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Coachbuilder, Manufacturer, Engineering · Hucclecote, Gloucester, United Kingdom · 1965–2002

Gloster Saro

Hawker Siddeley subsidiary formed in 1965 by merging Gloster Equipment and Saro (Anglesey), combining the aluminium-working skills of the Gloster and Saunders-Roe aircraft works. It built airfield crash tenders and road tankers at Hucclecote near Gloucester, and supplied the largest batch of Range Rover TACR2 bodies to the RAF.

History

Gloster Saro was created in 1965 when Hawker Siddeley announced the merger of two of its subsidiaries, Gloster Equipment Ltd and Saro (Anglesey) Ltd. Both were remnants of famous aircraft names: Gloster (originally the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company, founded 1917, maker of the Gladiator and the Meteor) had lost its aircraft business within Hawker Siddeley by 1963, while Saunders-Roe — the Isle of Wight flying-boat and hovercraft firm — had a works at Beaumaris on Anglesey. The new company put their shared expertise in forming and welding aluminium to industrial use, building road tankers, aircraft refuellers, agricultural machinery, vending machines, flow-measuring equipment for the oil and chemical industries, and fire tenders, largely at the old Gloster Aircraft site at Hucclecote, Gloucester.

Fire and airfield vehicles came to dominate. Gloster Saro appliances, many on Reynolds Boughton chassis, went to the RAF, the Royal Navy, civil airports and industry at home and abroad. Its Land Rover-family work for this registry is the TACR2: from 1977 Gloster Saro bodied the six-wheeled Range Rover airfield crash rescue truck developed on Carmichael's Commando chassis, building the largest batch — around 46 for the RAF — alongside smaller runs by Carmichael and HCB-Angus.

The firm expanded by buying the fire tender business of the Chubb group in 1984, then merged with Simon Engineering in 1987 to become Simon Gloster Saro, best known latterly for the Protector airport crash tender. Airfield vehicle production continued at Hucclecote until a reorganisation around 1998, after which the Gloucestershire fire-vehicle business passed to Fire Vehicle Services Ltd at Quedgeley. Simon Gloster Saro Limited (company no. 00970826) was itself renamed Simon Access 1997 Limited and was dissolved on 23 July 2002.

Sources differ on the founding: Grace's Guide records the Hawker Siddeley merger announcement of 1965, while some enthusiast accounts place the joining of the Saunders-Roe Folly Works with the Gloster works in the late 1960s or early 1970s. A National Library of Wales photograph of first-year Gloster-Saro apprentices at Beaumaris dated 20 October 1966 supports the earlier date for the company's existence.

Imagery

First-year apprentices of the Gloster-Saro company at Beaumaris, Anglesey, 20 October 1966 — the former Saunders-Roe works that merged into the firm.
First-year apprentices of the Gloster-Saro company at Beaumaris, Anglesey, 20 October 1966 — the former Saunders-Roe works that merged into the firm. Geoff Charles, National Library of Wales · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗
Gloster-Saro apprentices at work, Beaumaris, October 1966.
Gloster-Saro apprentices at work, Beaumaris, October 1966. Geoff Charles, National Library of Wales · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗

Vehicles in this registry (1)

Sources & citations

Maker record updated 2026-09-10T04:48:16.000Z · status: researched