In the early hours of the cold winters morning of Tuesday 16th November 1943, a Wellington Mk 1c twin engined bomber of 28 OTU (Operational Training Unit) Royal Air Force, crashed with the sad loss of all aircrew onto Anglezarke Moor north of Bolton, in the area now designated the West Pennine Moors. The Wellington, serial Z8799, had originally taken off at around 22.50hrs on the late evening of Monday 15th November 1943, from its base at RAF Wymeswold, Leicestershire, with its full compliment of six crew members for a routine night training / navigation exercise.

For reasons unknown the aircraft went into a steep uncontrollable dive, resulting according to the Court of Inquiry in structural failure of the airframe and its subsequent terrible impact onto remote moorland. None of the six aircrew survived the impact, they were the 1st pilot, Flight Sergeant Joseph Banks Timperon, aged 24yrs, from Ardrossan, Australia, 2nd pilot Sgt Eric Raymond Barnes, aged 22 from Nottingham, Navigator, Sgt Joseph Banks Hayton aged 34 from Whitehaven, Wireless Operator / Air Gunner Sgt Robert Sidney Jackson, Wireless Operator / Air Gunner Sgt George Earnest Murray from South Sheilds and Rear Gunner Sgt Matthew Mouncey aged 19 from Leeds. (the team is grateful to Stuart Clewlow of Euxton Chorley for the additional research details on the aircrew, their ages and home towns.

In June 1955, members of The Rotary Club of Horwich (a nearby town nestling in the foothills of the moors) had a Memorial erected a short distance away from the actual crash site, on a hillside overlooking the beautiful moorland stream and valley known as Lead Mines Valley.