Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Spitfire Excavation - Birkenhead Park

WARPLANE enthusiasts are this month planning to excavate the remains of a Spitfire which crashed in Birkenhead Park during the Second World War.

The Spitfire Mark 2A crashed on October 14, 1942 in the lower park, close to Park Road East and the Cole Street entrance.



Clickeredoo<---

Wonder if its by the old Air Cadets building which has unfortunately been knocked down now.

I dont ever remember seeing anything unusual as I used to play in there when I was a kid.

Must be buried deep

I think this is the one Lee was talking about.
Interesting, now that's somewhere i could of got pictures today lol

If anyone finds where there digging let us know

i'll let you know mark as soon as i know

The location is where the old air caddets building is the big patch of Grass by the Cole Street entrance on park road east

Cheers may get some pictures of Archaeologists Thongs lol

Haha might pop down there tomorrow

me2

Me too (not sure if i`m working yet)

anyone got a pic of the old air cadets building? as I used to play in there as a kid and stood on a peice of wood in there with a rusty nail in and it went into my foot but its no longer there now (the building that is )

I refuse to join in with the me2 gang lol

Looks like they just started excavating today.

should be something worth looking at in a few days time.

More pics

Was Time Team there ?
Did you gleem any extra info?
How long do you expect them to be there?
Were they friendly?
Did you sign up?
What time to they start?
What time do they finish?
Are they in the right place?
When you going back?

he he he

Looked like it, but not the one we know and love (mick the prof)
I didn't, but I should of done
No idea, I'd say 2 weeks minimum though
Not amazingly, no
to what?!? lol
before midday (thats the time the pic were taken)
probably before dark
I dunno, I was wondering if the did the geophiz
Maybe next weekend

lol

Im there tommorow around 11am this started on tuesday just scoping the place.. Today they did some Geophsyics and the area looks promising they also found some Almunimum but are yet to identfy where its from.. I wasnt there today but will be tommorow

Cool i might try and get over that way ( No Promises )

Dont think it'll be worth going yet, not until they pull their finger out and bring in the JCBs (or mick the digg) lol

some good pics there joe, nice up

Well they havnt even scratched the surface yet in regards of finding the merlin engine but i tell you something i would of had the turf up stright away to have more time digging but with the time limit they have which is 7 weeks which is good imho but anyway i was there today helping and got my hands dirty you lot might be intrested to know that ITV Granda was there so check out Granada Reports tonight you might see my arse LOL (Description - Army Pants with Greenish Whiteish T-Shirt pushing a Wheel borrow - I was taking up sods (slang word for bits of turf LOL) Anyway tommorow there getting the diggers so i'll be over there tommorow at some point having a goosy gander

good pics

I went passed there today about 4pm
A lot of talking going on lol

It will be good when it starts to look deeper.

Lee i think i just seen you walk over and give
one of the men a Butty.

Sorry i should say on the Granada News lol

Aye that was me

TV Star TV Star lol

ooooooooh yeh, can i have ur autograph.... ur famous u r !

I just watched the news report and didnt see Lee

combats and went bouncing over lol
i seen him on a trailer. ( short tv intro clip )

Maybe he didn't make the final cut lol

I did i had by back turned to the camera putting sods in the wheel barrow at least my arse got on television its fit that arse hahahaha but what they took on camera was loads but they shortened it down its amazing how much stuff they take TV networks only use proportinal ammounts of footage etc..

I saw that today, the engine was huge.

Loads of stuff recovered

eh eh?

You mean they have the goodies out of the ground now ?

lol

i was told today how this plane ended up in the park

65 years ago tomorrow the plane which was a spitfireplane was getting very old and to have a engine change from the standard bentley engine once the engine was fitted the test pilot took it for a test flight over the irish sea from otterspool while flyin the engine was faulty and started rattaling violently and smoking so the pilot decided to ditch the plane and set it to try and crash into the irish sea but unfortunately the wind caught the wing and it crashed into birkenhead park.

the owner of fort perch rock d darroch father wittnesed this plane crash into the park,5 years go his father tryed to get permits and licecences to dig the site up for the remains of the spitfire plane finally last year he got the permits and unfortunately died so his son d. darroch decided to dig this site and this is what he got.

and more

lmao looks like its nice and intact

Some good photo's there fella, what building was that in?

On the new iirc they said they were hoping the engine would be intact, dont look like it is.

photo 1 the wing
photo 2 the engine
photo 3 the remains of the inside of the fuel tank
photo4 bits
photo5 wing
photo 6 wing
photo 7 what the original engine would of looked like

i was told when they finally get the part all together this will be on show

where will they be putting it?

Just noticed from the second lot of photo's thats fort perch rock isnt it?

Will it be going in their museum I take it?

in the perch rock mate they have all the bits layed out now and when its all finished it will be on display there apparently its all covered in chip fat because its the best thing to use to stop it from rusting

great pics.

thanks for sharing.

seems they worked fast.

wouldn't mind going to see this.

good job on gettin the info too

lol it probably is, cheaper and stronger version of WD40 lol.

yeah lol

Great Pictures Kyle,
I did have all intentions of retuning and taking pictures
but got distracted.

just looks like a pile of old junk to me, should of left it 6ft under, what a waste of time effort and resourses.

probably to you yeah but this is a piece of history,and it werent the councils idea to dig this up someone had to fight years to get the permits to dig this up and put it on show he didnt have to do it he could off just left this but wanted to educate people about this plane

its not educating anyone, if their was any educating to be learnt it would be what sanchez has just said.

mm ok

ok, fair enough, so what education can be gainged from digging up aload of rust ols scrap that doesn't resemble any thing of what it used to look like !

Its part of history!
Think of the old folk from the war, some of them worked on these machines. Also it gives people an insight into how an engine was then and how they are now.

Nice report Kyle
Thanks for the share

At the very least i have to say i find it interesting.
I would never have guessed in a million years there was
the remains of a spitfire under that soil.

I bet around the Wirral there are hundreds of memento's
similar, some interesting and some not so interesting.

Each to there own..

Under Thurstaston, by the visitors centre, there are old bunkers buried, which make the nice Tellytubby-esque mounds that one see's.

And if you walk over them, in some places you can see the grass wearing away and the concret rooves are gradually starting to be revealed once again.

can you get inside them still?

you can get anywhere with the right equipment

At the end of the day this plane (parts) are worth nothing. It landed in birkenhead park for christ sake if it was worth anything it wouldnt be there by now

it might not be worth anything but its a piece of history

Admin

Post Comments Removed.

Possibly, but ye would need to do a considerable amount of covert digging, and they will probably have been concreted up prior to being grassed over, for obvious reasons.

The official answer is no, and I dont think there is any access point even for the council/authorities to enter, they are basically abandoned and forgotten about.

never new about this one good work guys and great pics thanks for sharing

scallys would of pawned it for jelly tots

They will need to get this done damn quick before some scumbag robs it and sells it !

Have they actually got this all sorted now then??

not many bits of crashed spitfire left that we know about. if its good enough for time team to excavate one, then to have one here is cool