mtskull

Hi all, I'm male, live in West Yorkshire and my interest in historic military vehicles stems from the early 1980's when I went searching for the abandoned Churchill tank in Stainburn Forest; I am very interested in tracking down another tank which is rumoured to exist nearby. I don't own any military vehicles (although I would love to) but I have been known to restore classic Bavarian motorcycles, so who knows? -one day the two hobbies could be combined....:-\

For what it's worth, in the early 1980's there was a very derelict Thornycroft (which I am pretty sure was an Amazon) in a scrapyard which occupied the disused railway trackbed near Singleton station, just north of Chichester. The yard appeared to specialise in S and TK Bedfords, so I don't know what the Thornycroft was doing there but it appeared to have been there a long time. Looking at Google earth, there still appear to be a lot of vehicles on the site, so who knows? it may be still there...

Hi all

Found another photo I took of the Churchill at Kirkcudbright, showing the other side. There's at least one other Churchill on the range; here's a link to a photo of it on a very interesting website:http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/details/963591/

Interesting. Around 1980, a friend who grew up on a farm near Stainburn moor told me a story of an abandoned tank in a wood; he pointed out the location of the Churchill very accurately and we found it without difficulty. He said that there was another tank in the area, but was vague about the location. This other tank was said to be in worse condition than the Churchill, he thought it might have been used as a target. This has got to be worth following up, although there is a heck of a lot of woodland to search; I would suggest that, if the REME "almost recovered the wrong tank" then the former resting place of the Churchill would be the best starting point. These days the forest has been opened up to the public, with many horse and bike riding trails, so if this mystery tank were in one of the more frequented areas then one would expect its location to be well known.

It was still there in October and, apart from the turret, pretty complete. As I remember, the other side was pretty shot up though. Apart from the Churchill, I observed a couple of sorry-looking Centurions, the Tortoise, a Conqueror, a Sherman and lots of Comets, condition ranging from complete but shot at, to totally b*ggered. One of the Comets had been cut in half with a gas-axe and the back half was missing; I trust that somebody on this forum is using it to restore a live example.... Here's a photo of the Sherman & Conqueror. I also have a photo of the Churchill, but it doesn't show any more than the photo already posted.