THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE - A Near Miss For Findon in 1956

The tangled mess on the railway line at Southwick in 1956.

28th April 2005

Hi Valerie,

Valiant Crash Southwick.

Makes me feel quite young to be able to say that I was at Southwick Green Infants School in 1956.

I do, however, remember the tragic incident of the Valiant bomber crash in 1956.

I had crossed the recreation ground that day on my way home for lunch, so feel lucky to still tell the tale.

The one thing that sticks in my mind is that we were asked to take any pieces of metal etc. that we found to our school to help with the investigation. I'm sure the school ended up with an awful lot of old tin cans, nuts and bolts etc. that had nothing to do with the crash!

Regards,

Derek

Derek Colbourne, Findon Village, West Sussex.

29th November 2005

Hi Valerie,

Valiant Crash

I have just found your site and at last read a comprehensive explanation of what happened that day in 1956.

I was 6 at the time and clearly remember the explosion and massive "thud" which I later found out was when the Valiant crashed in Southwick Rec.

My home was then in Old Barn Way which lies at the top of the Rec so my Mum, brother, sister and myself also had a near miss.

I remember that awful smell of burning and seeing bits of fuselage in the front garden.

The footbridge over the railway at Southwick was on my route to my school in Fishersgate and we couldnt use it for weeks because it had a massive hole in it.

I have been researching this crash for several years now but lost all my information when I had a major computer crash a few months ago. Now after finding your site it has started me off again.

I also remember Derek Colbourne, he loved opposite me in Old barn Way and he was my brothers pal until my brother left for Australia in the 70's and also I have been in regular contact with Chris McBrian after finding his call for information of the crash.

What a small world it is !!!
Best regards
Chrissie Barber (nee Rowley)

28th April 2005

Hi Valerie

11th May 1956

I remember exactly where I was at 1.15pm on Friday, 11th May 1956!! I was
playing football in the playground at Southwick Junior Boys School in Manor Hall Road.

I have a vivid recollection of an enormous explosion, a ball of fire, the sound of shattering glass followed by various pieces of metal flying into the crowded playground. I am still amazed that no one in that playground was injured or even killed.

There was a very sombre atmosphere in the school after that, everyone was in
a state of shock. Our teacher, George Saunders, had been in the RAF during
the war and was visibly upset to the point of being in tears. I recall that this was the first time that I had seen a grown man crying.

One of my classmates, Colin Guy, lived in the end house nearest Southwick
Recreation Ground in Croft Avenue. He went home after school to find that half of his house had disappeared!! I am still in touch with Colin who now lives in Australia and his brother, Alan, who has lived in Canada for the last 30 years.

Later that year I moved on to Steyning Grammar School and, coincidentally, will be meeting with several of my former classmates from Steyning at lunchtime tomorrow in the Cricketers at Broadwater. This will include at least four who were playing football in the playground at Southwick Junior School on that fateful day. I am sure this will evoke even more stories and memories.

Best regards

Alan

Alan Goodwin, North End, Findon, West Sussex.

12th February 2006

Hi Valerie,

Valiant Crash at Southwick

I just found your web site during a Google search for information on the Valiant crash in Southwick. Just a spur of the moment thing, as I recalled some of the more vivid memories from my childhood.

Like Alan Goodwin and Colin Guy, I was in the playground of Manor Hall Road school at that time.

I was close to the “wooden hut” classroom at the south end of the playground. My first recollection is of an explosion and seeing what I thought were flames all along the windows of the main school building, but were in fact a reflection of the flames from Southwick rec.

A teacher came out of the school blowing a whistle and summoning us. As I ran toward the school I remember small objects dropping around me, and a large circular object crashing down and rolling across the playground.

At first I thought it was a dustbin lid and then saw it to be something else. It wasn’t until I read your excellent description of the events of that day, that I learnt it was a wheel from the aircraft. As I ran I felt tremendous heat on the back of my neck. I tried to wipe it away, as at first I thought there was something there, but subsequently realized it was the heat from the flames.

