One of the last remaining parts of Woodley’s historic aviation history is set to disappear following a successful planning appeal.
Last month, an appeal to the government’s Planning Inspectorate by HE2 Reading 1 GP Limited against the decision of Wokingham Borough Council was allowed, and planning granted for the demolition of the Adwest building on Headley Road East in Woodley.
It will be replaced with five flexible light industrial, general industrial, and storage units, with ancillary offices, associated car parking, new access, and landscape planting.
The original application was made in September 2021 and refused in June 2022.
The site and buildings were formerly part of the Woodley Aerodrome, and were associated with manufacturing and maintenance under Miles Aircraft, including the Hawk, the Hawk Trainer II and the 500 Miles Master 1.
Growth and expansion of the site led to the construction of the headquarters building in 1939 in the north west corner of the site, adjacent to Headley Road East.
Amy Johnson, the first female to fly solo from London to Australia, and Douglas Bader, the famous Second World War fighter pilot, flew at the aerodrome.
The inspector said it was unclear what connection they may have had with the appeal buildings.
During the war, the aerodrome was used by the Royal Air Force for pilot training including by using Miles’ aircraft, and manufacture and repair of Spitfire.
Following Miles Aircraft’s demise in the late 1940s, production was taken up by Handley Page, ultimately ceasing in 1962.
The appeal notice noted: “The buildings have since been altered and used for different engineering purposes, including production of prefabricated ‘Airoh’ houses which helped mitigate the Britain’s post-war housing shortage; the first plain paper office photocopier, the ‘Copycat’; and mass production of the first Biro pen.”
The application was consulted at Wokingham Borough Council in 2021, where 213 resident objections were received in addition to objections from Woodley Town Council, Matt Rodda MP and four Wokingham Council ward members.
Seven letters of support were also received.
The application was presented to the Wokingham Planning Committee on May 11 2022 with a recommendation for approval.
It was deferred to a subsequent meeting on June 8, 2022, to allow for a site visit to consider the site context and heritage impacts.
It was subsequently refused with the notice saying: “The proposal would result in the demolition of the buildings at Headley Park, Headley Road East, Woodley, a non-designated Heritage Asset which forms the remaining structures of Woodley Airfield.”
A petition to attempt to save the building had gathered almost 5,000 signatures
