Avro Heritage Museum reveals expansion plan

A museum dedicated to the history of Manchester’s aviation history has revealed it has ambitious plans to expand.

Aircraft company Avro opened its site at Woodford in Stockport 100 years ago.

Workers there built some of the world’s most famous aircraft, including the wartime Lancaster bomber.

To mark the centenary, the Avro Heritage Museum, which is based at the site, has unveiled ambitious plans for a major expansion.

In 1909 Alliott Verdon-Roe, born in Patricroft, near Salford, built and flew the Roe 1 Triplane, the first all-British aeroplane.

A year later, in 1910, he formed AV Roe and Company with his brother.

They established a workshop at Brownsfield Mill, a cotton mill in Ancoats, Manchester, before expanding to larger factories in Manchester and establishing the assembly plant at Woodford in 1924.

The expansion plans would allow the Avro Heritage Museum to increase the number of aircraft on display, improve accessibility and introduce new interactive exhibits.

The museum’s Frank Pleszak said it was “vital” to preserve the history of Manchester’s role in British aviation history.

“The history of aviation in the Northwest is very significant,” he said.

“It’s important to preserve it to inspire the next generation.”

The Lancasters were produced by Avro’s workforce at the Chadderton factory, but as it had no airfield they were assembled and tested at the airfield before being delivered.

The factory also produced the Avro Vulcan, the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod and the BAe 146.

Avro, which became BAE Systems, closed the site in 2011.

The Aviation Heritage Museum, opened in 2015, includes a virtual reality experience of a bombing mission from the UK to Berlin.

A Roe I Triplane replica and the Avro Vulcan XM603 are also among the displays.

An application for plans to extend the existing buildings at the Aviation Heritage Museum has been submitted to Stockport Council with a decision expected to be made later this year.