Fairey Fulmar N4076, Royal Navy, crashed on Esclusham Mountain near Wrexham on 5th February 1941

Fairey Fulmar at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, RNAS Yeovilton

 

Sydney Gordon Burden Sub Lieutenant (A) RNVR Pilot Killed

 

The pilot was ferrying the aircraft when it crashed on the northern end of Esclusham Mountain above Minera near Wrexham.

It has been recorded as being ferried from Worthy Down to Donibristle. However it would seem likely that the flight was in the opposite direction, this is because the aircraft had been delivered new from Fairey’s facility at Ringway near Manchester to Donibristle only a few days before it was destroyed. The pilot of the aircraft was assigned to HMS Kestrel at Worthy Down in Hampshire so it would seem logical that he had travelled to Fife to collect the aircraft and was returning it to his home station, possibly with a stop en-route though the lack of naval records makes this hard to verify.

Wreckage at the crash site of Fairey Fulmar N4076 on Esclusham Mountain, Minera, Wrexham
Very little remains at the crash site today, these are typical that pieces that we found, further pieces were found underneath the stones.
Crash site of Fairey Fulmar N4076 on Esclusham Mountain, Minera, Wrexham
The site was marked within the last few years (before 2012) by someone who has arranged stones into a cross, this is similar to an arrangement seen at the crash site of Hawker Hart K4931 in the same area.