Henry Bryce Prestwich wins the Cork International Race 1937

Researching the Saddleworth air crash of 1949 and the later death of Michael Prestwich, I came across this video of his father winning a motor race before the war.

It presents a wonderful picture of motor racing in the 1930s - all cigarettes and no safety precautions with commentary by Mr Cholmondley-Warner.

Henry Bryce Prestwich was a cotton merchant. A forum post on the Autosport site says:

He was born Henry Bryce Stadelbaur or Stadelbauer at Altrincham, Cheshire, England in 1911. Both spellings appear on documents. His father was Otto Stadelbau(e)r, a British subject from a Saxony family. However, like many with a German sounding name, the family changed their name during the 1914-18 war to acquire a more English sounding one (following the example of King George V). 

I found that Prestwich had raced a M.G. at the Donington Park Motor Car races in May 1936 (9.5.36) and at the same track in the Coronation Trophy races in May 1937 (12.5.37). After the 1937 Cork race, he only appears once more in the records, starting but not finishing the 1938 Cork Light Car (voiturette) Race, again in a MG. 

The London Gazette records that Prestwich was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the British Army in November 1940.

He survived the war, only to die at Saddleworth with his wife and two of his three children. It seems Prestwich was his mother's maiden name.

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The Saddleworth air disaster and Michael Prestwich

St Giles, Uley © David Purchase

The identity of the man who travelled from Ealing Broadway to the moors above Saddleworth to die remains a mystery.

When I wrote about the case at the end of January it was because police were pursuing the theory that he was one of the child survivors of an air crash that took place there in 1949.

That turned out not to be the case:

The boy survivors were Stephen Evans (5) and Michael Prestwich (2). 

Michael, the 2016 press agrees, died at the age of 12 in a railway accident. It sounds as though he did not have the misfortune to be caught up in two disasters but was hit by a train on the way home from school ... 

But could the body be Stephen Evans? 

No. Because, as Newsnight revealed, he is now a distinguished professor and lives on the south coast.

Since writing that I have come across a page on the 1949 disaster with some informative comments below.

I have also become interested in the fate of Michael Prestwich.

After seeing my original post John Dedman (one of the commenters on the page) emailed to tell me that he died at Birmingham New Street, and I have since discovered that there are two memorials to him.

One is in the church at Uley in Gloucestershire, where is one of three pupils of Stouts Hill prep school remembered on a plaque. It says he was on his way back to the school when he died.

The second is in the church at Swettenham in Cheshire where the entire Bryce Prestwich family is remembered.

Later. John Dedman tells me the Greater Manchester Police have given him the story of Michael's death on 24 September 1959 - a relative had kept the Daily Mail report of it.

He died trying to board a moving train, which was something we all did occasionally in the days before doors were centrally locked.

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Six of the Best 579

"Why is it that when Conference supports the leadership it’s binding and an act of disrespect to rebel, but when Conference disagrees with them its word is provisional, borderline advisory?" Graham Cowie on the Scottish Liberal Democrats' row over fracking.

Richard Kemp proposes a radical shake up of the way Liverpool is run.

Nick Clegg and the dogging site - a first post from Ben Rathe that went viral.

Northern Soul presents a striking piece of local history: "In 1859 the body of a man by the name of Harry Stokes washed up in the River Irwell. Upon examination, it was discovered that twice-married Stokes was biologically female and had been successfully living the life of a Victorian man in Manchester."

"The thrill of the aerial running shot and the suddenness of the ending mean that this, rather than The 400 Blows, is the film that leaves the viewer breathless. Even writing about it makes me shiver." Somewhere Boy has been to see Andrei Tarkovsky's first feature-length film, Ivan's Childhood.

A Clerk of Oxford visits Ramsey Abbey in the Fens.

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The Saddleworth air crash of 1949

Earlier this week Newsnight reported on a mystery - you can see the report below.

On 11 December a man travelled from Ealing Broadway to Euston and then caught the train to Manchester. He then made his way to Saddleworth Moor, where his body was found the next day.

He has still not been identified, which is mysterious enough. But, as Newsnight reported, Greater Manchester Police have added to the mystery.

Perhaps fuelled by watching too many reruns of Lewis on ITV3, they have suggested that the man's death may be connected with an air crash that took place near where the body was found.

In 1949 a British European Airways Douglas DC-3 on a flight from Belfast Nutts Corner Airport to Manchester came down at Saddleworth. You can see some scraps of footage of the wreckage above.

The crew and 21 of the 29 passengers on board died. But among the survivors were two little boys. That is what interested the police. Could one of them be the mystery body, grown old and gone back for a final pilgrimage to the site of the crash?

The boy survivors were Stephen Evans (5) and Michael Prestwich (2).

Michael, the 2016 press agrees, died at the age of 12 in a railway accident. It sounds as though he did not have the misfortune to be caught up in two disasters but was hit by a train on the way home from school.

A search of The British Newspaper Archive does not reveal a report of his death, but does throw up headlines like 'Michael (2) gets family fortune' and 'Boy who survived air crash inherits £35,000,' because the rest of his family died at Saddleworth.

But could the body be Stephen Evans?

No. Because, as Newsnight revealed, he is now a distinguished professor and lives on the south coast.

The latest theory is that the mystery man is Hugh Toner from Armagh, who has not seen his family for 20 years.

The moral, as ever, is that the recent past is a stranger place than we think and that stories that once hogged the headlines are soon forgotten.

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Six of the Best 565

Peter Kelner, interviewed in a podcast, looks at how Labour MPs might depose Jeremy Corbyn - something they will have to do if the party is to stand any chance at the next election.

Suddenly Basic Income is fashionable. Tom Streithorst asks if it could work.

April Peavey remembers when Pierre Boulez met Frank Zappa.

"Replacing the aggressive Irishmen in pubs and stoned out drug dealers, the countryside instead provides aggressive farmers and 'country folk' who have no wish to deal with 'London types'." Adam Scovell points out the importance of landscape in Withnail and I.

The Cottonopolis has some amazing pictures of Manchester's abandoned buildings.

"When I saw the rusted redundant railing on a forgotten walkway above the Ouse I thought about how you can live in a place for so long and still have new things to find, when forced from the usual ways and the beaten track." York Stories encounters a flooded river.

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Recently lost railways 1

The first of four parts (I spoil you. I know) of a video that looks at lines that were closed in the decade between the late 1970s and late 1980s.

This first part looks at the Woodhead route, the lost electrified line between Sheffield and Manchester.

I travelled on this line several times when it was used for Sunday diversions between the two cities while I was a student in York, and part of it was used by the Sheffield to Huddersfield service.

The video looks at a number of other lines, including the remarkable branch along the seafront to Weymouth Harbour.

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