Wellington Bomber memorial, Jessops Farm - Rivington

Wellington Bomber Memorial

The Rotary Club of Horwich erected a memorial to the crew of a Wellington Bomber who died on November 12th. 1943 when their plane crashed onto the moors in poor weather.

Looking towards Winter Hill

The path up from the valley.

Flight Sergeant J.B.Timperon, Sergeant E. R. Barnes, Sergeant J. B. Hayton, Sergeant R. S. Jackson, Sergeant G. E. Murray and Sergeant M. Mouncey were on a training exercise. I encountered this memorial on the "White Bear way" a LDWA walk from Adlington scout hut. The route comes off Winter Hill, down towards Hordern Stoops and  across the wide open space on the Winter Hill shot. It then come up a shart sharp climb There are of course considerably easier ways of getting to it! I have a link from my Panoramio site here. The picture next to it is the access path from the river below which is a stiff climb.

However a mystery exists here. A search reveals that the actual date of ZULU 8799 was 16th November 1943, yet the plaque clearly says 12th of November 1943. It would be hard to believe that either source would be incorrect. The pilot Joseph B Timperon came from Alice Springs in Australia and was attached to the RAF. The plane had taken off from Wymeswolde in Leicester on a "bulls eye" training mission. It was thought that the crash was caused by low cloud causing icing which caused structural damage and the inevitable crash. More information is at the the Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team website.I have added another photo from behind the monument. The shot looks towards Winter Hill. There have been many plane crashes and a couple of suspicious deaths on these moors.