epw014490 ENGLAND (1925). The Gloucestershire Aircraft Company Works, Brockworth, 1925

Brockworth Airfield, (alternative name Hucclecote Airfield) was not constructed, as many airfields in the area were, during the World War II RAF Expansion period. During 1915 it was built as an Air Board Acceptance Park for the delivery by road of military aircraft which were then stored prior to final assembly and flight testing. The airfield grew in importance when, during the First World War, the H. H. Martyn & Co factory in Cheltenham moved to premises beside the Hucclecote runway due to the fact that the Sunningend Works in Cheltenham had no facility for flying, and the aircraft production subcontracted from Airco necessitated the completed aircraft to be towed by road the seven miles to Hucclecote Aircraft Acceptance Park. In 1917, H.H. Martyn and Hugh Burroughes...(the original Company shareholders) joined with Airco on a 50/50 split and formed The Gloucestershire Aircraft Company Ltd. This later became the Gloster Aircraft Company which produced aircraft at Brockworth (Hucclecote) until, in 1961, the company was merged with Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Limited to form Whitworth Gloster Aircraft Limited. Following further re-organisation, the firm became part of the Avro Whitworth Division of Hawker Siddeley Aviation in 1963, and the name Gloster disappeared as Hawker Siddeley rebranded its product line under its own name.

This was the belfast hanger where experimental work on the Gloster E28/39 jet aircraft was carried out in the late 1930s / early 1940s. This pioneering jet aircraft first left the ground during taxying trials on this field, although its official first flight took place elsewhere.