:Cowleaze Wood

File:Memorial in Cowleaze Wood - geograph.org.uk - 1435147.jpg

On 31 March 1944 a Handley Page Halifax Mk III bomber aircraft, LW579 of No. 51 Squadron RAF, was returning from the Nuremberg Raid when it crashed in the wood, killing all seven of its crew.{{cite web |url=http://www.chilternsaonb.org/ccbmaps/423/137/cowleaze-wood.html |title=Cowleaze Wood |work=The Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty |publisher=Chilterns Conservation Board |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130619225058/http://www.chilternsaonb.org/ccbmaps/423/137/cowleaze-wood.html |archive-date=19 June 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=12 November 2015 }}

LW579 was based at RAF Snaith in the East Riding of Yorkshire and seems to have been at least {{convert|120|mi}} off course. It was a clear, moonlit night, and it is not clear why the Halifax lost height and crashed into the hill.{{cite web |url= http://www.wycombeworldonline.co.uk/?p=786 |title=Remembrance |work=Wycombe World |date=18 December 2013 |access-date=12 November 2015}} It was one of six aircraft that the squadron lost in the same night on the same mission.{{cite web |url=http://51squadron.com/PoemsStories/The%20Nuremberg%20Raid.pdf |title=The Nuremberg Raid |work=51 Squadron |access-date=12 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304110600/http://51squadron.com/PoemsStories/The%20Nuremberg%20Raid.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}

There is a monument in the wood to the crew of LW579. It is a stone plinth from Lincoln Cathedral,{{cite web |url=http://www.51squadron.com/PoemsStories/Stokenchurch.pdf |title=Lewknor / Stokenchurch Memorial to Halifax MkIII LW579 |work=51 Squadron |access-date=12 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151116153925/http://www.51squadron.com/PoemsStories/Stokenchurch.pdf |archive-date=16 November 2015 |url-status=dead }} now with the men's names inscribed upon it. In 2015 BBC Radio Oxford broadcast a documentary about the crash, the crew and some of their surviving relatives.{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p037s842 |last=Bentham |first=Howard |author-link=Howard Bentham |title=Halifax Bomber 1944 crash documentary |publisher=BBC Radio Oxford |date=11 November 2015 |access-date=12 November 2015}}

File:"Platform_for_Self_Elevation"_-_a_useful_sculpture_-_geograph.org.uk_-_512541.jpg

For 17 years the Chiltern Sculpture Trail was in Cowleaze Wood. The trail was created in May 1990, as a joint initiative between the Chiltern Sculpture Trust and the Forestry Commission, who had been placing sculpture in woodlands under their management since the 1970s.{{cite news|last=Mabey|first=Richard|title=Country life|newspaper=The Independent on Sunday|date=25 June 1995}} The 2-mile trail featured the work of a range of artists working with different media, with pieces being commissioned and produced specifically for the woodland setting.{{cite news |last=Dymond |first=Christian |title=Carving through the forest |newspaper=The Times |date=26 April 1997}} Many of the pieces were hidden and blended with the landscape. Richard Mabey, writing in the Independent on Sunday, commented: "All along the trail, serendipitously windthrown logs, dens, a polythene bag wrapped round a branch in the shape of a squirrel, make you wonder whether you are looking at a deliberate work or a natural happening." Sculptures that appeared as part of the trail included a giant picnic table by Robert Jakes and a metal "fish tree" by Paul Amey.

The sculpture trail was open to the public all year round at no charge. The chairman of the Sculpture Trust estimated in 2007 that the trail had received in the region of 80,000 visitors a year. It was closed in 2007 owing to a lack of funding; the maintenance costs were around £25,000 a year. At the point of closure, there were 20 sculptures in the wood, some of which were sold at auction.{{cite news |last=Townsend |first=Ian |title=Chiltern sculpture trail to close |newspaper=Oxford Mail |publisher=Newsquest |date=27 November 2007 |url= http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/1858506.Chiltern_sculpture_trail_to_close/}}

Within the wood is Bald Hill, the highest point of the historic county of Oxfordshire, {{convert|257|m|ft|order=flip}} above sea level. It remained the high point of the County until 1974, when boundary changes meant that it was demoted by Whitehorse Hill which is slightly higher at {{convert|261|m|ft|order=flip}} and the current County top. The historic high point is located at {{gbm4ibx|SU72889577}}, but is unmarked and hard to find with any certainty. The location is of interest to participants in Hill bagging who visit these high points of the historic counties of England.{{cite book |last=Muir |first=Jonny |year=2011 |title=The UK's County Tops: Reaching the top of 91 historic counties |publisher=Cicerone |page=42 |isbn=9781849655538 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=mk6k8LtfV2kC&pg=PA42}}{{cite web |url= http://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/mountaindetails.php?rf=5386 |last=Edwardes |first=Simon |year=2001 |title=Bald Hill |publisher=The Mountains of England and Wales |access-date=20 May 2014}}

• Lyford in the Vale of White Horse, where an RAF Avro Lancaster B.I Special bomber aircraft crashed in 1945.
• Pyrton, where an RAF Vickers Wellington Mk IC bomber aircraft crashed in 1943.

File:Cowleaze Wood, Lewknor - geograph.org.uk - 1034195.jpg

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{{Commons category|Cowleaze Wood|position=left}}

Category:Chiltern Hills

Category:Forests and woodlands of Oxfordshire