Commemorative plaque unveiled at a field in South Cowton, North Yorkshire, where six men died on 22 October, 1943

On 29 August 2016, I travelled down the A1 with a memorial plaque I had made the previous week at Minto House, Chambers Street, Edinburgh, part of Edinburgh University. My friend Rob Mulholland had given me a piece of aluminium to make it from. I thought this was very appropriate as a lot of the fuselage of the Halifax bomber was made of the same metal.

South Cowton is quite near Scotch Corner on the A1 and you go through a pretty village called Scorton to get to it. Atley hill farm is signposted off the main road and I met the farmer who owns the land around there, Andrew Donovan, at his bungalow, directly opposite the field where the crash happened.
Andrew had picked a suitable tree (Ash) at the corner of the Atley hill field where the crash occurred.
The area has quite a bit of history to it. There are several Roman archaeological sites nearby. On the far side of the field stands a small castle. One of the men who rescued F/O S H Martin RCAF,  lived in the castle ( Mr, Severs or Mr Clark are noted on the report as rescuing the airman, who sadly died a few days later.) Further down the hill and surrounded by trees is a picturesque, medieval church.
I attached the plaque on its hardwood surround onto the tree and Andrew and I remembered the men who died that night.
The previous week, the plaque was blessed by a Buddhist nun, Sister Candasiri at Miltuim hermitage, Glenartney, Comrie, Scotland. The string and and pine branch shown on the photo are taken from the blessing ceremony.

The next part of my pilgrimage was a trip over the Pennines to the small town of Barnoldswick, where my Uncles Raymond and Theo and my grandparents were moved to after the blitz in Coventry. I knew the address they lived at from the envelopes of the letters that Uncle Raymond had sent to my Grandma, 6 East Parade. The house is still standing and is quite similar to the place where the family moved back to Coventry after the war. (73 Coronation Road, Hillfields, Coventry.) I put a realistic copy of an envelope to that address, dated July, 1943, through the door with an explanation that my family had once lived there.