Bowithick is a beautiful spot, that my husband and I discovered quite by accident, and it is one of those places that is easily missed tucked as it is down a tiny lane, just outside of Davidstow airfield.

            I?m not the best when it comes to directions, but going from Davidstow airfield you want to head towards Altarnun, once you have passed over the cattle grid, that takes you out of the airfield, you need to take the first right, follow that road and you will pass through a small cluster of houses, (Bowithick) and on coming out of these, you have reached my personal favourite spot.

            My husband and I tend to drive over the first little river, and carry on through the ford which is the other side of the bridge pictured above.

            Bowithick is a lovely spot to walk from, and although just a tiny hamlet, you have access to Buttern hill, and Bray down.

            Or if you just want a pleasant or relatively flat walk simply walking along the lane that runs beside the stream, can provide a simple, stunning, and easy stroll, with plenty to see.

            There are the remains of some old buildings off to the right of the track, at one point, as well as some evidence on the hills of tin-streaming.

            If you are feeling energetic and want to explore the hills more, it is worth picking up a copy of the OS map, numbered 109, as there are lots of old settlements to be found around this area, there is also an old abandoned farm house some miles from the nearest road, which you can see on the map between Bray down and Carne down, the farm is called Canaglaze and is clearly marked on the 109 OS map.

            On Sunday 21st of May,1944,  a Halifax bomber crashed at 2.20 pm, into Buttern hill, narrowly missing the small hamlet at Bowithick.

            The Pilot and other crew members, had bailed out before the plane crashed, and it is not known if the pilot, 22 year old P/O Jack Flemming, was in contact with the control tower at RAFDM  or not.

            The pilot sadly did not survive, but was found still alive by a farmer and his wife, but with a large gash in his head, believed to be from hitting his head on a large stone that was protruding from a nearby hedge.

            The farmer?s wife had been straining milk, at the time, and was lucky to have taken the cloth she was using with her in her panic; she folded this and used it as a compress on the wound, until the RAF medical crew arrived from RAFDM.

            P/O Flemming was given morphine and taken by RAF ambulance to RAFDM sick quarters at Trewassa, where he would later die from his wounds.

            The other crew members bailed out in the Callington area, and all landed safely.

            The crash had been caused by serious engine fires, but P/O Flemming had remained in the plane until it was safely pointed towards open moorland.

            Three days later a local boy found a leather flying helmet with a gash in it that corresponded to the pilots head wound, while walking through nearby fields.

            So it is possible that it was not the rock protruding from the hedge that course the injury, and that it may have been caused in some other way, when the pilots bailed from the plane.

Because the site of the crash was so inaccessible, a local farmer with a standard Fordson Tractor and trailer was employed by the air ministry to bring the remains of the Halifax Bomber back to Old Park Farm, where it was later collected by RAFDM aircraft transporter.

The Halifax Bomber was from Blyton, Lincolnshire, 1662 Heavy Conversion Unit on a heavy bomber training exercise.

There were seven members of crew in total.

And the site of the wreckage was well visited by local children in search of souvenirs, for some time afterwards.

You can email me at jossie.marie@hotmail.com, if you have any information about Bowithick, such as family story?s, or sites that you would like me to add a link for.

Any information no matter how useless you think it is is greatly fully received. As I wish not only to talk about the area but local characters that once lived there, or events that took place there.

Thanks jossie.

 

You can see more pictures of Bowithick here: http://www.wildbydesign.co.uk/galleryscenes.html

You can see a piece of artwork inspired by Bowithick here:

http://www.robinparis.co.uk/batiks/human/connections.htm

There is also some good information on this site:

http://www.oliverscornwall.co.uk/bodminmoor.html#Bowithick

browse around the above site as there is more than you expect about Bowithick and the places you can walk to and what you can find near it.