A REMEMBRANCE ceremony has taken place to honour the airmen killed in a wartime plane crash in Hartford.

Onlookers gathered in Chester Road for the commemoration, led by an RAF Padre, and the formal unveiling of a plaque to mark the site of the 1940s tragedy.

The incident happened on April 15, 1944, when an Albemarle bomber, flying low over Hartford, crashed into the wall opposite the row of shops on Chester Road killing all but one of its five-man crew.

One of them, Sgt Aubrey Gerald Crowe, known as Gerry, was a Hartford man and he is remembered on the plaque, which was unveiled by David Briggs, the Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire and Gerry's granddaughter Christine Falland at the Remembrance ceremony.

Air Cadets and representatives of the RAF Association with their standards took part in the commemoration, which was watched by several eye witnesses of the crash, Cheshire West and Chester Council's Hartford councillors, parish councillors, members of Hartford Civic Society and those who offered donations towards the cost of the plaque.

Pat Hatfield, from the civic society, said the event was a success and the society had received very positive feedback.

"Photographs have been flooding in and lots of emails saying nice things about the event," she said.