Heritage Summary

This stone stands in fields adjacent to St Jude’s Meadow, a housing development of sixty-two individual properties that were built by MacTaggart & Mickel in 2017-19. 

This site was once agricultural land on the southern edge of the main village of Milton-under-Wychwood. 

The name “St Jude” was borrowed from one of the titular saints of Milton parish church, St Simon and St Jude, on the other side of the village.

The presence of these standing stones and the related heritage/nature trail owes its existence to funding allocated for local art and heritage projects. This was a condition of planning permission for the estate.

The land on this side of the estate gradually descends toward Simmonds Brook. Many improvements have been made in this area to manage rainwater runoff, including the provision of rainwater catchment ponds.

A street within the estate – Wellington Way – records a tragic plane crash in nearby fields during the Second World War. On September 16^th, 1942, a Wellington bomber based at Little Rissington crash-landed near this location during a non-operational flight. This resulted in a dramatic rescue of one of the crew by a local boy.

The Wellington Bomber

On September 16^th 1942, the grim reality of the Second World War was felt in Milton-under-Wychwood. A Wellington bomber, based at Little Rissington crash-landed near this stone during a non-operational flight. 

The struggling plane was spotted by 17-year-old Milton resident Ron Dale. He rushed across fields, arriving in time to rescue the tail gunner, Armstrong Lyon, a Canadian. Unfortunately, the four other airmen—Sergeants McCarthy, Ferguson, Ritchie, and Arnold—perished in the crash.

In 2017 Ron recalled:

“I can still hear that noise today. I can still visualise it now – the diamond-shaped fuselage, covered in fabric and burning like hell.” 

The memory of this event is recalled in Wellington Way, a street within the St Jude’s estate.

Quotes

High Flight

By John Gillespie Magee Jr (a Royal Canadian Airforce pilot from World War II, based at an Operational Training Unit near London)

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air ….

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark nor ever eagle flew—

And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.