This week marks 100 years since British aircraft manufacturing company A.V. Roe and Company, also known as Avro, bought New Hall Farm in Woodford and turned it into Woodford Aerodrome, an airfield and aircraft factory. 

The aerodrome changed the lives of those living in the Woodford area, and brought many others to Stockport for the first time. 

Avro's Woodford site brought my own grandparents - originally from Leeds - to neighbouring village Bramhall in 1966, the very place where my parents would then meet in 1989. My Grandad worked for the company for 40 years, and was involved in setting up the Avro Heritage Museum, which serves to preserve the site's rich history. 

A.V Roe and Co. was founded by Manchester-born Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon-Roe, alongside his younger brother Humphrey, in 1910, making it the first aircraft manufacturing company in England.  

In 1924, faced with the closure of their Alexandra Park airfield in South Manchester, Avro began the search for an alternative space.  

All flying at Alexandra Park ceased by the end of August 1924, and on 17 September all remaining effects at Alexandra Hall were auctioned off.  

Woodford's New Hall Farm was purchased that year and the move to the 205-hectare site was complete by 1925.  

(Image - Serena Murphy)

The new factory at Woodford got off to a rocky start, when the first new hangar was destroyed in a storm, and the 'lean' years immediately after the First World War saw large government contracts cancelled overnight. 

However, things changed with Hitler's rise to power in 1933, as aircraft manufacturing companies began to prepare for potential aggression.  

 Between 1934 and 1943, Woodford Aerodrome's floor area expanded rapidly, with the building of four new flight sheds, alongside the creation of Woodford's assembly. 

 Woodford became Avro's main assembly plant during the Second World war, and between October 1941 and March 1945, 4040 Lancaster planes were assembled and test flown at Woodford.  

Due to their bomb carrying capacity, Lancaster planes were used in the famous 'dam busters' raid on the great Ruhr dams in 1943. Woodford Aerodrome was directly involved, with 27 Lancasters kept in a secure hangar on site, where inventor of the bouncing bomb Barnes Wallis visited them. The Lancasters were also converted to fit the bombs on site at Woodford. 

 After the Second World War, many large aviation businesses closed down and Avro's factory space was reduced, but Woodford Aerodrome remained open to finish its projects.  

However, by 2010, the future of the aerodrome looked bleak after the Government instigated the first ever Strategic Defence and Security Review, which prompted cuts to Britain's armed forces.  

In 2011, the Government also announced the scrapping of a £4bn fleet of new RAF Nimrod planes, the only plane that was still being worked on at Woodford.  

Woodford Aerodrome closed its doors on 25 August 2011. 

Les Willans, a volunteer at Avro Heritage Centre, who met his wife at Avro and worked at Woodford Aerodrome from 1979 until its closure, described it as a 'friendly' place to work. 

"Because it was a small commercial based unit everybody knew most people", he said. "We didn't expect it to close so soon. It was hard for everybody to take." 

After the aerodrome was closed in 2011, housing company Redrow bought the land, creating Woodford Garden Village, which is still expanding today. 

Now, little remains of Woodford Aerodrome, except for the occasional nod to its history hidden within the village's street names and aviation themed playground. 

However, the volunteers at Avro Heritage Museum have done their best to preserve its history.  

With a highly detailed exhibition on Woodford Aerodrome's history, the preservation of their very own Vulcan plane, and the tales of the volunteers who used to work for Avro, its story lives on. 

The museum is open to the public each week from Friday to Sunday and bank holiday Mondays from 10am to 5pm. It is closed on Mondays and Wednesdays, and open for pre-booked group visits on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

For more information about Avro Heritage Museum, you can visit its website, www.avroheritagemuseum.co.uk.