From another forum - 109 buried in Oldham (not quite Spitfires in Burma!) :)

[Mysticpuma]

The post reads:

"Completely off topic but my ex father in law was offered a 109 that had ended up stored behind his work shed in the mid 50s. It was "given" to his first boss for scrap after it had been dragged around the NW to raise war bonds then stored in his yard but never collected. Apparently it in shabby condition but was mostly all there albeit in pieces. It had no engine or prop. No idea of the mark but it had a yellow nose (but, as my FIL pointed out "they all had yellow noses...and bullet holes" - i doubt either were genuine but added to increase takings) The going rate was a few quid less than the scrap value (not much) and an undertaking to" get rid of the damn thing" - He turned it down but instead earned himself a few bob loading the bits onto a flatbed wagon. It ended up in landfill under the roundabout at the end of the A627M near Oldham's Football ground.

I never liked him TBH"

Cheers, MP

[Bruce Lander]

Hi, having lived in and near to Oldham for 70+ years ( not something any real Oldhamer ever generally admits) I have never heard about this before.
I will check with our Local history types to find out more and keep you posted.
Bruce Lander

[Chris Going]

OK. While Bruce does his oral history search you can do quite a lot with this without spending shed loads of money.

The first thing to do is get a bit of ground truth, which involves an imagery search via ‘Heritage England’ in Swindon. (Tel 01973 414600). Ask them for an ‘all scales all dates’ search and give them a NGR pinpoint. You’ll get a list of sorties and dates and photo quality assessments in a week or two. The first tranche of imagery you need to look at is the survey photography of 1945-55. This is the period of ‘Operation review’ (there are two spellings but this is the one I use, which was a concerted effort to create photo mosaics of the UK). There were two scales of imagery taken. One was at 1:27,500 which is far too small to do much. The next is the 10,000 scale cover, and I am sure Oldham was surveyed at this scale. The original negatives are long gone (Nitrate stock), but first generation prints will survive in Swindon. You may need to look at the original prints, so be prepared for that.

Now, you give us one or more locations of sorts –the yard of your father in law’s former boss (for some years it seems) and the ‘work shed’ behind which it ‘ended up’ in the ‘mid fifties’ I assume this was the place where your father worked, rather than a shed he owned elsewhere. Don’t divulge these locations over the net, yet. But make sure they are covered in your Swindon search.

Now, the landfill issue. ‘It ended up in landfill under the roundabout at the end of the A627M near Oldham's Football ground’ Hmmm. Bruce’s local history people will be useful here, but get aerial imagery in stereo, so you can have some decent image analysis (I know one of two people which can help out) so you can find out a bit more.

The reason is that the landfill was at all sensibly run they will have had zones and areas where dumping occurred (particularly as there are several water courses nearby, I see), and if you can explore precisely where dumping was being done between (say) 1955 an 1965, you might stand a chance of finding out where it might lie; always assuming its not now a housing estate or a Business park.

Oh yes, you’ll also need a decent cartographic background. Go to the National Library of Scotland, website, which has put an absolute trove of maps online. Ensure you have England in your search boy, search Oldham, and up with come various maps, of which Lancashire 6 inch (10,560) XCVII NW is your best bet (surveyed 1938, pub 1947). When you get your photographs (1200 dpi scans), you can put them into a GIS and start work.

I note you ‘never liked’ your ex father in law. Do you think it’s just possible he was winding you up……?

Have fun with this one

ChrisG

[Mysticpuma]

Hi Chris. This wasn't me saying it, I was reposting a post on another forum...but I take your comments in the spirit they were given

[Chris Going]

Those three little words 'from another forum'...... Mind you its an interesting story. If Bruce finds anything interesting in his researches then those air photos will be needed.

When I was eighteen I found myself looking at an aircraft fuselage in a scrapyard at Ramsden Bellhouse, near Billericay in Essex. It was 1971 and it had force landed nearby in 1936 or 7 and had been taken there soon after. I later managed to identify it as a Blackburn B2. Couldnt afford to buy it though. Bit cross about that.

ChrisG

[Bruce Lander]

Hi,
I have pursued some leads via Local Radio, and local history groups, there certainly was 109 displayed in Oldham during the War and it seems that a German aircraft ( probably a 109) did in fact end up in a scrapyard in Shaw -
near Oldham - at the end of the War. A listener to local radio phoned in to recall a friend of his stealing an instrument of some sort from the aircraft while it rotted in the scrapyard sometime in 1945/46. No other information, however is forthcoming.
The landfill noted in the original topic was very extensive and ran for almost a mile from Rochdale Road following a deep valley, with a stream at its bottom, behind the football stadium right down to the site of the roundabout mentioned on Broadway .
The land fill took place in the early 1960's and is now the site of many houses, playing fields and a major roads junction. If indeed the remnants of the 109 did finish up there then that is where they will rest.

Bruce Lander

[Mysticpuma]

Bruce, thanks for a fascinating conclusion to this off the cuff anecdote. Always great to hear a back story, corroboration and a conclusion no-matter if it's final resting place will never be disturbed.

Very much appreciate your research and sharing the story, cheers, Neil