End of the line

ICONIC . . . the Chadderton factory built more than 3,000 of the famous Second World War bombers

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THE Chadderton site has produced some of the world’s most iconic aircraft — from the Second World War Lancaster bomber to the Cold War Vulcan.

Manchester company Avro opened the Greengate factory under designer Roy Chadwick in 1938 as war loomed over Europe.

Twice the size of other factories, it made almost half of the war’s 7,000 Lancaster bombers, which took part in the famous dambusters raid.

At its war-time peak the factory had 11,267 people working round the clock and the floor-space expanded to over one million square feet.

The factory suffered an air raid on April 23, 1941, but all the workers had taken that day off, Easter Monday, instead of Good Friday and no one was injured.

The Chadderton factory also produced famous bombers such as the Lincoln, Shackleton and the Vulcan jet which became the backbone of Britain’s nuclear deterrent force.

In 1963 the famous Avro name became Hawker Siddeley Aviation.

Then in 1977 it became part of the giant British Aerospace operation as part of the nationalisation programme with British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and Scottish Aviation, before becoming part of BAE Systems in 1999.

Production stopped in 2004 but the site’s engineers continued to support the Tornado, Sentry, VC10 and Nimrod.

Avro historian Harry Holmes said: “It is a very sad day because it is the end of an era of aviation in the Manchester area with Woodford closing recently and the plans to close Chadderton.

“They were the two main aviation sites in Manchester, both Avro that went into British Aerospace.”