Avro Woodford PSS Visit

What better idea on a rainy Saturday Morning at the beginning of March than to accompany other PSS chaps on a tour round the Woodford Avro Museum, which is located on the site of the old Avro Factory, and is sadly is no more. All that remains, as we were reminded by our excellent host Steve, who has worked, and is passionately loyal to the company and the job he had for over 30 years.

We all arrived around 10.30am and met in the cafe on the first floor of the very plush facility, which is built on the site of the old Fire Station. After a coffee, Steve gave us a talk about the history of the site, and the way in which the Avro company was born.

One could book a tour round 3 cockpits – the Vulcan Bomber, a mock up of the Lancaster Bomber, and the VC10. I did all three, and thoroughly enjoyed the very interesting talks by the very knowledgible guides.

As I am building a Canberra, it was very useful to look inside the cockpit shown here. At Woodford, we were told, they did assemblies for other Aircraft Companies including English Electric, who made the Canberra – and, of course, the Lightning.

The members of LMMGA who attended were Chris Barlow, Keith Burgess, and Peter Garsden.

After a thoroughly fascinating tour we retired to the Butley Ash for an excellent lunch.

A big thanks must go out to Phil Cooke for organising the event for us, and for Steve for giving us a fabulous tour. The museum is well worth a visit if you are so inclined. Their very swish website tells the story better than I – http://avroheritagemuseum.co.uk/

To see all the pictures click here