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Tadmarton is a village and civil parish about west of Banbury,
On 31 May 1944 a Vickers Wellington B Mk III bomber aircraft, BK157 of No. 12 Operational Training Unit RAF based at Chipping Warden in Northamptonshire, was on a training flight over north Oxfordshire when the pilot, F/O Donald Driver, DFM, made an evasive diving turn to port. The port wing collapsed and the aircraft crashed at Tadmarton. It burst into flames and all seven crew were killed.
The crew were members of the
The Lampet Arms
/ref>
Tadmarton Village
Civil parishes in Oxfordshire Villages in Oxfordshire {{Oxfordshire-geo-stub
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 541, which is a 26% increase on the figure of 430 recorded by the 2001 Census.
Manor
The manor house has a 15th-century barn, believed to have been built for Abingdon Abbey.Parish church
TheChurch of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...
of Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-da ...
is early Norman. The building was enlarged and the bell tower
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
added in the 13th century. The church is a Grade I listed building.
The tower has a ring of six bells. Four were originally cast early in the 17th century, but two of these were re-cast in 1923 and 1939. A fifth bell was added in 1761 and the treble was added in 1947.
Air crash
On 31 May 1944 a Vickers Wellington B Mk III bomber aircraft, BK157 of No. 12 Operational Training Unit RAF based at Chipping Warden in Northamptonshire, was on a training flight over north Oxfordshire when the pilot, F/O Donald Driver, DFM, made an evasive diving turn to port. The port wing collapsed and the aircraft crashed at Tadmarton. It burst into flames and all seven crew were killed.
The crew were members of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) was established in 1936 to support the preparedness of the U.K. Royal Air Force in the event of another war. The Air Ministry intended it to form a supplement to the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF ...
. F/O Driver and one of the air gunners are buried in Southam Road Cemetery in Banbury, which has a Commonwealth War Graves
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mi ...
section. Other members of the crew are buried at Downpatrick in County Down, Hounslow in Middlesex, Huntly in Aberdeenshire, Titchfield in Hampshire and Wick in Caithness.
Amenities
Tadmarton has one public house, the Lampet Arms./ref>
See also
* Pyrton in South Oxfordshire, where an RAF Vickers Wellington Mk IC bomber aircraft crashed in 1943.References
Sources and further reading
* *External links
Tadmarton Village
Civil parishes in Oxfordshire Villages in Oxfordshire {{Oxfordshire-geo-stub