I recall military officials walking down the path alongside the playground, going to the rec. I think it was later that same day. And I remember policemen talking to us in class asking that we give them any “souvenirs” we may have picked up.

The only other account I’ve read of this event is in George Barker’s “Slog Smugglers”, a personal account of life as a boarder at Steyning Grammar School in the 1950’s.

Reading the postings in response to your article, I was thrilled to see one from Alan Goodwin and a reference to Colin Guy, both whom I remember from Manor Hall Road school and Steyning Grammar.

I moved with my wife and sons to Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, where we’ve lived for the last 25 years. I worked for General Electric Aircraft Engines until recently retiring. We visit England almost every year and I would have loved to have met up with the Steyning Grammar old boys at the Cricketers, as mentioned by Alan Goodwin.

Thanks once again for your excellent web site and helping bring back memories of events and people from fifty years ago K

Peter Harrison Mason, Ohio, USA

24th February 2006

Hi, I too was a pupil at Fishersgate First School and later went to Benfield Primary school.

My brother and I spent a lot of our playing time following the path to the Southwick recreation area.

We heard the explosion and later heard a plane had crashed.

Hope to visit my old stamping ground in June when I arrive for a trip home from Melbourne, Australia.

Best regards
Heather.

Heather Guinelly, Melbourne, Australia

6th May 2006

Vickers Valiant crash

I was having lunch next to one of the brothers at Steyning Grammar School when he was called out to be told that part of his house was missing.

If a pilot had been conducting the inquest I am sure a lot more questions would have been asked. Suspect the aircraft would have been carrying heavy test ballast on high energy low level turns and could not climb out of trouble. Main spar was known to have fatigue problems. Range was 4500 miles so fuel load should not have been a factor.

Vickers factory was on the Brooklands race track at Weybridge - runway barely 1000 metres long - VC 10's and bits of Concorde were also made there. Production aircraft were flown!!!! out to Wisley for flight testing.

John C. Greves, Walton on Thames, Surrey.

31st May 2006

Dear Valerie,

Vickers Valiant Crash

I found your web-site concerning the Vickers Valiant crash after
seeing a mention of it in a recent Flight International's 50 Years
ago column.

I remember the crash vividly. At the time I was 5 and lived in White
Rock Place. When the crash happened I was playing outside the front
of our house on my tricycle. I recall a huge roar, and looked up to
see the Valiant just miss our roof as it flew in a north easterly
direction. This was followed by a huge bang, a pall of smoke and
pieces of metal raining down as it hit the railway. One piece hit the
"boot" on the back of my tricycle, which left what was to be a
permanent dent. I remember picking the piece of metal up and dropping
it rather quickly due to it being rather hot.

My mother was in the kitchen at the back of our house, which backed
directly onto the railway. She was blown off her feet into the
hallway. She rushed upstairs to where my 2 year old sister was
sleeping, fearing the worst, only to find her still asleep, covered
in ceiling plaster.

My escape was due to the fact that despite what my father had said
about me only being allowed to play on my own in the back garden, my
mother had let me play out the front. The back garden was a blackened
mess, where you could dig bits of wire and metal up for years later.
It was my mother letting me play out in the street that made sure
that there were no fatalities on the ground.

My father was a young policeman at the time based in Shoreham. That
day he was on the front desk, taking numerous calls about the plane
crash. It was some time before he found out from a colleague that all
was well at home.

Yours sincerely
Keith Oliver
Edinburgh.

22nd August 2005

Valerie;

Vickers Valiant

Stumbled onto your web site during a search for the Vickers Valiant.

I worked on the Valiant at Weybridge and Wisley back in the early 1950's and that was a sad day to be sure.

You have done a great job with all the history on Findon

Do you have someone who does the web design and maintenance or is this something that you just enjoy doing?

