Building Name

Aircraft Factory, Pendleford, Wolverhampton

Date
1935 - 1937
District/Town
Pendleford, Wolverhampton
County/Country
Staffordshire, England
Client
Boulton Paul (Aircraft) Limited.
Work
New Build
Contractor
Wilson Lovatt

In the depressed market of 1934 Boulton and Paul of Norwich, sold off their aircraft building business while continuing to operate as a construction company. At the instigation of the Air Ministry, the new company, Boulton Paul Aircraft Ltd. moved from Norwich to a new factory at Wolverhampton, considered to be beyond the limit of aerial attack. This location gave the company access to a large skilled workforce in addition to the 600 or so employees that left Norwich for Wolverhampton. The site chosen adjoined the Shropshire Union Canal and the municipal aerodrome at Pendeford, Wolverhampton and the business was transferred to the new premises in the summer and autumn of 1936. The factory was further extended in 1937 as a result of new orders from the Air Ministry. The number of employees also increased, reaching a wartime peak of 4,800.

BOULTON PAUL AIRCRAFT LTD. During the summer and autumn of 1936 Boulton Paul Aircraft, Ltd. transferred its works from Norwich to a new factory on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, adjoining that city's Municipal Aerodrome. The removal necessarily led to some interruption of production, but early in 1937 it became apparent that the company could not only utilise efficiently the greatly increased capacity of the new works, but would soon need considerably more space. Accordingly extensions were decided upon which would practically double the works capacity. The building of the extensions was completed by October, 1937, and with the equipment at present installed at least 50 per cent more floor space is now actively occupied on production work than was available in the original works. Among other activities the firm was occupied during the past year on a large contract for "Demon" aircraft and on the manufacture of wings for Saunders-Roe “London" flying boats.  [The Engineer 7 January 1938 page 4]

During the Second World War Boulton Paul Aircraft produced a total of 2,198 aircraft at the Pendleford site, including 1,060 Defiant, two-seater fighters, and, from 1942, 692 Fairey Barracuda torpedo bombers for the Fleet Air Arm, together with 105 Blackburn Roc aircraft. Boulton Paul of Norwich had previously provided most of the structure for the R101 airship; the completed sections being transported to Cardington for assembly there.

Archive        Wolverhampton Archives & Local Studies    Ref No: P/2987
Reference    Times 30 October 1934 page – prospectus
Reference    The Engineer 7 January 1938 page 4   
Reference    Flight 19 July 1945 page advertisements ii Boulton and Paul Limited steelwork