Two photos taken in the same exact spot at Eaglescliffe, around 60 years apart.
The first photo was taken just after the Second World War and shows RAF planes being dumped into a massive pit – a really emotive bit of history.
This photo was taken by me in 2025, standing in the same place.
Photographs and details courtesy of James Hull.
If this is in the vicinity of the old Royal Navy Spare Parts Distribution Centre (RNSPDC) also known as the Admiralty, then from what I have been told over the years that prior to WWII the site was known as Nuffields. Apparently, during the war planes would tow “beyond repair” planes and deliberately crash land them on the site for reclamation and salvage of whatever could be utilised. I was also told there was at least one “accident” where the broken plane crash landed in the vicinity of Hawleys Wood near Quarry Road. Children made up stories that it was a German plane and the pilot had died there.
In the early 70s, I worked at MDS/Commodore which was the first building on the left on the industrial estate. I remember going to a pit that was behind the garage /scrap yard on Durham Lane to get rid of old packaging and fittings and the like. I don’t know if this could be the same one, it seems unlikely.
Hi Steve – very likely as it’s very close by. There is an alternative pit over the road which was known as Crosley Brickworks quarry but you had to cross Durham Road to get there. Search Marshal Brickworks into Google – the pit in this picture was just to the East between the Brickworks and the Railway line (close to Witham Hall)
Hi James
I’ve just looked on Google Maps and the one we used would have been on the right probably as you get to Marshal’s gatehouse. It was fenced off for part of the way, but not all the way back to Durham Lane.
Steve — thought you might find this interesting.
Ordnance Survey map from 1947 of the area you described. It’s the closest one to your time period that’s out of copyright, and it clearly shows all the pits in that area.
https://maps.nls.uk/view/120939321
Hi David – it’s not but Coatham Stob Brickworks (later know as Crosleys) is just over Durham Road from this location. This is Witham Hall Quarry next to the Eaglescliffe rail line – the Brickworks in the distance is what’s now known as Marshall’s Brickworks (search that into Google and Elementis Chemical Site to understand the location of both sites). If your interested I have pictures of the Coatham Stob Brickworks which got turned into a chemical dumping site.
Hi James, we used to do some work at the Craddocks concrete works, that was over the road and down a narrow lane, I might have heard the story about the motor bikes then? I would really like to see the pictures when you get time.
Is that Coatham Stob brick works in the background, I served my apprenticeship there in the late seventies, I remember being told that the Army were cutting motor bikes in half and throwing them into a quarry again just after the war.
Hi David – it’s not but Coatham Stob Brickworks (later know as Crosleys) is just over Durham Road from this location. This is Witham Hall Quarry next to the Eaglescliffe rail line – the Brickworks in the distance is what’s now known as Marshall’s Brickworks (search that into Google and Elementis Chemical Site to understand the location of both sites). If your interested I have pictures of the Coatham Stob Brickworks which got turned into a chemical dumping site.
The photo doesn’t actually show the dumped aircraft. I recall my astonishment as a young lad in coming accros this pit in 45/46. The aircraft included 4 engined bombers presumably from Middleton St George and Thornaby ( R.C.AF bases ) The pit was probably a clay pit for the brick works. The brick work chimneys can be seen in the background.
When I was a boy in the early 1950’s my grandad had an allotment on the north side of the old quarry. I used to be fascinated by the wrecks of old second world war aircraft which had been dumped in the quarry. I don’t know what material was quarried and I forget which side of the quarry (north or south) the chimneys were located on. Presumably they were associated with the quarry? I would be grateful for any information that readers can provide.
Thanks,
Bob Griffiths
Hi Bob — great to meet you, and thank you for sharing that memory. I took the photograph and have spent a very enjoyable summer trying to get a first-hand understanding of the history, the stories and the hard facts around the RAF aircraft in Eaglescliffe. I was born in 1990 so forgive any gaps in my knowledge, but I’ll do my best here.
For orientation: when I took the picture I was standing on the opposite side of the Eaglescliffe railway line, looking west towards the old Marshalls Brickworks. Up until around 1972 there was an old farmhouse there called Witham Hall — I was essentially facing the spot where it once stood.
The quarry itself began in the late 19th century — there’s a good entry here: https://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/w804.htm
Then in the 1940s, when the aircraft disposal work was underway locally, sites like this were used to dump mainly fuselage parts. Your memory of seeing wreckage there fits very well with that period. Theres one over the road which was used by Crosleys Brick Works – which is now a site going through ground remedition due to chemical dumping in the 70s and 80s.
There were allotments by the railway at Eaglescliffe — and still are — so it’s very possible you were looking across from exactly that side.
If there’s anything specific you’d like to check or compare from your recollections, I’d be more than happy to try to help. Just say.
Will the planes still be there?
Hi Irene — yes however 100 m down, likely in a very degraded state and now buried under decades of council rubbish and chemical waste. The quarry was later used as a municipal tip and local industries dumped material there in the 60s/70s that you definitely wouldn’t be allowed to dispose of now.
There was an eccentric chap in the 1980s who tried to dig some of it out — worth a read if you’ve not seen it:
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/10189914.digging-past/
Is that the old Admiralty site? Great historic photo comparison 👍
Hi Mark — thanks! It is a bit confusing, but there are really three key sites around Eaglescliffe relating to WWII aircraft (and later Cold War activity) plus the chemical dumping.
1, The Admiralty site at Allens West — this is where the aircraft were broken up, along with a nearby dump site.
2, The former Crossley Brickworks, now the Elementis Chemicals site.
3, This spot, next to the old Marshalls Brickworks — if you search “Marshalls Eaglescliffe” you’ll see the location.
For context, when I took this photo I was standing between the railway lines looking west towards the former brickworks.
I’ve spent a lot of time on this over the summer doing hands-on research and I’m really interested in the subject — if you’ve got any questions I’d be happy to help.