Bentham Works

The Bentham Works was a site of the Gloster Aircraft Company.

Bentham Works
The site in October 2007, seen from the east
Location within Gloucestershire
General information
Type	Aircraft factory
Address	Gloucestershire, GL3 4UB
Coordinates	51.844°N 2.124°W / 51.844; -2.124
Elevation	90 m (295 ft)
Completed	1941
Inaugurated	1941
Client	Gloster Aircraft Company
Owner	Gloster Aircraft Company
Dimensions
Other dimensions	150,000 sq ft

History

It was built in 1941 at the bottom of Crickley Hill. It was assessed to be listed by Historic England in 2010, but was not listed.

Production

The Gloster Meteor, the first jet fighter, was built at the site.[1] In 1942 there were 130 employees working at the site. Gloster aircraft were tested at RAF Moreton Valence.

The first Gloster Meteor DG202 was ground-run at the site on 29 June 1942.[2]

[3] Gloster's design and development was at Bentham.[4]

The Meteor would first fly on 5 March 1943, piloted by Michael Daunt, from RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire; the Meteor was originally to have been called Thunderbolt; the first aircraft had Halford H-1 engines (de Havilland Goblin) as the Power Jets W.2 was not ready in time. Gloster aircraft were also flown from RAF Edgehill in Oxfordshire on the north-east of Cotswolds south of the A422, as this was halfway between the Bentham site and Lutterworth (later at Whetstone) in Leicestershire, where the jet engines were being developed by Power Jets; Power Jets also had a site at Barnoldswick. The world's first turboprop aircraft was Meteor EE227 flown from RAF Church Broughton in Derbyshire on 20 September 1945, with a Rolls-Royce RB.50 Trent engine.[5]

Squadron Leader Les Watts led 616 Squadron when it was the first to get the Meteor at RAF Culmhead.

German jet aircraft

The German Messerschmitt Me 262 had been developed at Augsburg, then Oberammergau, in Bavaria by Woldemar Voigt; the Me 262 first flew on 18 July 1942 at Leipheim in Bavaria, piloted by Fritz Wendel.

Present day

In 2018 the site was developed for housing, to be known as Bentham Green.[6] The site was sold in October 2016 for £3.2m.

Gloster Meteor F4 EE531 at the site in December 1976

Structure

The site is to the north of the dual-carriageway A417 road in Badgeworth. It was sited next to St Peter's Church.

References

1. "Gloster Aircraft Company - Bentham Works". Stray off the path. Archived from the original on 23 November 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
2. "Meteor DG202" (PDF). RAF Museum. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
3. "Meteor DG202" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
4. Kershaw, Tim (2013). Jet Pioneers: Gloster and the Birth of the Jet Age. Chapter five: The E28s later flights. History Press. ISBN 9780752494999.
5. "Gloster Meteor F I "Trent"". Jets. Archived from the original on 27 May 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
6. "Planning applications" (PDF). Tewkesbury Council. Retrieved 5 July 2020.

External links

• Historic England