MBDA ltd are in the process of moving their production facility from the original Lostock, Bolton site to a new facility seven miles up the road in Cutacre.
I am raising this as the Lostock factory was the De Havilland Propeller production site throughout WWII and beyond. As the contactors move in, who knows what has been/will be uncovered. As proven by Westland, it is amazing what sits in old filing cabinets and cupboards where there is continuation of use.
Unless someone who knows what they are looking at is present, there is a very high chance that historic archive material and possibly even objects might get thrown in a skip by movers or developers – though MBDA are the direct inheritors of the DH business through acquisition and merger over the decades, their business is far removed from propeller assemblies, and I doubt they care all that much.
One building has already been demolished, I can’t get any information on the timescale for the rest.
I have emailed them via the ‘contact us’ form on their website, but predictably have had no response. Does anyone know how to get into the organisation far enough to find someone who might sit up and take notice?
Thanks,
Matt
By: Beermat - 25th April 2016 at 11:20
That’s kind of bad news – but thanks Mike. I guess I was right about there being lots of stuff left over, but wrong about it still being there today.
I was secretly hoping that blade design drawings, so long absent from the body of knowledge we now have on DH props, might have survived there.
Maybe there is still a chance? I might go back to them with a slightly different question.
Thanks,
M
By: Arabella-Cox - 24th April 2016 at 19:55
I went there in the late eighties when they were closing propeller production down and skipping stuff wholesale. I got there a bit late in the day and masses of prop stuff had gone into skips by then and been scrapped.
I managed to get some stuff but the bulk had gone. They still had two prop carving pantograph machines, which had been imported from the US either before or during WW2 and both these were sold (thankfully) and attracted good bids.
The skipped stuff had been just about everything they had ever made but I was unable to find out where it had been taken. Something I regret to this day.
Anon.
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April 24, 2016 at 10:50 am