The WW2 Liberator Crash on Plaster Down
Tavistock Museum

When: 25 March 2017 to 31 October 2017
Suitable for: Any age

On 30th October 1942 Consolidated Liberator, serial number FK242, was operating with 224 Squadron, RAF Coastal Command and had the call sign K 'King'. Fitted with radically new radar, it had taken off from RAF Beaulieu in Hampshire to escort ships crossing the Bay of Biscay as part of Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. After ten hours on patrol the Liberator was returning to Beaulieu when it hit a barrage balloon cable as it passed over Plymouth. The aircraft was badly damaged and the crew tried to make an emergency landing at RAF Harrowbeer, Yelverton. It was dark and with no runway lights to guide it, the Liberator crashed at Fullamoor Farm by Plaster Down. Six of the crew died and another was seriously injured. In early April a new plaque to commemorate the lives of the airman will be unveiled in the car park at Plaster Down.

This year the museum has a new attraction: some reproduction stocks which visitors will be challenged to try. Stocks were wooden or metal devices with foot holes used as punishment from medieval times until the mid-nineteenth century. The convicted individual was seated and had their feet and ankles locked into the device so that their legs were held straight out. Most communities had their set of stocks which were usually kept at a prominent location such as a town centre, village green, outside the gateway into the parish church or near the entrance to the police station. Generally stocks were used in cases of punishment for minor offences such as drunkenness and rowdy behaviour. The objective being to humiliate the offender so as to discourage them from re-offending. For good measure they could get rotten food and other objects thrown at them. Stocks varied in size being for one, two, three or occasionally four miscreants.

The Tavistock stocks were for three miscreants. They are believed to have once stood near the north archway at the parish church but later relocated to outside the police station. Thomas Vanstone recalled their use in the 1840s for a number of local delinquents convicted of drinking offences. Several hours in the stocks served as a substitute for the drunkard's fine and costs. In 1986 the stocks were removed from the cells at the police station to the Tavistock Museum. Unfortunately they are now not in very good condition.

The display has been arranged by Robert Jones. Roderick Martin, Museum Secretary, said 'Our thanks to our volunteers and contributors for the excellent new exhibitions again this year. The photographs inside the canal tunnel are amazing and we are most grateful to James Bird who has made them available to show in our exhibition.'