Cowleaze Wood

Cowleaze Wood is a 70-acre (28 ha) woodland in the Chiltern Hills, a chalk ridge in South East England. The wood is in the civil parish of Lewknor, in Oxfordshire, about 1+1⁄4 miles (2 km) southeast of the village. It is next to the county boundary with Buckinghamshire, and adjoins Lydall's Wood on the Buckinghamshire side of the boundary. The Forestry Commission owns Coweleaze Wood, and planted it between 1957 and 1966. It is particularly known for its bluebells, and walkers are also attracted to the wood by sightings of red kites. There is a large car park adjoining the wood, and a picnic area with sculptured benches designed by furniture designer Fred Baier. 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. LW579 was based at RAF Snaith in the East Riding of Yorkshire and seems to have been at least 120 miles (190 km) off course. It was a clear, moonlit night, and it is not clear why the Halifax lost height and crashed into the hill. It was one of six aircraft that the squadron lost in the same night on the same mission. There is a monument in the wood to the crew of LW579. It is a stone plinth from Lincoln Cathedral, 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. 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. 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. 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

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