Merryton Low is a hill in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, England, a few miles east of

Leek The leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of ''Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek ( syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk. The genus ''Alli ...

. It is in the civil parish of Fawfieldhead in the local government district of Staffordshire Moorlands. The hill is 489m / 1604 ft ASL and forms part of the

White Peak The White Peak, also known as the Low Peak, is a Carboniferous limestone, limestone plateau that forms the central and southern part of the Peak District in England. It is mostly between and above sea-level and is enclosed by the higher altitu ...

and is within the Peak District National Park The parent peak is Shining Tor and it ranks as the 6366th highest peak in the British Isles and the 729th tallest in England There are two bowl barrows on the hill: Merryton Low bowl barrow, a scheduled monument is at the summit, and another scheduled barrow lies 700m to the south. The summit trig point is grade II listed as it carries a plaque commemorating four members of the local Home Guard who died on active service in the regular army during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The hill was the site of two fatal air crashes during World War II: a

Short Stirling The Short Stirling was a British four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It has the distinction of being the first four-engined bomber to be introduced into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Stirling was designed during t ...

crashed on 13 July 1942 with eight deaths, and a

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

on 27 July 1944 with one death. The

River Hamps The River Hamps is a river in Staffordshire, England. It is tributary of the River Manifold, which itself flows into the River Dove near Ilam. For much of its length the river flows through the Peak District National Park. Etymology The n ...

rises on its southern slopes.

References

Hills of Staffordshire Staffordshire Moorlands World War II memorials in England Grade II listed monuments and memorials Grade II listed buildings in Staffordshire Scheduled monuments in Staffordshire {{Staffordshire-geo-stub