seemed to suddenly appear from the immediate west.

It flew directly overhead, menacingly low, Almost, it felt, low enough to touch. It was emitting a series of small explosions, (which I was told later were probably caused by the ejector seat firing). It stayed in my sight for a second or two before exploding in a massive fire ball. A moment later the playground was engulfed by a vast, concussive wave of heat. Several children started crying but mostly we stood there just shocked.

Within seconds, my mother appeared on her bike to see if I was okay before pedaling frantically up The Twitten to the rec to check on my brother, who was at Manor Hall Road School. Consequently she was one of the first people on the scene and afterwards gave a grueling account of what she found.

My brother was fine and very proud of himself in that upon hearing the explosion, he had immediately thrown
himself to the ground. This was a maneuver was re-enacted by the boys for days after.

In evening two investigators from the Air Ministry came to stay at our house, ( my father was in the RAF and working there at the time). They were particularly keen to know whether I had seen the tail of the aircraft as it flew over. I'm not sure what the relevance of this was and don't remember if I did.

My father later told me that the crew were desperately trying to ditch the Valiant in the sea but just ran out of height and that the pilot was aware of the children in the schools beneath. Brave men.

Best wishes....Elizabeth Wallis....Maynards Green, Sussex"

In August 2008 I heard from John Young in Southwick....."Valerie.............At the time of the crash, I was about 150 yards away having lunch: a bit nearer than Findon!

I have just joined the committee of Southwick Society and feel that local history is so important and should be preserved for future generations."

 

Gerald White in Lincolnshire emailed in November 2008 ......"Hello Valerie, reading the event about the A/C crash in Southwick brought back my memory.

On the day concerned I was at work in Whites Timber yard in Shoreham, (serving an apprenticeship) i heard a roar overhead and saw a ValiantV bomber it was on fire, and flying low in a North Easterly direction.

My hobby was aircraft recognition, and i was an ATC cadet.

I heard the bang as the Valiant hit the ground in nearby Southwick.Yep the incident was almost forgotten
by me. Later the Argus newspaper gave out all the details.

Interestingly, the Valiant was the first V force aircraft to be taken out of service, but I believe it was because of a major fault in the casting of the mainplane( wings). GW"

At Easter 2009, John Allwright from Edgware in Middlesex emailed......"Valiant Crash, 1956....At the time of the crash I was lined up in the queue for dinner in Middle Road School, the first thing I recall was the feeling of warmth on the right side of my my face, I looked to the right to see a large fireball rising into the air in the area of the railway lines.

We were then herded out of the school and onto the grass area in front of the school on Manor hall road, after about five minuets we were allowed back into the school and taken into the dining hall for school dinners.

After dinner we went into the playground to find part of a turbine laying on the ground with a chalk line drawn around it and were told that it had just missed Victor, one of the boys in the class I was in.

Come going home time I had to walk around along Manor Hall Road to Fishrsgate Halt as the park that I usually crossed was closed off, as well as the stone bridge which had been hit by a piece of debris and had a hole in it.

Later in the evening we visited our auntie who lived near the police houses in Gardner Road which runs along the other side of the embankment that the railway line runs on from the school, I can remember several of the houses having sheeting over their roofs where they had been damaged, Our auntie was luckier as she was to the west of the impact point and apart from some broken windows and a piece of shrapnel imbeded in her shed door (which was still there some fifteen years later)."

In mid-January 2011, I heard from Stephen Watts saying........"Greetings!   1956 Valiant Crash at Southwick...

Just come across your webpage on the air crash on the railway line at Southwick in 1956, the Valliant V-bomber. I was five at the time and on the next train back from the one at Southwick heading to Brighton, we had probably gotten as far as East Worthing or Shoreham, the line was very straight at that point I remember and then we got no further.

I was on a trip with my Dad and Uncle I think, I remember them telling me the train was stopped because of an aircraft crashing on the line further along. I believe our train went one station further then returned back the way we came after collecting passengers on the westbound side. It was quite a delay as they decided what to do with us (and the train), I ended up returning home.

