Another anecdote from someone who was there.
When the aircraft crashed on the field at the end of the avenue, a number of people from the village (including me) went to the crash site, we stood around the crater watching it burn, we heard a hissing noise, someone shouted get down on the grass, every one fell to the ground not knowing what was going on, there was a loud bang, it was thought to have been a tyre bursting. Shortly after the crash a twin engined aircraft landed in the field, maybe to see if the pilot had survived. This pilot was found in the wreckage, the other pilot bailed out, but was too low for his parachute to open.
This is the memory of a 7 year old boy at the time. Now I can't remember what happened last week.
I did know a pilot who had flown Hawker Sea Fury’s from HMS Blackcap, this was after the war.
This was from a distant friend of a family friend who now lives in Essex.
Harry *******, who worked in our department in London was a FAA pilot at HMS Blackcap at the end of the war and I passed the booklets on to him, unfortunately I don’t think that he is still alive. Harry told me that as well as the FAA squadrons based at Stretton or those waiting to fly out to aircraft carriers there was also a Ferry squadron which Harry belonged to. American aircraft destined for the FAA would be shipped across the Atlantic in crates to Liverpool and then transferred to Burtonwood where they would be assembled and test flown. Pilots from the Ferry squadron would then collect the aircraft from Burtonwood and fly them to the FAA base where they were required. A small amphibian Sea Otter, similar to a Walrus but without the pusher engine, was usually used to move the Ferry pilots around.