SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

A few years ago I was chatting with a HGV driver at work and Avro came up and he said to me that part of the underground factory was still there bricked up with crated aircraft parts, engines etc still down there. He said it was under a lorry park or some such he uesd to use when delivering up there. I have no idea of the way the factory was placed in the scheme of the airfield or what happened to it after it closed but is there any truth in this tale if so I would be interested to find out more.

Hi Festwerfer,Just discovered your question on here. The Avro factory is still there. It's the huge green building alongside Harrogate Road. It's (was) called Yeadon Depot and I think is home to several businesses. I very much doubt if there are still crated-up Merlins in there, though! My aunt worked there during the war bolting on the undercarriage of Lancasters. I've heard tell the large flat roof was disguised as fields with papier-mache cows which were moved around each day to trick the Luftwaffe! Could be a load of cow-poo, though!CheersSiPS Are you IPMS?

I find it very doubtful that there are still aircraft components there. These things would be very valuable and would have resurfaced now. It's now a freight depot for the airport. I spent a few weeks doing temporary work there in the 80s. The building is simply gigantic. It would take me five minutes to walk from the canteen to where I worked. On my last day there the forklift driver gave me a 'joyride' round the entire site and we drove for the best part of 30 minutes without going through the same place twice.The roof was camouflaged during the war. Yeadon dam was also drained so as not to provide a landmark for the factory, or Yeadon airport, which was then an RAF station.

There is a book called "Mother Worked at AVRO" by Gerald Myers. Still in print I think. I bought it for my mother who worked there. She always maintained that having seen aeroplanes being built, she would never fly in one. My brothers and I tried to convince her that they didn't build them like that any more and that things were a bit more advanced, but she wouldn't have it.

yes that book is in the library and has a plan of the whole siteb showing what was and wasnt there

*Hi new sorry to raise such an old thread*I used to work in one of the buisnesses that used part of the Avro site, it had a very old feel to the place and was very tiresome walking from one side to the other, it was HUGE. there are still massive wells dotted around the site which will have been for tending to fires if the cows didnt trick old Jerry.Middle left you can see a 'road' that linked avro to the airport...Yeadon has a good history for aviation, my gran used to work at A.E Turbines, we've got all manner of engine parts dotted around the house (Mainly turbine blades) One from concorde as well ...