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Since the eighteenth century, Gillows of Lancaster were bywords for the highest standard of furniture-making. But in World War One, that expertise was used to help make bombers.

Wings for the de Havilland DH9 were made at the company鈥檚 factory on Cable Street. They also made wooden sea chests for the Royal Navy.

The firm, then known as Waring and Gillow, was commissioned in 1917 to make hundreds of DH9s for the Royal Flying Corps. The aircraft were finally assembled at the company鈥檚 site at Hammersmith in London.

Shaken by the German Zeppelin raids on Great Britain, the government hoped the DH9 and its bombs would be a robust response in the bombing war. The woodwork of Waring and Gillows was, it seems, as good as ever, but the DH9鈥檚 engine wasn鈥檛 up to the job. The aircraft isn鈥檛 regarded as a success but it was at the vanguard of bombing as a military tactic.

In World War Two, Waring and Gillow were involved in the manufacture of Mosquito fighter-bombers.

Location: Lancaster, Lancashire LA1 1NS
Image: A DH9 plane at the IWM Duxford

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