Avro Heritage Museum, Woodford
On the former Woodford aerodrome, where the Lancaster, Vulcan, Nimrod and BAe 146 were produced. Many of its volunteers worked at Chadderton and Woodford.
The types
Avro aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| Santos-Dumont Demoiselle & the pioneer replicasDemoiselle, Ferguson Flyer, Wallbro, White, Short S.27, Roe I Biplane, Lilienthal, Cody kite | 1907 | one-offs, mostly | 6 |
| Roe I Triplanereplica | 1909 | 1 | 2 |
| Roe IV Triplanereproduction | 1910 | 1 | 1 |
| Avro Type Ffuselage | 1912 | 1 | 1 |
| Avro 504504J/K | 1913 | 8,970 | 6 |
| Avro Avian & Tutor594 Avian, 621 Tutor | 1926 | c.1,010 | 2 |
| Cierva C.30 / Avro Rota | 1933 | ~180 | 4 |
| Avro AnsonI–XIX & C.19 | 1935 | 11,020 | 13 |
| Avro LancasterB.I/VII/X | 1941 | 7,377 | 12 |
| Avro York | 1942 | 258 | 2 |
| Avro Lincoln | 1944 | 604 | 1 |
| Avro 707707A, 707C | 1949 | 5 | 2 |
| Avro ShackletonMR.2/MR.3/AEW.2 | 1949 | 185 | 8 |
| Avro Ashtonnose section | 1950 | 6 | 1 |
| Avro VulcanB.2 | 1952 | 136 | 19 |
| Hawker Siddeley Andover & 748 | 1960 | ~380 | 4 |
| British Aerospace 146+ Avro RJX | 1981 | 387 | 5 |
| Avro RJX | 2001 | 3 | 1 |
The firm
Avro in brief
Roy Chadwick joined in 1911 and became chief designer in 1918. A.V. Roe left in 1928 and formed Saunders-Roe. Avro’s works spread across Chadderton, Trafford Park, Hamble and Newton Heath, with Woodford as its airfield and later headquarters. Chadwick’s Lancaster ran to over 7,000 aircraft. The Anson, York, Lincoln and Shackleton followed, then the Vulcan delta bomber.
Avro joined Hawker Siddeley in 1935 but kept its name. In July 1963 it was absorbed into Hawker Siddeley Aviation and the name was dropped. British Aerospace revived it from 1994 to 2001 for the Avro RJ airliners, developed from the BAe 146.
Where to go
Museums holding Avro aircraft
| Museum | Avro types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avro Heritage MuseumStockport, Greater Manchester | 8 | £9 | 14 | Vulcan XM603 — the only all-white Vulcan on display anywhere, in original anti-flash nuclear livery — plus walk-in Lancaster and Nimrod… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 7 | £29 | 146 | Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 5 | £12.50 | 95 | Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| Royal Air Force Museum LondonLondon, Greater London | 5 | Free | 88 | Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| The Shuttleworth CollectionBiggleswade, Bedfordshire | 5 | £19.50 | 55 | The 1934 DH.88 Comet 'Grosvenor House', winner of the MacRobertson England–Australia air race, restored to fly; and the Edwardians —… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 4 | Free | 78 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| Boscombe Down Aviation CollectionSalisbury, Wiltshire | 3 | £13.50 | 49 | The Lancaster cockpit reproduction tour, and a test-and-evaluation pedigree collection you can physically inhabit rather than admire… |
| Hooton Park HangarsEllesmere Port, Cheshire | 3 | £9 | 45 | Hooton Park's 1917 Belfast-truss hangars — among the finest WWI aviation buildings surviving — hold aircraft, buses and a printing museum… |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 3 | £17 | 54 | Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
| Brooklands MuseumWeybridge, Surrey | 2 | £24–£27 | 32 | Concorde G-BBDG, the British production-test aircraft, bookended by a Wellington bomber dredged out of Loch Ness in 1985 and the only… |
| City of Norwich Aviation MuseumNorwich, Norfolk | 2 | £9 | 33 | City of Norwich Aviation Museum at Horsham St Faith: Norfolk's largest, ~30 airframes including a Vulcan and Nimrod with bookable… |
