Avro Heritage Museum

Avro Heritage Museum
Former name Avro Heritage Centre
Established 2015
Location Woodford Aerodrome, Woodford, Greater Manchester, England
Website www.avroheritagemuseum.co.uk

Avro Heritage Museum is an aviation museum in Woodford, Greater Manchester, England, that is opened on 13 November 2015. It is located at the former Woodford Aerodrome, and it replaces the former Avro Heritage Centre.[1]

Location

The museum is located in Woodford,[2] at the site of the former Woodford Aerodrome,[3] on Chester Road, Stockport.[4]

Former Avro Heritage Centre

The Heritage Centre had five rooms containing displays and photos about AVRO, including models of aircraft designs. It also has an archive, as well as a small shop. It was only open for tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and visits were only possible by prior appointment.[5] It was located in Woodford's personnel block, and was operated by volunteers.[6]

Museum

As part of the deal to sell Woodford Aerodrome for redevelopment in December 2011, BAE agreed to fund a new heritage centre on the site.[6] BAE Systems and Avro Heritage Trust commissioned the design and construction of the new museum. It was constructed by Conlon Construction and Cassidy + Ashton.[3]

The former fire station of the aerodrome has been renovated to host the new museum, which is an ironic choice of location given that a substantial amount of Avro's documentation (including the original drawings of the Lancaster, Vulcan and Nimrod) were lost in a fire at BAE Chadderton in 1959.[6] The site is 2.39 acres in size.[4] The museum has an exhibition hall, a gallery, a cafe, reading rooms, and classrooms.[3] Construction started in August 2014, and it opened in November 2015.[3] BAE have handed over the museum building to the Avro Heritage Trust.[6]

The new museum is 70% larger than the previous centre.[5] It holds Avro Heritage Trust's collection[3] of over 30,000 artefacts on aircraft development, including over 10,000 artefacts and memorabilia from the site[6] in 11,700 square feet (1,090 m2) of space.[3] 80% of the collection will be on display, with the other 20% on rotation display over the course of a year.[6]

The exhibition includes an Avro Vulcan B2 bomber,[6] which will be on permanent display[4] adjacent to the museum. The Vulcan is number XM603.[5] The bomber was built at Woodford, and was used by the RAF. The nose and cockpit section of an Avro Vulcan is also be on display, and visitors are able to sit in it. Murals that used to be located in Woodford's employee restaurant will also be displayed in the main exhibition hall.[6]

Plans were submitted in February 2014;[4] planning permission was approved on 20 May 2014.[7] The museum opened 13 November 2015.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ AVRO heritage museum
  2. 1 2 "Avro Heritage Museum". Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Avro Heritage Museum, Woodford". Conlon Construction. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "New Stockport museum 'to display Vulcan bomber'". BBC News. 25 February 2014. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 "Avro Heritage Centre". Aeroflight. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "New Avro Heritage museum in Woodford prepares for take-off". Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  7. ↑ "Decision Notice". Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. 20 May 2014. Archived from the original on 24 May 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2015.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/22/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.