Regards,
Bill
Marietta, Georgia USA

9th June 2006

Valiant Crash

I have finally managed to get this transcribed from the book....

Chris.

Chris McBrien, Aberdeen.

The Crash of Valiant WP202

The following passage was extracted from the book “Air Crash” The Clues in the Wreckage.
ISBN 0-86379-094-1. Published in 1986. This book was written by Mr. Fred Jones ©.

The only reason for reprinting this passage is that the accident took place about a mile and a half from Benfield Primary School that I was attending. It was a Friday lunch break and most of the kids were in the Playground at the time. The resulting crash was very loud and lots of us just fell to the ground playing dead…. as kids would.

In 1956, one of the V-Bombers was being used at Farnborough in a variety of roles. It was instrumented and equipped for measuring such things as structural vibrations and deflections and other parameters of interest to aerodynamicists and structural engineers. One such experiment required the use of electrical energy, and conveniently this was drawn from one of the bomber’s domestic services at the navigator’s station.

It must be pointed out that this particular type of aeroplane was rather unique; its controls were fully electrically operated and not by some form of hydraulic power assistance as with other contemporary aeroplanes of such a large size.

As a type, this bomber has been flying quite successfully and had never experienced loss of control due to major electrical failure. As far as possible, the designer incorporated safeguards against all possible eventualities. The safeguards included not only the usual fuses – much like those used domestically in the home, only larger – but also circuit breakers. These are spring loaded switches which ‘pop out’ under excessive electrical loading, thereby protecting the associated circuit and equipment.

On Friday 11 May 1956, just after lunch, the bomber left Farnborough to carry out a flight, primarily for a scientist to conduct the experiment connected to the electrical outlet at the navigator’s station. The aeroplane had full fuel tanks and was likely to be airborne for several hours. On the way to the south coast, the scientist switched on the experiment. Almost immediately the appropriate circuit breaker ‘popped out’. Imprudently, the scientist reset it, and it again ‘popped out’. The scientist reported the situation to the pilot that his experiment could not be carried out, and because this was the main purpose of the flight, the pilot decided to abort the flight. However, before returning to Farnborough he had to use up a large quantity of fuel to bring the landing weight to an acceptable figure. He had taken off fully laden and was now returning very much earlier than originally intended.

The pilot set up a low level flight pattern over the sea off the south coast with conditions set for maximum fuel consumption. The flight continued quite satisfactorily for some considerable time. During this, the bomber was flying in and out of low cloud near to Shoreham and Brighton.

Now it seems that while this was being done, the scientist could not leave well alone, and in went the circuit breaker, not once by several times. Suddenly the pilot felt a stiffening of the controls and saw indications on the instrument panel of an electrical failure of major proportions. He immediately eased the bomber into a climb to make height for he now had a major emergency on his hands.

The bomber emerged from cloud at about 1,000 feet over Shoreham. Due to the electrical failure the flying controls were completely unresponsive. The pilot ordered everybody to eject.

They were now descending fast towards Shoreham railway station. At almost the last second, one ejector seat was seen to leave and its occupant made a short but safe descent, landing not more than fifty yards from where the bomber struck the railway embankment, near the station. All other crew members perished in the crash although the escape hatch was found away from the bomber. The aircraft disintegrated upon impact and debris was strewn for hundreds of yards across the playing fields of a nearby school. Mercifully, the fields were clear of pupils at the time.

Within an hour I was being flow down to Shoreham from Farnborough, and as it was only twenty minutes flying time, I was to make this trip several times in the next few days. Discussing the accident with the manufacturer’s design staff as we walked around the wreckage, some of the story of the flight began to emerge. A certain amount of information had already filtered through from Farnborough Control Tower and of course there was the surviving co-pilot. It was clear that there had been a major electrical failure and in company with the manufacturer’s chief electrical engineer, we paid special attention to the state of any electrical components that we could see.

The engineer appeared next morning having spent much of the night working on a hypothesis to account for much of what we knew. Could the wreckage evidence support his theory, or would it produce some other explanation?

