JULY 2025

A link between two Islands

While staying at Henllys on the Island of Anglesey, north Wales, we suddenly wondered which Island we were on.  We turned a corner and in front of us was a housing estate, Burton Way, just like one in East Cowes, Kent Avenue. In 1937, the East Cowes aircraft building firm of Saunders Roe bought an estate, Fryars, a mile north of Beaumaris on Anglesey.  

Burton Way, Anglesey

Kent Avenue, East Cowes

This astute move allowed them to diversify their operations during the Second World War. In 1940, the company received a contract from the Ministry of Aircraft Production to carry out modifications to imported American and Canadian Catalina flying boats.  The Beaumaris factory was ideally situated on the sheltered Menai Straits.   The Isle of Wight was seen as a more vulnerable location for German bombers to attack. A group of design, research and development staff moved to Beaumaris from the Isle of Wight to work on the modifications, which included the fitting of anti-submarine radar.  Aircraft hangars and hauling out slipways were constructed as the work increased dramatically.  Submarine tracking equipment was installed on the later planes destined for use by the RAF’s Coastal Command. 

Catalina at Beaumaris

A Catalina modified at Fryars found the Bismarck in 1941.  Other types of plane and patrol boats were also constructed.  Staff stayed at a large house, Henllys, a short walk from the factory.   At the end of the war, the government no longer required the services of Saunders Roe Beaumaris.  Some staff were moved back to our Island.  Anglesey had acute unemployment problems, so Saunders Engineering and Shipyard was formed in 1947 and the main contracts were to build lightweight buses, both single and double decker.  Large numbers of these buses went all over the world.  An order for 620 vehicles for Cuba meant that more SARO staff left the Isle of Wight heading for Anglesey. 

Aluminium and plywood were used, and the same applied to the torpedo boats also being built at Beaumaris for the Royal Navy. Some of the plywood was supplied by the SARO Folly Works at Whippingham.  This had been in operation since WWI, with many girls working there until the factory burnt down in1960. Their skills were shown to be more exact when it came to matching up the veneers. 

1950s Saro magazine

Back at East Cowes, SARO were building rockets in the 1950s.  These were fired by High Test Peroxide, a most volatile fuel.  Tests on the engines were carried out at the Needles, and we can still see the site today.  The HTP fuel was transported in special tanker lorries built at their Anglesey factory. The housing that had so surprised us at Beaumaris was built especially for the Saunders Roe work force, just as it was in East Cowes.  “A house with the job” encouraged able workers to apply to join the company, and many of them stayed in their house and worked for the company until and after retirement.    Saunders Roe Anglesey changed its name and moved from Beaumaris to the centre of Anglesey, but Saunders Roe Isle of Wight stayed in East Cowes, now under the name of GKN. How many Isle of Wight families still have links with Anglesey thanks to working for Saunders Roe? 

Sarah Burdett