As LK797 crossed the English coast at dawn, 90 miles to the North of its base, its fuel ran out from the battle damage leakage, and with only one engine still running on vapours and at too low a height to allow a remaining crew bail-out by parachute, Barton crash landed it at the village of Ryhope, steering away in the final descent from the houses and coal pit-head workings.
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A housing estate in Ryhope, "Barton Park", was also named after him, and a nearby street was named "Halifax Place", after the bomber-type that he flew in the exploit.
In March 1944 Ryhope was the scene of the conclusion of the epic last flight of LK797 from the RAF Bomber Command's offensive against the III Reich, which crash landed there, resulting in Pilot Officer Cyril Barton being awarded the Victoria Cross.
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Pop-music TV producers Malcolm Gerrie and Chris Cowey, the former was a teacher and the latter a pupil at Ryhope Comprehensive School - formerly Ryhope Grammar School.
Ryhope |
The name of the novel hints at the real and mythological locales of Avon, Lyonesse, Avalon and Dis; within the novel Lavondyss is the name of the remote, ice-age heart of Ryhope wood.
In addition to introducing Native American culture into Ryhope wood, mythagos about Jack (as in Jack and the Beanstalk), the Tower of Babel and Jason and the Argonauts appear, the last two of which involve variations on myths that are uncharacteristically non-English in origin.