Originally Posted by
JEM60
May have posted this before, but can't scroll through 25 pages!!. When I was 15 or so I used to cycle to Bovingdon from near Aylesbury. Took some time!!. Was near the traffic lights on the Chesham road, a Meteor T7 on approach towards Berkhamstead. Touchdown was late. Played merry tune on the throttles, decided it wasn't going to work properly, swerved off to the right in a cloud of dust, collapsed the port undercarriage, another cloud of dust as he limped drunkenly along the skyline to the left in another large dust cloud. Fire engines scrambled. No fire, nobody hurt . Cycled home, told my parents, who were disbelieving, until, lo and behold, it was reported in the next day's Daily Telegraph!. My parents from then on tended to believe me!!. Loved Chesham and visits to Bovingdon. In Chesham, met the prettiest girl I had ever seen. Been married 51 hears now
Like you I spent time at the end of the runway and one day came across a Vampire which had just overshot the runway and crossed the Chesham Road without any great damage visible.
I wonder when the traffic lights were installed ? I found a press cutting, only a line or two, which sadly I've deleted by mistake - Air Transport S.A. Short Stirling (Belgian) overran August 1948 (Newspaper dated August 19th). The press in those post war days didn't miss a trick:
Evening News May 14th 1948.
REGISTRATION F-BCJX Societe Aero Cargo (Lyon)
Bucks Examiner October 7th 1955
Newspaper report dated August 9th 1955
Weekly Paper Bucks Examiner July 11th 1958
From a Daily Paper Dated 7th July 1958 referring to previous incident above.
Source British Newspaper Archive.