It was the morning of Friday, 5 August 1949 and the Cross Hands Hotel at Old Sodbury had been open for just over an hour. Into the lounge strolled a young RAF officer, who ordered a glass of beer and asked if he could use the phone. Nothing in his appearance or behaviour gave any hint that a few minutes earlier he had had a miraculous escape from death. 

Flying Officer Paul Flewelling was a Canadian who had already demonstrated his courage when he won the Distinguished Flying Cross with the RCAF during the Second World War. In the summer of 1949 he was serving as a flying instructor at No 2 Flying Training School in South Cerney, Gloucestershire. When the Flying School first moved to South Cerney in April 1948 it was equipped with Tiger Moths and Harvards but in June 1949 the Tiger Moths were replaced by Prentices. It was one of these new Prentices that Paul Flewelling was flying that morning when he hit a 6,000 volt high tension cable, somersaulted over a main road and crashed into a field of clover.

Eye witnesses to the crash included two farm workers stooking corn, who ducked as they heard the crack of the breaking cable and the plane roaring over their heads. A motorist on the main A46 road from Bath to Stroud was forced to brake hard as the plane passed in front of him, a few feet above the road, dragging with it a trail of electric cables and telephone wires. 

One wingtip struck the ground and the plane came to rest in the clover field. The engine was torn from its mountings, the cockpit hood shattered and the fuselage gashed by the cables and wires. To the amazement of the onlookers, Flewelling climbed out the wreckage unscathed, dusted off his uniform and started walking towards them. He suffered only a few scratches and was described by his would be rescuers as "the luckiest man in the world". They were astonished that the plane had not caught fire. 

The motorist, a Mr Stevens from Coventry, took Flewelling to the Cross Hands where, having calmly ordered his beer, he phoned his base at South Cerney to report the crash. Meanwhile the Sodbury Fire Brigade had been summoned but, as only a small amount of fuel had leaked from the plane, their services were not needed. Within an hour of the crash, engineers had arrived to repair the cables whilst the Western Daily Press interviewed the witnesses. One of them, a farm worker called Wyndham Perks from Hawkesbury Upton, who was a rather good looking young man, even got his photograph in the paper.

The Cross Hands was probably not to know such excitement again until 1981, when the Queen took shelter there from a snowstorm, but that's another story.

Notes
1. This story is based on an article published in the Western Daily Press on 6 August 1949 and now available on the British Newspaper Archive website.
2. Information about the RAF's No 2 Flying Training School at South Cerney comes from the page about Flying Training Schools on the Air of Authority website.
3. According to the book To Soar With the Eagles by Sidney R Bolick, Paul Flewelling was from Moncton, New Brunswick. He was a Sergeant Pilot with the RCAF in the summer of 1942. 

The British Newspaper Archive is a wonderful source of information for genealogy research. The earliest newspaper references to Sodbury I have found on the site date from the early 18th century. On 5 October 1732, the Derby Mercury published a short report on page 2 under "Country News" for Gloucestershire, datelined 23 September 1732:

And on Monday last the Wife of William Harvey of Chipping Sodbury in this County, was delivered of three Girls, who were chriften'd the next Day by the Names of Love, Peace, and Unity.

Family Search provides the information that Love, Peace and Unity Harvey were the children of William and Mary Harvey and were baptised at St John the Baptist, Chipping Sodbury, on 19 September 1732. Sadly, Love and Unity died on 1 October and Peace on 8 October 1732. 

Welcome to my new website, devoted to genealogy and family history research in Chipping Sodbury and the surrounding parishes. My name is Caroline Gurney and I'm a professional genealogist. I've lived in Chipping Sodbury since 2004 and developed a special interest in the history and genealogy of this delightful market town. This website is my way of giving something back to the town, its people and my fellow genealogists. I hope you will find material here that will help you with your own research.