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Archiver > YORKSGEN > 2002-09 > 1031987684


From: "Andrew Sefton" <>
Subject: RE: [YKS] Givendale
Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 08:14:55 +0100
In-Reply-To: <00ba01c25aa2$b5482080$6c734ac3@oemcomputer>


Justine wrote..... "Also does anyone know the reason for the cross on
Garrowby hillside?
(Between the TV mast and the Bishop Wilton turn off)
I hope someone can stop me wondering over this in future !!"

Hi Justine, I was born and raised in Bishop Wilton and I think this cross is
a war memorial erected by the Earl of Halifax just after the war and whose
estate includes Garrowby, Kirby Underdale and Bishop Wilton. Lord Halifax
was Viceroy of India and foreign secretary at the start of the war. His son
Peter was killed at El Alamain and his third son Richard Wood who became MP
and Lord Holderness has recently died. A remarkable man who lost his legs
when he was hit by a German bomb during the war.

Nearby is another memorial to commemorate an event that took place during
the war. From: "Fimber: A Little Village with a Big History"

"Arthur Kirby drove the local milk waggon, picking up the milk from the
outlying farms before taking it to the railway station. Arthur also lodged
with Mrs Midgley at the White House on Fridaythorpe Road. On 7th February
1944, a Halifax bomber was on a training flight from Rufforth Airfield near
York. In thick fog, the aircraft crashed at Cot Nab Farm on the top of
Garrowby Hill, killing the aircrew, their instructor and Arthur Kirkby as he
drove the milk waggon. Sadly, Arthur's father had also been killed in the
First World War and his mother had been relieved when Arthur was declared
too old to be called up. It was one of the war's ironic twists of fate that
Arthur had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. A
granite memorial was erected at Garrowby in 1994 to commemorate those killed
in the tragic accident."

Andy Sefton
Pocklington

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