Sad to hear of this closing. As Director of Quality Control for Tradewinds Airline out of Greensboro, North Carolina, USA I spent several weeks in the late 90's at Filton inspecting the records, the aircraft and the workmanship of a group of A300 that were being converted to freighters. My company acquired the aircraft. The conversion to freighters was a very competent piece of work and we never had any serious difficulty with the aircraft and certainly none tied to the conversion work.
I was quite awed to work in the same hangars where the mighty Brabazon and the Britannias were built. I had worked on the Bristol Battleship as we called it back in New York. The Proteus was a bit prehistoric in its basic design and it is a shame the Orion engine didn't come along a lot earlier. All in all, I think a great asset is being let go. It is a real shame to lose a good facility