Excavations > 2007>

	Spitfire - Birkenhead, Merseyside

Spitfire P7533, a Mk 2A, was on a test flight from Hawarden, North Wales, to Birkenhead to test a new engine when it crashed into the Birkenhead Park on October 14, 1942.

The pilot, Sergeant Douglas Couper Goudie, an American who had joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, baled out over Liverpool after vibration made the aircraft uncontolable.

Eyewitness Bobby Boyd said: "He and many others who saw the aircraft crash ran to the park to see a smouldering hole in the ground."

After two years of planning by Doug Darroch, the excavation was undertaken with the co-operation of Wirral Borough Council and the Merseyside Archaeological Team. The recovered items will be put on display at the Warplane Wreck Investigation Group Museum at Fort Perch Rock, New Brighton.

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The crash site in a Grade II Listed park, fenced off prior to the excavation.

	Eye-witness accounts proved to be off the mark - the site was eventually located around 100 metres from the given location.
	Underway at last - hardly any wreckage remained near the surface, making location of the site difficult.
	One of the main manufacturer's labels.
	Gareth and Ian with the Supermarine rudder pedals.
	Deepest part - the Merlin, the digger has been ramped in to get extra depth.
	So that's what it should look like!