01-07-2026: Talk - Avro Yeadon. The Story of a Shadow Factory. Ken Cothliff
A good turnout of Burley Men's Shed members enjoyed a very good talk for the first meeting at our new home, the Burley Community Library.
The talk was given by guest speaker Ken Cothliff, Archivist, at Leeds- Bradford Airport, about Avro Yeadon, Story of a Shadow Factory.
Ken gave members an informative and illustrated account of the history of the factory which was completed in 1941 and built such aircraft as the Lancaster Bomber and the Avro Anson.
The building was 1740' long (530m) and 740' wide (225m) with a floor area of 1,514,190 sq ft (140,724 sq m), including the basement area. At the time of construction it was the largest factory under one roof in Europe.
To hide all this from the prying eyes of the enemy, a team of local workers under the leadership of a film studio props department specialist, provided camouflage by using grass banking at 45 degrees along the sides of the building to the level of the flat roof, this to hide the shadows. Replica fields were laid out on the roof, to look as they were before construction started along with imitation farm buildings, stone walls, a duck pond and dummy animals which were moved around occasionally. Fabric and wire bushes were changed to represent the changes of the seasons.
At it's peak of production there were estimated to be 11,000 people working there of which most were women.
Information about the factory can be found on the following website.
https://www.industrialhistoryonline.co.uk/yiho/site.php?site=WYK01422.702
We would like to say a big thank you to Ken for a very interesting talk.
Finally we would also like to say a huge thank you to Shedder's, Duncan S, David, Geoff, Peter, Derek, Robin and Steven for all their help in setting up the room, filling the hot water flasks and tidying up the room after the meeting.
The talk was given by guest speaker Ken Cothliff, Archivist, at Leeds- Bradford Airport, about Avro Yeadon, Story of a Shadow Factory.
Ken gave members an informative and illustrated account of the history of the factory which was completed in 1941 and built such aircraft as the Lancaster Bomber and the Avro Anson.
The building was 1740' long (530m) and 740' wide (225m) with a floor area of 1,514,190 sq ft (140,724 sq m), including the basement area. At the time of construction it was the largest factory under one roof in Europe.
To hide all this from the prying eyes of the enemy, a team of local workers under the leadership of a film studio props department specialist, provided camouflage by using grass banking at 45 degrees along the sides of the building to the level of the flat roof, this to hide the shadows. Replica fields were laid out on the roof, to look as they were before construction started along with imitation farm buildings, stone walls, a duck pond and dummy animals which were moved around occasionally. Fabric and wire bushes were changed to represent the changes of the seasons.
At it's peak of production there were estimated to be 11,000 people working there of which most were women.
Information about the factory can be found on the following website.
https://www.industrialhistoryonline.co.uk/yiho/site.php?site=WYK01422.702
We would like to say a big thank you to Ken for a very interesting talk.
Finally we would also like to say a huge thank you to Shedder's, Duncan S, David, Geoff, Peter, Derek, Robin and Steven for all their help in setting up the room, filling the hot water flasks and tidying up the room after the meeting.
