Pat Neill at Phipps Farm
My name is Pat Neill and I lived at Phipps Farm house,
which was situated between Site1 and the beginning of the peri track on the
Burtonwood road, from 1954 to 1960. The front of the house looked up toward
gate 13, my bedroom window looked out to Mary Ann site and the other side of
the house looked up the peri track. I have recently been looking up web sites
concerning this wonderful part of my history and finding out lots of things I
never knew, for instance, the 78 'Kelly Hall' bus from the center
of Warrington to Gate 13 was named after an American hero rather than an old
mansion house. However, there was an incident I remember vividly which nobody
else seems to have mentioned.
It must have been about 1956 or 57 when a B52 got stuck in
the dispersal pan off the Peri track about 50 yards away from our house. I
could only have been about 6 at the time but I'm sure it was a '52 rather than
a '47, although a recently acquired book by Mr Ferguson has no photos of B52s
at Burtonwood.
The thing that sticks in my mind is that for the two or
three days that this aircraft was stuck behind our house we developed a
tourist trade! There must have been a few hundred visitors who arrived,
mainly by bicycle, and spent time leaning over our back wall watching this
amazing sight. I would imagine that some of them must have had cameras with
them and captured this moment for posterity. (We didn't have a camera at the
time)
So the reason I am writing is to ask you if you know
anything about this and if there are any photos.
By the way, my father, Ernest Neill, was the superintending
engineer for the Air Ministry, in the area, at the time and he was also
responsible for the construction of runway 27/90, Header House and the tobacco
houses.