ONE Herefordshire family has a 71-year-old mystery that they fear they are running out of time to solve.

It was on a summer's day in 1944 that 15-year-old Valerie Tilby, her brother Fred, 12, and an evacuee who was living with the family in Blakemere saw an Avro Lancaster – a British four-engine Second World War heavy bomber – overhead as they played in their cherry orchard.

Inside was their uncle Ted Tilby and his crew from the Lancaster 617 squadron – best known as the Dambusters.

The siblings had moved to Herefordshire just two years earlier from Harrow, amidst the Battle of Britain, with their elder sister Beryl, mother Winifred and father, Frederick William Tilby who was an adjutant at RAF Madley.

Fred and Valerie say they are certain their uncle and his crew landed at Madley in a Lancaster – an aircraft that would have been too large for the runway there.

"They all went into the lounge [at our house] and had a few drinks with dad and stayed for about one hour,” said Valerie, now Mrs Powell.

"When they all left we were out in the cherry orchard and they flew over, dipping the wings of the Lancaster. I know that dad said they missed the hedges taking off by a few feet. That was the last time we saw uncle Ted."

Ted and his crew were shot down on January 1945, the following year. Only the pilot's body was ever recovered.

But despite their vivid memories of that day, the family say the Lancaster's appearance at the aerodrome is missing from records and history books.

Mr Tilby said: "There must have been somebody who knew. There would have been an inquiry.

"You can't land a Lancaster on a runway like that. Just imagine if it wasn't able to take off and it crashed. Somebody covered it up.

"People have written books about Madley but nobody can say that a Lancaster landed there and took off. But we saw it. Nobody can say we didn't."

Valerie, now 88, met her husband to be, Derek Powell, at a young farmers dance in Peterchurch when she was 18. Fred met his wife Louisa in Coventry.

"We want to find out why there's no record of this," added Valerie.

Anyone that can remember seeing a Lancaster at Madley, or anyone with any information, should email jph@herefordtimes.com or call 01432 845884.