BAE Chadderton at Greengate,

Chadderton Chadderton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk and Rochdale Canal. It is located in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Oldham, south of Rochdale and north-east of Manchester. The ...

in the

Metropolitan Borough of Oldham The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is named after its largest town, Oldham. The borough had a population of in , making it the sixth-largest district by population in Greater Manch ...

, opened in 1939. It was the headquarters of

Avro Avro (an initialism of the founder's name) was a British aircraft manufacturer. Its designs include the Avro 504, used as a trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster, one of the pre-eminent bombers of the Second World War, and the d ...

, and was later owned by

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...

. It had around 11,000 employees. The site was the birthplace of the

Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster, commonly known as the Lancaster Bomber, is a British World War II, Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to ...

. Over 3,000 Lancasters were produced on the site, which were moved to

Woodford Aerodrome Woodford Aerodrome is a former airfield and aircraft factory at Woodford, Greater Manchester, England, north of Macclesfield. It was opened by the Avro company after the First World War and became an important production centre for military ...

for assembly. It also produced the

Bristol Blenheim The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War, with examples still being used as trainers until the end of the war. ...

under licence; the

Avro Manchester The Avro 679 Manchester was a British twin-engine heavy bomber developed and manufactured by the Avro aircraft company in the United Kingdom. While not being built in great numbers, it was the forerunner of the more famed and more successful ...

; the York; the Lincoln; the Tudor; the Shackleton; and the Vulcan. A substantial amount of Avro's documentation (including the original drawings of the Lancaster, Vulcan and Nimrod) were lost in a fire at Chadderton in 1959. The site was closed in 2012, after BAE announced that it was no longer viable to operate from the site. At the time, BAE had 200 employees at the site. 160 employees, and ongoing work at the site, were transferred to

Samlesbury Aerodrome Samlesbury Aerodrome is a disused airfield at Balderstone, Lancashire, Balderstone near Samlesbury and Blackburn in the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire. The aerodrome is owned by defence company BAE Systems which uses the site for the manu ...

. The main Greengate site has since become home to NOV Process & Flow Technologies UK Limited, which manufactures the Mono range of industrial pumps as a division of Houston-based multinational

NOV Inc. NOV Inc., formerly National Oilwell Varco, is an American multinational corporation based in Houston, Texas. It is a worldwide provider of equipment and components used in Oil well, oil and gas drilling and Oil production, production operations ...

(formerly National Oilwell Varco). Part of the former BAE site alongside is now a purpose-built depot for

DPDgroup Geopost (formerly DPDgroup) is an international parcel delivery service for sorter compatible parcels based in Issy les Moulineaux, France. Until 2015 DPD stood for Dynamic Parcel Distribution. Its brands are DPD, Chronopost, Seur and BRT. Th ...

parcel couriers.

References

Aircraft assembly plants in England BAE Systems facilities Buildings and structures in Chadderton Defunct aircraft manufacturers of England 2012 disestablishments in England {{England-hist-stub