Walk 3.SK045948 Old Glossop to Higher Shelf Stones Circular 9 Miles Map required Outdoor Leisure 1 The Peak District (Dark Peak Area)

Details of the aircraft wrecks obtained from "Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks" Ron Collier.
Click the Photos for a bigger image

This walk which is mostly over rough moorland will take you to three aircraft wrecks, including possibly the most well known and visited wreck in the Dark Peak area, the Superfortress "Over Exposed" which crashed here in 1948 killing the 13 members of the crew. Make your way to the turning area at the eastern end of Shepley Street in Old Glossop, there you will find parking for about six cars. Start out up the wide farm track with the beck on your right hand side, passing the bunkhouse on your left, in just under half a mile you come to a gate and a ladder stile over the wall on the left, take the stile and ascend the grassy track rising steeply up the moor, cross another ladder stile and shortly after a step stile over a wire fence onto the open moor. Follow the edge of the steep escarpment until you come to a dilapidated fence, which you follow upstream until the rocky bed of Yellowslacks brook rises up to meet you at a 5 foot high waterfall. The stream bed rises less steeply now and after 100 yards you come to another 5 foot waterfall, just passed this waterfall you can cross the bed of the stream on some flat slabs and climb steeply up the other side onto the moor above. You now should be on the 540-metre contour, which you follow around the hill in a southerly direction until you meet a feint path coming up from Wigan Clough on your right. Keeping above some low Crags follow the edge of the Moor, and just before the edge drops away and turns northeasterly, you should come across the wreckage and a low stone memorial set into the hillside nearby.
Lancaster KB993
In the early evening of 18th May 1945, Lancaster EQ-U with Flying Officer Anthony Arthur Clifford at the controls took off from Linton-on-Ouse. The crew consisted of Bomb Aimer, Flying Officer David (Scratch) Fehrman; Wireless Operator, Warrant Officer Michael Cecil (Blood and Guts) Cameron; Air Gunner, Flight Sergeant Clarence (Hairless Joe) Halvorson; Air Gunner, Flight Sergeant Leslie Claude (Rabbit) Hellerson and Flight Engineer, Pilot Officer Kenneth (Gassless) McIver. It appears that the crew, bored with flying round practising landings and take-offs, with no fixed exercise, had decided to go for a circular tour. Darkness must have caught them out of sight of base and lost over the Derbyshire hills, the bomber struck the top of James's Thorn hill and burst into a ball of flame. All the crew of six perished in the crash, although the rear gunner lived for a short while. Leave the wreck site in a southerly direction descending on a steep grassy path until you reach a fence which you follow to the left (East) for a 100 yards, this fence leads directly to the next wreck.