A HILL OF TRAGEDIES

Ill winds have blown across this desolate moor top for centuries. A number of aircraft have met a tragic end on Winter Hill, including a Bristol 170 Freighter, which crashed in February 1958, killing 35 people. The plane was carrying businessmen from the Isle of Man to an exhibition in Manchester. Other casualties include the American Fairchild Forwarder in 1942 and an Airspeed Oxford in 1943, both crashing during the Second World War. Most of the sites are marked by memorials. Another landmark on the summit is the iron pillar of Scotsman’s Stump. On a small plaque reads the words: ‘In memory of George Henderson, Traveller, native of Annan Dumfrieshire who was barbarously murdered on Rivington Moor at noonday November 9th 1838, in the 20th year of his age.’ The Scottish merchant is likely to have been shot at close range. There were no witnesses, and a thick mist had made visibility poor. A tree was planted to mark the site, which was later replaced by the pillar. On Crooked Edge Hill, an outlying summit on Winter Hill, memorial cairns also mark the supposed graves of two children of a Saxon king. Known as Two Lads, legend suggests that the boys succumbed to exposure after losing their way on the moor.