ARBUCIES – Hidden in the hills, a stone’s throw away from the tourist beaches of the Costa Brava, lies a picturesque town that has an indelible link to Britain.
The British community who have made their home here include language teachers, campsite owners and actors, who say they have integrated but keep up traditions, including having mince pies at Christmas.
The town of 7,000 people, an hour’s drive north of Barcelona, is located in the spectacular Montseny Natural Park, at the bottom of a long, deep valley surrounded by forest, streams and natural springs.
The Gothic medieval Montsoriu castle, touted as Spain’s finest building of its kind, overlooks the Catalan town from the top of a hill.
But alongside its beauty, the area nicknamed “La Vinya” (The Vineyard) is known for a tragedy that forever ties it to Britain.
It was the scene of the worst plane crash involving Britons on Spain’s mainland, and the municipal cemetery is the resting place of 105 holidaymakers and seven air crew who died when a Dan Air plane from Manchester to Barcelona crashed in the hills near the town in 1970.
More than half a century later, the victims and their families are remembered every year when British expats come together with Spanish locals for a memorial service on 3 July, the anniversary of the crash.
Pere Garriga, the mayor of Arbucies, was awarded a British Empire Medal for remembering the victims of the tragedy. Garriga insists the award is not for him but for the entire village, which united to help in the aftermath of the crash.
“The catastrophe left a mark on the heart and soul of Arbucies which we still remember to this day,” Garriga told The i Paper. “On the day of the accident, everyone in the town went to help. Carpenters made coffins and other people walked on foot through the forest to find the site, knowing they might find mutilated bodies. We all helped bury the people in a grave in the town.”
The area surrounding the town is known as ‘La Vinya’ or The Vineyard, because of its lush natural beauty (Photo: johny007pan/iStockphoto/Getty)Garriga added: “A few years ago, someone floated the idea of repatriating the bodies to the UK but people here were against it. They should rest in peace in Arbucies now. They are part of the community.”
Ann Oram, 62, who is originally from Suffolk but who has lived in Spain for 40 years and runs a campsite in Arbucies, is closely involved in the annual memorial service. “We have a small British community here which is integrated with the local community. We meet every Christmas for mince pies to have a British celebration,” she said.
When Yvonne Ridgely boarded the fateful flight with her best friend Sandra Brown, both 17-year-olds were looking forward to a dream holiday. Instead, all passengers and crew died instantly when the plane crashed into the remote Montseny hillside near Arbucies, which is an hour’s drive north of Barcelona.
After an extensive search over a wide area, rescuers found the dead at the site of the crash. It was a tragic end for the two childhood friends who had both taken extra work to save for the holiday.
The town lies in a valley beneath a medieval castle, and was the scene of a devastating plane crash in which 105 British passengers were killed (Photo: Connect Images/Quim Roser/Getty)The jet plane went down in the height of the summer, so Spanish authorities insisted on an immediate burial of the dead bodies for health reasons. The victims, all from Burnley, Bolton and East Lancashire, had been on package holidays to Barcelona when tragedy struck.
An investigation into the causes of the crash found a combination of errors caused the tragedy, including mistakes in location reports from the Dan Air plane and a radar echo from another aircraft which was flying nearby.
Ten years after the Arbucies crash, another Dan Air aeroplane crashed in Tenerife on a flight from Manchester, killing 146 people.
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Today, people visit this lesser-known part of Spain for hiking, wandering the charming old town and touring historic sites including the Roquer Forge, a 17th-century relic of its industrial past.
But the story of the air disaster represents a poignant piece of British history, nestled in the Spanish hills.
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