| De Havilland Aircraft MuseumSt Albans, Hertfordshire | 2 | £12 | 35 | Mosquito prototype W4050, the original 1940 aircraft, in the place it was designed and first assembled. No other British museum has… |
| MorayviaForres, Moray | 2 | £8 | 35 | Nimrod XV244 (complete, and the crew who operated her sometimes give the tours) alongside a Sea King in RAF SAR yellow — the machine that… |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 2 | £15 | 47 | Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 2 | £10 | 65 | Depends who you ask — the joy is the oddities. Come for the Bloodhound missiles and decoy rarities; stay for volunteer flight-simulator… |
| North East Land, Sea and Air MuseumsSunderland, Tyne and Wear | 2 | £7.50 | 46 | NELSAM in Sunderland mixes Vulcan XL319 (flew in when the airport still existed), a Pucará from the Falklands, trams, buses and a… |
| South Wales Aviation MuseumBarry, Vale of Glamorgan | 2 | £10 | 73 | The resident Harrier and a growing VC10/Tornado-era collection, most with steps and open canopies. Kids exit wearing thousand-yard grins. |
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 2 | £7.50 | 109 | Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
| Aerospace BristolBristol, Gloucestershire | 1 | £20 | 14 | Concorde G-BOAF, the last Concorde ever built and the last ever to fly (26 November 2003, into Filton, forever). You can board her.… |
| Army Flying MuseumStockbridge, Hampshire | 1 | £18 | 43 | Middle Wallop's Army Flying Museum covers everything the Army has flown from observation balloons to Apaches, with superb dioramas and a… |
| Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight Visitors CentreLincoln, Lincolnshire | 1 | £12.50 | 11 | Lancaster PA474 — one of only two airworthy Lancasters on Earth — when she's home (she periodically visits Duxford for deep maintenance,… |
| Bournemouth Aviation MuseumChristchurch, Dorset | 1 | £10 | 29 | The sit-anywhere policy itself — one entry fee, no per-cockpit charges, a full BAC 1-11 flight-deck sim in a shed, and thousands… |
| Carew Cheriton Control TowerCarew, Pembrokeshire | 1 | £7 | 1 | Carew Cheriton's restored 1940s control tower with above-ground air-raid shelter and a magpie museum, occasionally staffed by a veteran… |
| East Midlands AeroparkDerby, Leicestershire | 1 | £5 | 35 | East Midlands Aeropark: a Vulcan, Nimrod R1 and Buccaneer parked on grassy mounds overlooking EMA's runway — half museum, half premier… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 1 | £21 | 97 | Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| Gatwick Aviation MuseumGatwick, Surrey | 1 | £12.50 | 16 | Avro Shackleton WR982 (the £5 guided tour is unanimously endorsed) and a live-engined English Electric Lightning. There's also… |
| Hardwick Airfield MuseumBungay, Norfolk | 1 | Free | 2 | Hardwick Airfield Museum — home of the 93rd BG 'Ted's Travelling Circus', the Eighth’s longest-serving Liberator group — a hangar of… |
| Jet Age MuseumGloucester, Gloucestershire | 1 | Donation | 15 | Gloucestershire's jet-age shrine (free!) beside Staverton airport: Gloster heritage from the E.28/39 replica to Javelins, with… |
| Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage CentreSpilsby, Lincolnshire | 1 | £13.50 | 11 | Lancaster NX611 (taxiing now, returning to flight one day, they swear) and Mosquito NF.II HJ711 — the only running Mosquito in Europe.… |
| Metheringham Airfield Visitor CentreLincoln, Lincolnshire | 1 | £8 | 2 | Metheringham Airfield Visitor Centre (106 Squadron Lancasters) has original ration-book atmosphere plus a fully restored Dakota you can… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 1 | £11 | 66 | Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| Montrose Air Station MuseumMontrose, Angus | 1 | £10 | 14 | The 1913 fabric itself, plus the resident ghost stories (Montrose is Britain's most famously haunted airfield, a claim the volunteers… |
