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Norfolk farmer's 1951 Gloster Meteor crash find to become memorial

RSHC Gloster MeteorRSHC
A farmer found the Rolls-Royce jet engine last year

The engine of a jet fighter that crashed 70 years ago and was recently rediscovered by a farmer will go on display as a "fitting memorial".

The Gloster Meteor went down on its approach towards RAF West Raynham in Norfolk on 1 May 1951, killing both men on board.

Last year, the RAF Sculthorpe Heritage Centre learned a farmer had found part of a Rolls-Royce engine in a field.

It is now due to go on display at West Raynham on the 70th anniversary.

The pilot Flt Lt Harold Myburgh Taylor and Flt Lt Francis Alexander Oliver Ralph were killed in the crash as they made their way from RAF Little Rissington in Gloucestershire.

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Gloster Meteor

Print Collector Gloster Meteor in flightPrint Collector
  • The Meteor was the first jet aircraft to enter RAF service
  • The Gloster Air Company began testing its prototype in 1943
  • It was the only allied jet to see combat in World War Two
  • Nearly 4,000 aircraft, of various variants, were built until the mid-1950s
  • Meteors were sold to about 30 national air forces

Sources: BAE Systems heritage and RAF Museum

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Ian Brown, from the RAF Sculthorpe Heritage Centre, which is few miles from West Raynham, said: "We got a phone call last year during the lockdown that a farmer had discovered part of the Rolls-Royce engine.

"He said 'would you like it?', basically, and we said 'of course, having a jet engine on display is always a massive bonus for any kind of museum'."

It was later agreed that the engine should be put on display at West Raynham's control tower at the former airfield, which is now a solar farm and business park.

"We felt it was a fitting memorial that the aircraft, or part of the aircraft, would finally make it to West Raynham on 1 May, which will be the 70th anniversary," said Mr Brown.

He added he wanted the engine to serve as a memorial "not just to Flt Lt Harold Myburgh Taylor and Flt Lt Francis Alexander Oliver Ralph, but to everybody who was killed in training exercises after World War Two".

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