Older devotees of the Biggin Hill air fair, an event now sadly confined to history, may remember the tragic occasion when the pilot of a Second World War Douglas Invader bomber frantically attempted to pull out of a barrel roll and crashed in the valley, killing four British passengers, two American servicemen and the pilot.

It occurred on September 15 (Battle of Britain Day) 1980 and many local people recall the horrifying moments when there was a huge explosion and a mushroom of smoke and debris rose into the air.

They will not remember it with such clarity as John and Yvonne Pressdee and their family who were the closest to the spot where Don Bullock’s A26 Invader exploded.

Yvonne wrote to me this week: “We have occasionally spoken about it in our family but only this year have discovered that our three sons and our daughter still have recurring dreams about plane crashes."

Yvonne’s husband, John Pressdee is the Pastor of Green Street Green Baptist Church.

She tells me it is the family’s avowed intention to go back to the same spot to give thanks to God for the preservation of their lives.