Remembering the night 70 years ago when an RAF Stirling bomber from Marston Moor airbase plunged out of the skies on Tockwith, killing seven people

A Stirling bomber coming in to land at nearby Marston Moor airfield crashed in the village's main street, Marston Road. It demolished the post office and the police house, bounced over the chapel and Northfield House into Swires grocery shop, then bounced again over Melbourne Stores and hit Cromwell Cottage and Nicholson’s butchers shop.

The blazing wreckage of the aircraft was left strewn in pieces all along the street.

Seven people died in the disaster; the Stirling's entire crew of six, together with postmaster Arthur Carlill, who had been sleeping in the attic room at the post office.

There were also several narrow escapes. A Miss Bradley, who lived in Cromwell Cottage, was in bed and saw the ball of flame approaching. She was unable to get out of the house in time, and was trapped inside by flames, but was rescued.

Tockwith main street in the aftermath of the crash

The police house, meanwhile, was reduced to rubble. But PC Harry Sagar, his wife, and their daughter Ruth - who, as Ruth Gosley, still lives in the village - managed to escape unhurt, wearing nothing but their night clothes.

"We were lucky to be alive. A couple of feet either way it could have been a different story,” Ruth recalls. "The whole front of the house was missing. The dressing table was balancing where the wall used to be."

For PC Sagar, the night was just beginning. Undaunted by the fact that he was dressed only in his pyjamas, he promptly went out to help with the rescue operations - and went on to receive the Kings Commendation for brave conduct.

There were other examples of heroism that night. Two firemen from Wetherby - Company Officer Leslie Matthews and Leading Fireman John Utley - were cited for 'exceptional bravery' for rescuing Miss Bradley from her burning house.

"Company Officer Matthews and Leading Fireman Utley mounted a ladder and although the bedroom was a blazing inferno without the slightest hesitation they entered the building,” said the citation. “Utley located the occupant who was partially covered by debris; she was released and passed to Matthews who carried her to safety. Utley was so exhausted that he had to be assisted down the ladder."

Another scene from the aftermath of the crash

Sadly, nothing could save the seven men who died that night.

Arthur Carlill was not only the village postmaster, but also a shoemaker and church organist. He was sleeping in the attic when the aircraft crashed. It was a room he wouldn't normally have been in: his normal bedroom was being left empty so the bed could air for the expected homecoming of his son Barry - who served in the RAF.

There is also a poignant story about one of the aircrew who died.

Wireless operator Sgt Albert Bonass lived in York - and was due to have played as a guest player for York City on October 14.

There have been several theories as to what caused the crash, admits Tockwith parish council chairman Norman Waller.

The war had ended, and the bomber had been returning to Marston Moor after a cross country fight.

An inquest was held because a civilian had been killed.

It heard that Pilot Officer Bunting, the plane's pilot, was an experienced flyer nearing the end of his training. "The aircraft reported at 1.18am that all was well," Cllr Waller says. "There was no possibility of the pilot mistaking his route as had been widely reported. Permission was not given to land, but to make a circuit of the airfield. The pilot should not have come in low over the village."

A subsequent Air Ministry board of enquiry found that the aircraft had stalled at 2,000ft during a turn to port in bad visibility.

Whatever the cause of the crash, it left a scar in the village that has not healed to this day. In the immediate aftermath the village grocer William Todd, whose shop had been badly damaged, said: "Tockwith looks like an old shelled French village in the last war (the First World War)."

A damaged house in the aftermath of the crash

Telephone lines had been cut, and the crash had severed a water main so that people had to draw water from a pump in the garden of The White Cottage. This was the home of Mrs George Bishop, who had been evacuated from London during the blitz four years earlier. Her comment at the time: "I never thought I would have the blitz all over again. I went through some of the bombing in London but this was as bad an experience in its way as I ever remember.”

Sadly, one of the oldest houses in the village - thatched Cromwell Cottage, reputed to be the house where Oliver Cromwell had a wound dressed after the battle of Marston Moor in 1644 - was destroyed for good.

Cromwell Cottage before the disaster

The Air Ministry set up a headquarters in the main street to deal with the claims for damaged property and loss of personal belongings.

But despite the shocking nature of the tragedy, the disaster merited only a fleeting mention in the national press in 1945.

"It was almost as though it was some backwater in the wilds of Yorkshire," says Cllr Waller.

"There is no doubting that were the same thing to happen today all the might of the media would descend on the village."

The village's response to the tragedy was equally low-key. Until now, the only public memorial to those who died has been a piece of typed card on display in Tockwith Church - perhaps a reflection of the 'keep calm and carry on' nature of the times, Cllr Waller accepts.

All that is about to change, however.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the tragedy, the parish council has commissioned local firm Stage One Creative Services - which is based in a hangar at the old Marston Moor airbase - to design a fitting memorial.

Artist's visual showing the proposed memorial. Image: Stage One Creative Services

That memorial will be unveiled at about 3pm on Sunday October 11, following a 2pm service at Tockwith church, at a site on the village main street near where the main impact of the crash was.

"In fact some of the nearby trees are reputed to have pieces of the crashed aircraft still in them!" Cllr Waller says.

There will also be an exhibition about the crash in Tockwith church on Saturday October 10, from 10am-4pm. Brian Lunn, an authority on the crash and on RAF Marston Moor, will be on hand to answer questions.

Among the guests at the unveiling of the memorial, meanwhile, will be 90-year-old Peggy Drummond-Hay, a former WAAF who was working at RAF Marston Moor at the time of the crash.

She distinctly remembers the impact the crash had on the village and on the air base, Cllr Waller says. In fact, she wrote a letter home the following night captures the prevailing sense of shock.

"They are still flying again tonight," her letter read. "The people remaining in the village are shaking in their shoes. It has made twelve families homeless."

Seventy years on, that long-ago tragedy is at last about to get the memorial it deserves.

The roll call of those who died

Civilian:

Arthur Carlill, village postmaster

The crew:

Pilot: Pilot officer S.H. Bunting

Engineer: Sgt R.V. Viall

Navigator: Sgt R.A. Alexander

Bomb-Aimer: Flying Officer H Griffiths

Wireless Operator: Sgt A.E.Boness

Airgunner: Flying Officer J Cantle-Jones