We isolated as much of the electrical material as possible from the wreckage and this was sent to Farnborough. The remainder of the wreckage was to follow. There was an air of supreme urgency as other aeroplanes of the type could have been at risk. Our searching and examinations, along with the work of the electrical design staff at the manufacturer’s works, had shortened the list dramatically. It now transpired that if, as we suspected, the circuit breaker had been repeatedly reset, then the consequences must have included the ‘blowing’ of many fuses, but one in particular – the navigator’s station equipment circuit – would really prove the theory.

My priority task became the search for that one fuse to determine if it had ‘blown’ electrically. The fuse in question was about three quarters of an inch in diameter, and about one and a quarter inches long. It consisted of a heavy ceramic body, with metal end caps, attached by bolts to heavier items known as bus bars. There were many such fuses fitted in banks or rows in the bomber and although originally marked with paint for identification purposes they were broken and now devoid of such identify. They were also mixed with tons of twisted and burnt looms of wire and metal.

My fuse, either intact or in pieces was in the large mound of wreckage now at Farnborough. It was the Whit Monday holiday and I planned an assault on that mound. I had the help of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled people. The approach was simple. I formed a pyramid of searchers with the unskilled at the mound. They were briefed to sort out all wreckage of a certain character. I made sure they would include more material than I wanted to ensure that the right stuff would come through for searching. Unwanted wreckage was discarded and required material passed back to a second row of helpers who had been briefed in more detail. They in turn passed back this selected material, and so the search continued. Each row of searchers was more qualified to select than the one before, and I was at the apex of the pyramid to make the final decision.

By patience, persistence and careful search and study, we discovered the first of the end caps after only two hours. It was still bolted to a piece of identifiable bus bar, although this itself had been badly damaged. An hour later the other end cap was found. Both caps contained pieces of ceramic body protruding but not mating to make up the body. We found other odd pieces of ceramic and one of these made the link between the end caps: I had my fuse.

I took the end caps to my microscope and there was the evidence that I sought. Traces of fuse wire had been electrically overloaded. The wire ends had formed into globules – a tell-tale sign of a fuse melted by electrical overheating and not by crash fire burning.

We now knew that the electrical supplies in the bomber had been disrupted by the repeated resetting of the circuit breaker – a senseless, illogical action which had led to tragedy and loss of life, including the life of the instigator of the situation. The repeated resetting of the circuit breaker was akin to tackling the symptom and not the cause of the experiment failure.

However, the accident prompted a long hard look at the electrical circuitry of all the large bombers and some shortcomings were brought to light. As I have said on other occasions, regretfully, in aviation someone must suffer, it seems, if aeroplanes are to be made safer.

30th June 2006

Valiant Crash in 1956

In 1956 I was a 13 year old schoolboy at Hove Manor School, probably some five miles from the crash site.

I have a feeling it was lunch break or similar when the crash occurred.

A few of us ‘bunked off’ school to cycle over to the site arriving there probably half an hour or so after the impact. I was a keen ATC Cadet at 176 Squadron Hove at the time and felt it my duty to respond to such a ‘National crisis’!

There were people wandering about all over the place and I do remember a policeman telling us to

‘Leave things alone son’

However I do remember boys at school the following week who still had souvenirs from the day.

Until today I had always imagined that the aircraft approached from over the Down’s, can’t think why, someone must have said something which has stayed in my mind ever since, until corrected today!

I seem to remember several of the details of the crash quite clearly and in agreement with the other ‘authors’ experiences and think about the crash at various times, leading to my search today (30 June 2006) which has turned up your site.

Strangely enough I left Hove Manor School in 1958 and within a few months I had joined the RAF as a Boy Entrant in February 1959, leaving in 1983. A

fter training I went on to work on the Avro Vulcan on both 617 & 83 Squadrons at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire from 60 – 63.

