Filton is a town and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Kingswood, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke. The southern p ...

, England, north of

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. Along with nearby

Patchway Patchway is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, situated north-north west of central Bristol. The town has become an overflow settlement for Bristol and is contiguous with Bristol's urban area, along with the nearby towns ...

and

Bradley Stoke Bradley Stoke is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, situated north-northeast of Bristol city centre.OS Explorer Map, Bristol and Bath, Keynsham & Marshfield. Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey B4 edition (2013). ...

, Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for the city. Filton has large areas of open space which include several playing fields, a golf course and the former Filton Airport (closed in 2012).

Etymology

The name Filton is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words "fileðe" (hay) and "tūn" (farmstead) meaing hay farmstead.

Connections, districts and facilities

Filton can be reached from Junction 1 of the M32 motorway, or from Junction 16 of the

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

. The town is well served by rail with Filton Abbey Wood serving areas in the south of the town, Bristol Parkway serving areas to the north and east and

in the west of the town. Districts within the town include East Filton, Filton Park and Northville. East Filton, which has grown up east of the Bristol-South Wales railway line and is mostly in the neighbouring civil parish of

Stoke Gifford Stoke Gifford is a neighbourhood and Civil parish, parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in the South Gloucestershire district, in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, England. Formerly a separate ...

, contains the offices of the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

's Defence Procurement Agency, plus a shopping park. Filton Park is a suburb of

and lies directly on the city border, sandwiched between the A38 trunk road and Southmead Road. Filton itself lies to the north and east of Filton Park. Monks Park is to the south. Housing in Filton Park is mainly privately owned, semi-detached and 1930s built. Pre-

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

properties in the district tend to be quite large, with generous gardens. Extensive playing fields border the north-western side of Southmead Road. The golf links, on the hillside beyond, is owned by Filton Golf Club. The area has a primary school and a playgroup. Filton Park is regarded as a desirable place to live since it is close to major centres of employment such as

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 ...

, and Defence Equipment & Support at Abbey Wood. Filton Church was begun in around 1340 but is much altered. Filton's educational facilities include South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, Abbeywood Community School and several primary schools. The

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a Public university, public research university, located in and around Bristol, England, UK. With more than 39,912 students and 4,300 staff, it is the largest provider of hi ...

is at nearby Frenchay. Filton has two main shopping areas – the Shield Centre (on the site of the former Shield Laundry) and Abbey Wood Retail Park, as well as other shops. To the east of the town there is a small area of woodland known as Splatt's Abbey Wood.

Industry

Filton has an

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial, and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astron ...

connection dating back to the establishment of the

Bristol Aeroplane Company The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines. Notable ...

. Aerospace companies in Filton include

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

, GKN,

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

and

MBDA MBDA is a European multinational corporation specialized in the design, development and manufacturing of Missile, missiles and related systems.Filton Aerodrome. The

Concorde Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...

supersonic airliner was built here in the late 1960s and 1970s; on 26 November 2003 Concorde 216 (G-BOAF) made the final flight of a Concorde, returning to Filton to be kept there permanently as the centrepiece of the Aerospace Bristol museum, which opened in 2017. This museum also houses the Bristol Aero Collection and examples of planes, helicopters, missiles and other engineering projects built in Filton and Bristol. Other employers include the MOD, Viridor,

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

Hewlett Packard Enterprise The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) is an American multinational information technology company based in Spring, Texas. It is a business-focused organization which works in servers, storage, networking, containerization software and ...

and the

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

. Filton is also home to the regional blood processing facility,

NHS Blood and Transplant NHS Blood and Transplant is an executive non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom's Department of Health and Social Care. It was established on 1 October 2005 to take over the responsibilities of two separate NHS agencies: UK Transplan ...

Filton.

Bristol Cars Bristol Cars was a British manufacturer of hand-built luxury cars headquartered in Bristol, Bristol, England. It was formed from the car division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company after the World War II, Second World War and later became indepe ...

made hand-built luxury cars in Filton from 1946 until 2011. The company has neither distributors nor dealers and deals directly with customers; they have a showroom and head office in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, London. They claimed to be the last wholly British-owned luxury car builder. The company went into administration in March 2011, and was acquired by the research and development firm Kamkorp.

Population

The population of the parish at the 2011 Census was 10,607. The Filton built-up area defined by the

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...

is a large outer suburban area north of Bristol which includes

Almondsbury Almondsbury () is a large village and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England. It is situated on the A38 road in the Avon Green Belt north of Bristol city centre. It is adjacent to junction 16 of the M5 motorway and Almondsbury Interc ...

Little Stoke Little Stoke is a village in the parish of Stoke Gifford, situated in South Gloucestershire, England. It is surrounded by Patchway, Stoke Gifford and Bradley Stoke. Home to Patchway railway station, a minor stop on the railway network, the Rail ...

and

, and had a population of 59,495 in 2011. Filton is an ethnically diverse town, with a proportion of white British residents close to the national average.

Administration

Filton Town Council is a parish council made up of thirteen councillors and forming the first tier of local government. Filton was in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

until 1974, when it became part of the newly formed county of Avon. When the Avon authority was abolished in 1996, the area became part of the unitary authority of

and rejoined the

ceremonial county Ceremonial counties, formally known as ''counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies'', are areas of England to which lord-lieutenant, lord-lieutenants are appointed. A lord-lieutenant is the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, monarch's repres ...

of Gloucestershire. Filton is represented in the House of Commons by

Claire Hazelgrove Claire Ruth Hazelgrove (born 16 July 1988) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Filton and Bradley Stoke since 2024. She gained the seat from Jack Lopresti, a Conservative. Education Hazelgrove at ...

