When Jim Mollison made his record breaking flight from Australia (Wyndham, nr Melbourne) to England (Croydon, London) in 1931, he first made landfall at Crumbles beach Pevensey. He landed and was directed to the house of a Mrs Goodwin from where he telephoned Croydon. By now he was in the record books!!
Now a couple questions. Is the place where he landed marked in any way with a cairn, plaque, etc? Has Mrs Goodwin’s house been identified and does it still exist?
I find it really sad that Mollison died aged only 54.
The information comes from David Luff’s book MOLLISON The Flying Scotsman.
Planemike
By: Snoopy7422 - 18th January 2014 at 11:53
@PlaneMike;- Thanks.
By: Arabella-Cox - 17th January 2014 at 09:45
As a matter of interest – does anyone happen to know where JM is buried?
He was not buried, cremated at Brookwood Cemetery WOKING. November 1959.
Planemike
By: Snoopy7422 - 17th January 2014 at 02:36
As a matter of interest – does anyone happen to know where JM is buried?
By: Arabella-Cox - 16th January 2014 at 12:25
Pretty much all of The Crumbles is (or was!) loose pebble beach, just like Dungeness.
Not sure that one would wish to land on that, although there may well have been some areas that would have been OK.
By: paulmcmillan - 16th January 2014 at 12:21
Friday 07 August 1931 , Western Daily Press , Bristol, England
“Mollison landed on the Crumbles, the Sussex Coast, about -half mile from the nearest house. Master G. Inson was the first person the spot. “
then
“During the conversation over a cup of tea Mollison told his host that he thought the Crumbles was grassland, and considerably alarmed when he found it to be beach”
and
“two men pushed the aeroplane a mile across the beach to the grassy marshland from which, at 3.45 Mollison was able to make good take off”
By: Arabella-Cox - 16th January 2014 at 09:25
I think it is unlikely, then, that it landed at Chilley – although there does seem to be an Amy Johnson connection there.
Have you tried the Kelly’s and Eastbourne Library route I suggested?
By: Arabella-Cox - 16th January 2014 at 09:20
Thanks for the responses Gentlemen……..
Don Clark….. Re the Australian end, should have done the checking myself. My Australian geography is not up to much!!
I suppose I should have expected the passage of over 80 years to have changed things a little but did just wonder whether any tangible commorative feature did exist there.
Tangmere…….. Have reread the passage from the book, apparently the witness, a schoolboy named George Inson, saw the Moth make a “low pass along the shoreline of the Crumbles, and then, unbeleivably, it had landed”. From this one can assume it was some where in the vicinity of the Crumles.
The flight was certainly a very great acheivement.
Planemike
By: Arabella-Cox - 15th January 2014 at 23:02
Just spoken to a local who felt that the field where Amy Johnson landed at Chilley was also where Mollison landed! Now, that sounds a bit unlikely and could hardly be classed as ‘The Crumbles’ but I will check further, so far as I can.
By: low'n'slow - 15th January 2014 at 18:12
A rather wonderful contemporary account of Mollison’s flight recounted here:
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1931/1931 – 0862.html
By: avion ancien - 15th January 2014 at 14:43
Curiously it is said that once there was a landing ground – as well as a seaplane factory – on the Crumbles! I have a contact in the Eastbourne Local History Society, with a particular interest in the aviation history of the area, who may be able to help. I’ll send a PM to you with his e-mail address.
By: Arabella-Cox - 15th January 2014 at 14:19
The Crumbles is on the western side of Pevensey Bay, with Pevensey itself being slightly further inland. Pretty much all of the original shingle promontory has been swept aside in the development of a large retail park, housing and the Eastbourne Marina.
I know the area very well, and have done since the 1960s. Although I knew of the landing I never knew where and never really researched it although I once lived pretty much within sight of the likely spot!. However, I always felt it was more likely on the marshland just to north of the B2191 since there is flat grassland there and some reasonably sized fields – albeit criss crossed with dykes and sewers. It just seemed a bit unlikely he would have put it down on the pebbles to the south of the B2191, unless he had no choice of course.
A search of the local Kelly’s Directory for 1931 should throw up Mrs Goodwin, and Eastbourne Library might be able to help. The local newspapers were The Eastbourne Gazette, Eastbourne Herald and The Sussex Express & County Herald.
Just a couple of miles north, between Pevensey and Chilley, there is a field named Amy’s Field where I am told Amy Johnson landed several times but I have never looked into that in any detail. That is pretty much behind the new(ish) petrol station at the service area on the A259 at Pevensey. As an aside, a RR Merlin from a Hurricane crash is buried below the Happy Eater just behind the petrol station and a B-25 plopped into the River Haven a few hundred yards away. But that’s another story!
Happy to help further if I can.
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January 15, 2014 at 2:04 pm