My excitement at the incident didn't quite overcome my disappointment at not getting the day out I was promised, I remember feeling that much. Of course we had no idea at that point of the actual tragedy and I was not old enough to be really aware of such things.

Regrettably the next time I experienced a crash was in 1969 and dozens died when an airliner hit the ground at Gatwick, I heard it come down as I was working not far away from the point of impact. I was quite shaken by that incident as I had to serve some of the relatives of the victims who had just lost their loved ones. A nasty experience, very upsetting at the age of 18, one I'll not forget.

Really pleased to come across this information as it has been in my mind ever since, un-resolved.

Regards, Steve (Crawley - since 1962)"

John Greves in Walton-on-Thames emailed in July 2011........"Still a Number of Points to be Answered, Val....None of the web explanations seem to stack-up.

A bit odd to take on say a 20 ton fuel load for 4,500 miles on a coastal run of maybe 200 miles ... no mention of a possible 10 ton "iron" ballast .... maybe checking for structural problems caused by high energy turns at low level.

60 mile circuit to burn off excess fuel is going to take rather a long time.

Crew had less than 3 minutes and very altitude to sort out what was going wrong ... only mistake ... not to bale-out sooner.

Politically and Commercially much easier to blame human error than to accept technical problems ... especially when masked by the Official Secrets Act. Wonder if anyone is still alive to tell the real story.

Crash just 200 yards short of the High Voltage electrical "Switch Farm" serving much of the Sussex Coast .... surge and kick-back might have knocked out Southwick Power Generators and a large section of the National Grid.   Regards John"

In April 2011, I received the following from Bob Richardson...."Dear Valerie ......I have just found your piece about the aircrash.

I attended Manor Hall Road school to 1959. Every day I walked along the road to my home [where my parents still live - both 91]. My young sister attended Fishersgate Infants school and on the day of the crash my mother had cycled over to collect her for lunch.

At the moment of the crash my mother was finishing putting up some wallpaper in my bedroom, Margaret and I were preparing to return to school after lunch and my dad was on his double allotment to the north of our house. He went there for peace at every opportunity I suspect!

There was a huge bang and I recall that almost immediately the sky was full of what appeared like a rain of fluttering black and silver paper.
My dad rushed to the back door and said there has been an aircrash. He filled a bucket with water and hurried off to the rec!

Being a 9 year old I asked my mum, who had come downstairs, why a single bucket of water would be any use at all. I remember she was looking very strange and she told me that "if you had seen things in the war like we did [she was in the RAF, dad was in the Army], you would know that after a crash any water can be a big help. I sort of understood.

Later I went back to school and saw the wreckage in the playground. The sheer magnitude of the incident really didn't sink in. To be truthful it was fun rather than tragedy.
Later I found out that my mum had gone upstairs to reposition the wallpaper and taken my sister back to school just before some men came to close the bridge. My sister was frightened of the bridge for many years. They had to skirt the hole in its floor.

Hope that adds a tiny bit more to your most excellent record!

BOB Richardson, Hertfordshire"

In October 2011 I received an email from Peter Thomson in Perthshire saying...."Dear Valerie......I found your website concerning the Valiant crash in 1956 very interesting. My uncle 'Pip', was the navigator on the aircraft, F/L K E P (Philip) Evans. He was 33 years old and my mother's younger brother.

   F/L K E P (Pip) Evans on his wedding day to Lilian 2 April 1946.

I was 8 years old at the time of the crash and clearly remember how utterly distraught my mother was at hearing the news. She spoke to F/L Preece at the funeral and told me afterwards that he had told her of fuses 'popping'.

I went to stay with uncle Pip's widow a few times (they had 2 young boys), but don't know what became of her. I believe she may have moved to Australia, though I'm not sure.

My mother died in 1973 at the age of 65, unaware, thankfully, that the crash appeared to have been totally avoidable.

I have newspaper cuttings about the crash and a picture of my uncle if you would be interested in me sending you a copy by post. Please send me a contact address if you are interested. I also wonder if you know if Donald Preece is still alive?

Best Wishes

Peter Thomson
Perthshire, Scotland"

I can just imagine those fuses "popping".

Continue if you would like to read about 1967 in the village entitled Findon in '67

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE —  is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.