| Polish Bomber Squadrons Centre, RAF InghamGainsborough, Lincolnshire | 1 | £8 | 1 | RAF Ingham's Polish Bomber Squadrons Centre honours the four Polish squadrons of 1 Group with bilingual displays, a restored Nissen… |
| RAF Manston History MuseumRamsgate, Kent | 1 | £7 | 22 | RAF Manston's history museum spans 1916 RNAS days to Cold War Meteors, with strong 1940s room-sets — and it sits next door to the… |
| Runway Visitor Park, Manchester AirportAltrincham, Greater Manchester | 1 | £6–£15 | 5 | Concorde G-BOAC, British Airways' flagship (the 'OAC' registration was no accident), enthroned in her own glass hangar with tours from… |
| Solent SkySouthampton, Hampshire | 1 | £14 | 23 | Supermarine S.6A N248, the 1929 Schneider Trophy racer from the bloodline that begat the Spitfire — parked beneath its descendant for… |
| Solway Aviation MuseumCrosby on Eden, Cumbria | 1 | £8 | 21 | Vulcan XJ823 with pre-bookable crew-compartment visits; a Phantom, Lightning and Canberra (whose three-crew cockpit reviewers describe as… |
| Speke Aerodrome Heritage GroupLiverpool, Merseyside | 1 | Free | 7 | Speke Airport Museum — Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group keeps airliners, including a Dan-Air 748 under restoration, on Liverpool's gorgeous… |
| Stoneykirk Aviation MuseumStranraer, Dumfries and Galloway | 1 | £6 | 9 | Stoneykirk: one enthusiast's cockpit collection on a Galloway croft, Vulcan included, with tea, cakes and a perfect 5.0 rating — the… |
| Stow Maries Great War AerodromeChelmsford, Essex | 1 | £12 | 11 | The aerodrome itself: 24 listed RFC buildings, plus flying examples of Great War types on event days (a Fairey Swordfish cameo got… |
| The Gliding Heritage CentreAlton, Hampshire | 1 | Donation | 72 | Lasham's Gliding Heritage Centre: Europe's finest vintage-glider collection, most of them airworthy and actually flown, with free… |
| The Helicopter MuseumWeston-super-Mare, Somerset | 1 | £15 | 108 | G-LYNX, the modified Westland Lynx that took the absolute helicopter world speed record (249.09 mph) in 1986 and holds it still; parked… |
| The Vulcan Experience (XH558)Doncaster, South Yorkshire | 1 | £12 | 2 | The Vulcan Experience at Doncaster is the retirement home of XH558 — the last-flying Vulcan — with underwing tours, cockpit visits and… |
| Thorpe Camp Visitor CentreLincoln, Lincolnshire | 1 | £7 | 5 | Thorpe Camp preserves RAF Woodhall Spa's communal site — home of 617 Squadron post-Dams — as a period village of huts, with volunteers in… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 1 | By appointment | 63 | The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
| Vulcan Restoration Trust (XL426), SouthendSouthend-on-Sea, Essex | 1 | £10 | 1 | XL426 herself, ex-Scampton display aircraft, whose APU-powered control-surface demos let visitors in the cockpit actually waggle a… |
| Wings Aviation MuseumHaywards Heath, West Sussex | 1 | £13 | 25 | The Wings Museum near Balcombe displays Eastern Front and D-Day aircraft archaeology in crash-site dioramas — raw, unpolished and… |
Questions
Frequently asked
What does Avro stand for?
It comes from A.V. Roe and Company, the firm Alliott Verdon Roe founded in Manchester with his brother Humphrey in 1910.
Where were Lancasters built?
Avro built them in the Manchester area, at Chadderton and Woodford, and at a shadow factory near Leeds Bradford Airport. Other firms built Lancasters under contract too. Over 7,000 were made.
When did the Avro name disappear?
In July 1963, when Avro was absorbed into Hawker Siddeley Aviation. British Aerospace briefly revived it from 1994 to 2001 for the Avro RJ regional jets.