, Labour Member of Parliament for the constituency of Filton and Bradley Stoke. An

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

with the same name has the same boundaries as the parish, and elects two members of South Gloucestershire Council.

History

Thousands of

mites Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) of two large orders, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari. However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as eac ...

, farthings and other coins of the Roman emperors,

Domitian Domitian ( ; ; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was Roman emperor from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavian dynasty. Described as "a r ...

, Constantine and

Constans Flavius Julius Constans ( 323 – 350), also called Constans I, was Roman emperor from 337 to 350. He held the imperial rank of '' caesar'' from 333, and was the youngest son of Constantine the Great. After his father's death, he was made ''a ...

were found in a bank by some boys in 1880. Many of the coins were in excellent condition. At the start of the 20th century, Filton was a small village, still detached from the city of Bristol to the south. Farming was the principal occupation. However, there was a large factory-like laundry in the village, opposite Filton House, owned by Samuel Shield. The Bristol to South Wales railway line passed through the village. There was a small station near the site of the current Abbey Wood station. A much larger railway station, known as Filton Junction, opened in 1910, after the alternate rail route from Bristol to London was finished. In 1907 the northern terminus for Bristol Tramways was moved out from

Horfield Horfield is a suburb of the city of Bristol, in southwest England. It lies on Bristol's northern edge, its border with Filton marking part of the boundary between Bristol and South Gloucestershire. Bishopston lies directly to the south. Monk ...

to Filton. Tram production in the tramway sheds commenced in 1908. The manufacture of aeroplanes started in the Bristol Tramway sheds in 1910 and aero-engine production started in 1920. Between the wars, Filton expanded rapidly to become a suburb of Bristol. Initially development (semi-detached housing) was concentrated on the western side of the A38, in an area known as Filton Park. In the 1930s, the area on the eastern side of the A38 started to be developed. Eventually, Filton became part of the Bristol conurbation, although it remained, as it does now, outside the city boundary. During the 1920s and 1930s, two infant/primary schools and one secondary school were built in Filton to accommodate the growing number of school-age children in the area. Many of these children were evacuated when

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

started in 1939, but returned later, during the

Phoney War The Phoney War (; ; ) was an eight-month period at the outset of World War II during which there were virtually no Allied military land operations on the Western Front from roughly September 1939 to May 1940. World War II began on 3 Septembe ...

. Filton High School, originally a grammar school, but later a comprehensive, started to take pupils in 1960. In 2010 Filton High was demolished and replaced with Abbeywood Community School. In the late 1940s, the main runway of Filton Aerodrome was greatly extended for the Bristol Brabazon project. Charlton village was demolished and the pre-war Filton bypass was severed. In the early 1960s, a new bypass was constructed, roughly parallel to the old one, and this later became part of the

. In the early 1950s the Bristol Aeroplane Company opened a purpose-built technical college to help train their apprentice intake. Attached to the college were also basic training workshops. In 1960 the education authority opened Filton Technical College on the opposite side of Filton Avenue to the BAC college. Later the various colleges merged and eventually became the South Gloucestershire and Stroud College. Sandwiched between roads, factories, railway lines and the aerodrome, Filton expanded little after World War II. However, from the late 1970s a trading estate slowly developed on the eastern side of the Bristol/South Wales railway line in what is now known as East Filton. During the mid-1970s the A38 trunk road was upgraded to a dual carriageway. Station Road, a country lane in the early part of the 20th century, was also widened to become a dual carriageway and form part of the Avon Ring Road. In 1973, the Rolls-Royce car division was separated as

Rolls-Royce Motors Rolls-Royce Motors was a British luxury car manufacturer, created in 1973 during the de-merger of the Rolls-Royce automotive business from the nationalised Rolls-Royce Limited. It produced luxury cars under the Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands. ...

. Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited (the engine division) was privatised in 1987 as

Rolls-Royce plc Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a British multinational aerospace and defence company incorporated in February 2011. The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and distributes power systems for ...

. Later, the Ministry of Defence set up a large office complex, known as Abbey Wood, in the same area.

Twin towns

Filton is twinned with: * St Vallier-sur-Rhône, France *

Witzenhausen Witzenhausen () is a small town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in northeastern Hesse, Germany. It was granted town rights in 1225, and until 1974 was a district seat. The University of Kassel maintains a satellite campus in Witzenhausen, which offer ...

, Germany

Sport

*The Bristol Academy of Sport is based at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College. Bristol City W.F.C. are based at the Stoke Gifford Stadium on site. *Filton Cycling Speedway Club was formed in January 2006. The club uses a cycle track built by Filton Town Council and recognised to be one of the best in the country, with its setting in Elm Park. *St Vallier FC (named after its French twin) is a youth football team. *Filton Golf Club has an 18-hole course. *There is also a table tennis club.

Climate

Filton has a temperate maritime climate, with comfortable, mostly dry summers and cold, mostly wet winters. The temperature is usually between at or below freezing () on 39.4 days per year and , but between 2005 and 2022, the temperature ranged from to .

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Areas of Bristol Towns in Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire District Civil parishes in Gloucestershire