During that time we had a visit from General (?) Curtis le May a top man in the USAF Strategic Air Command and to celebrate his visit all three of the RAF’s V Bombers, Valiant Vulcan and Victor were represented at the station. As an ‘erk’ I was ‘volunteered’ to be an aircraft marshaller and feel a rare pleasure in having ‘worked all three V bombers in the one day and maintained my link with the Vickers Valiant.

My RAF career also had me working on the Victor on 57 Sqdn at RAF Marham during the late 70’s. The Victor now long gone from service but still at Marham as a ‘gate guard’ in front of Ops Wing.

Great to read the other accounts of fifty years ago!

Best wishes to all in Sussex!

Pete Gravett, Jersey, Channel Islands

9th November 2006

Greetings from Brisbane, Valerie.

I have just been browsing your site after finding you via a Google looking for details of the Valiant crash at Shoreham.

At the time I was just 13 and commuting daily from Bognor to school in Brighton where we lived. My parents were away in Yorkshire but I had had to remain behind as it was exam time, so I was staying with an aunt and uncle in Bognor for a week or so.
I cannot provide any eye witness accounts as many of your contributors have done, but I certainly remember the event and it's aftermath. I remember passing on the train and seeing the roofs of houses backing on to the line on the north side covered with tarpaulins to prevent the weather from entering where the debris from the aircraft had passed.

Less than 18 months later we were in Sydney and in a further 18 months I was in the RAAF myself as an engineering apprentice.

Thank you for your wonderful Findon site, that is providing such a lively forum for the Sussex Diaspora.

Peter C.
Brisbane Qld, Australia.

4th March 2007

Hi Valerie.

I remember the Vickers Valiant crash as I too was at Manor Hall Road School in 1956. I was just going to lunch in the school canteen when the huge explosion occurred shaking the school.

Being still in the corridor, many of us ran out of the main doors in to Manor Hall Road and on looking back, could see the wall of flames to the South of the School.

I remember the officials visiting our class and requesting we return any ' bits of wreckage' we had taken home as these would be of great use to them.

I remember some of the other contributors to your account of this incident and Colin Guy. If my memory is correct, the 'wheel' that scythed across the playground, was in fact a turbine fan wheel with small blades on it, as later, I took a look at it and wondered what it was as it had gouged out bits of tarmac from the playground.

Heavens knows what injuries would have been caused to us if the crash had happened when the playground was busy, a miracle not more people were injured.

A recent friend of mine Peter Knight, was in the RAF at the time of the crash and being stationed at Tangmere, had his 48 hour leave cancelled as he was detailed to a search party that was sent to Southwick after the event.

Well done for an interesting and informative Web site.

Kind regards

Roger Hunter, Durrington, Worthing, West Sussex.

25th June 2007

Hi Valerie.....

Vickers Valiant

I suppose I could be considered lucky as I had gone home to lunch that day from Manor Hall Junior Boys School.Having said that I was sent out by my Mother on some sort of errand on my tricycle.

We lived at this time in Overhill in Southwick which is virtually on the downs so commands a good view of Southwick and I remember hearing a series of explosions followed by a large one and turned round to see this massive ball of flame which seemed to engulf the School and houses around Southwick Recreation ground.

On returning to school after lunch Manor Hall Road was lined with Ambulances I do not recall any Fire Engines, walked into the playground to be confronted by a large turbine from one of the aircrafts engines this had a chalk mark around it with the words

" Hot do not touch".

Class continued that afternoon with the usual routine until a gentleman from the RAF entered the room spoke to the teacher and asked us all to remove any parts of aircraft we may have picked up and secreted in our pockets. I cannot recall anyone doing so but I am sure I remember later on being shown small aircraft parts at playtime.

I too remember Colin Guy and his house in Croft Avenue being virtually destroyed although I think he was more upset about his model of the Southern Cross ocean liner being smashed.

Really great to read other peoples recollections of that day 50 years ago.

Gordon Collins, Worthing, West Sussex.