When Winston Churchill became Minster of Munitions in 1917 he was faced with a demand from the frontline in France to almost triple the rate of production of new aeroplanes.
With existing aircraft manufacturers like Sopwith Aviation in Kingston already stretched to the limit, he approved a bold plan to build four huge Government aircraft factories around the country.
National Aircraft Factory No.1 was to be alongside the existing airfield in Croydon and No.2 on 38 acres of land beside the Thames at Ham requisitioned under the Defence of the Realm Act from Lord Dysart of Ham House.
Surrey County Council and Ham Urban District Council sent a deputation to Churchill to insist that it should not be built in this unspoilt rural riverside location. With the compelling need to shorten the war, Churchill was determined to go ahead but he did agree to move the building away from the riverbank and assured them that it was temporary, to be dismantled at the end of the war.
A single huge factory building covering eight and a half acres was completed in 24 weeks over the winter of 1917/18. The planned airfield never happened, the hasty decision to move the building to the north east corner of the site blocked any good length runs into prevailing westerly winds. The completed aircraft all had to be taken 12 miles by road to Sopwith’s final assembly and flight test sheds on Brooklands airfield at Weybridge.
The young but very influential Tommy Sopwith was not keen on the prospect of losing his best workers to another aircraft factory within a mile of his in Kingston. After negotiations the government factory was leased to the Sopwith Aviation Co. more than doubling their capacity to build their highly regarded single-seat fighters. They had already built about 100 each Sopwith Pups and Sopwith Triplanes and 550 Sopwith Camels. They were now building 1,500 Sopwith Dolphins in Kingston. With the Ham factory came orders from the Ministry of Munitions for 1,500 Sopwith Snipe type fighters, a potent replacement for the Camel. The first was delivered in June 1918. When the war ended in November 1918, a year earlier than the military planners expected, Sopwith’s workforce in Kingston exceeded 3,500, a third of whom were women. After the war the company struggled to find enough suitable work, they retreated to their base in Canbury Park Road and in September 1920 went into voluntary receivership.
Meanwhile, Churchill had reneged on his promise to demolish the National Aircraft factory at Ham and had sold it to Leyland Motors. There were angry letters from the local councils deriding this “breach of faith” but it was all to no avail.
Through the 1920s Leyland Motors used that huge factory to re-furbish and re-sell over 3,000 four- ton WW1 trucks bought back from the Royal Air force, and to build 17,000 Trojan two-stroke utility cars and vans. In the 1930s they built thousands of Leyland Cub and Lynx light lorries and buses at Ham.
In 1932 Ham Urban District Council was disbanded. Although mostly incorporated into Richmond, the southern part of the district up to and including the factory was taken into Kingston.
Through the Second World War Leyland produced all sorts of military equipment including complete battle tanks and some munitions. By 1948 they were building electric trolley bus chassis.
Back in 1920, shortly after the closure of the Sopwith Aviation Company, Tommy Sopwith restarted a much smaller company named after their well known Australian test pilot Harry Hawker. After recruiting a brilliant young aircraft designer Sydney Camm, the Hawker Aircraft Company became extremely successful making fast biplane light bombers and fighters including the Hawker Hart and Fury. In 1935 Sydney Camm came up with the Hawker Hurricane monoplane fighter which proved so crucial in winning the Battle of Britain.
By 1938 Hawker Aircraft had established a large satellite factory at Langley near Slough with its own airfield which would assemble thousands of Hurricanes, Tempests, Sea Furies and Hunters during and after the war.
By the late 1940s however, Langley was deemed unsuitable for building the next generation of Hawker aircraft, the jet fighters. Langley was too close to the burgeoning new Heathrow airport and had relatively short grass runways.
With most of their key staff based in Kingston, Hawker Aircraft sought a large local factory. The obvious choice was the old National Aircraft Factory No.2 on Richmond Road, Ham. In 1948 they bought that factory from Leyland Motors for £500,000.
Through the 1950s the Hawker Hunter jet fighter was a huge success, 1,972 were built at Ham, Baginton and Squires Gate(all Hawker Siddeley Aircraft locations) as well as by Avions Fairey/Sabca in Belgium and Fokker /Aviolanda in the Netherlands. This allowed the company to invest in an impressive new office block across the front of the old factory. By 1958 the whole company was located at the Richmond Road site. Aircraft were still leaving Kingston by road but now to the Hawker flight test centre at Dunsfold Airfield in Surrey.
The new offices also housed the headquarters of Hawker Siddeley Aviation Ltd. which under the bold leadership of Tommy Sopwith had bought many other major British aircraft companies including Avro, Gloster, and Armstrong Whitworth; and were about to buy Blackburn, Folland and De Havilland.
Before the move into Richmond Road was even complete the Government announced that interception of enemy aircraft would be done by ground to air missiles and they would not be buying any new fighter types,. The Hawker team of world-class fighter designers and manufacturers apparently had no future. Indeed they would never get to build any of their extremely promising supersonic fighter projects.
They did however pursue one very bold experimental project, a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) combat aircraft. It took time to perfect and even longer to convince the RAF and others that they needed such things but the Hawker Siddeley Harrier eventually underpinned the company’s future.
Still seeking new outlets for their talents and skills, they also designed and built the Hawker Siddeley Hawk advanced jet trainer. This was to be equally successful and is best known as the aircraft used by the RAF Red Arrows Display Team.
In 1977 the aircraft industry was nationalised. The name outside the factory changed to British Aerospace but the specialised team remained largely intact. They went on to develop the Sea Harrier so vital in the recapture of the Falkland Islands. Eventually over 800 Harriers would be built. Hundreds of second generation Harriers, jointly designed with McDonnell Douglas in the USA, are still in service today, many with the US Marine Corps.
After the first 350 Hawks advanced trainers, that production line was moved by British Aerospace (BAe) to Brough in Yorkshire. With the reduced demand for military aircraft after the break-up of the communist block in the late 80s, BAe decided to close and sell most of their sites in the South of England.
In 1992 the Ham factory closed. Some of the 4,000+ employees moved to Dunsfold or Farnborough but most lost their jobs. Unemployment in Ham, for example, rose from 5% to 15%. The “temporary” 1918 National Aircraft Factory No.2 was eventually demolished in 1993 and 360 homes were built on the site.
All that remains is the company Athletic and Social Club now known as the YMCA Hawker Centre. There is a bronze plaque in the entrance lobby reflecting its aviation heritage. There are also two information panels by the traffic lights on the corner of Richmond Road and Dukes Avenue.
If you are interested in our local aviation heritage have a look at
Kingston Aviation Heritage Project - Homepage. Kingston Aviation Centenary Project volunteers continue to develop this fascinating website with historical information, photographs, film clips and interviews with ex-employees. If you have memories, photographs or memorabilia which might be of interest, you can get in touch with them via that website.
Many thanks to David Hassard for researching this account of the history of The Great Richmond Road Factory.