Ferranti Crewe Toll

Ferranti, based in Manchester, built their Crewe Toll factory during World War II, to manufacture Gyro Gun Sights for the RAF.

The factory was opened in 1943, and its wartime output of more than 9,500 sights was mainly used to equip the guns of Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft. In a secret memo issued after the war, the gyro gun sight was described as "the single most important equipment" introduced during the war.

The facility was considered important enough to merit its own air defences, and an Anti-Aircraft rocket battery was sited next it, on Ferry Road.

The factory was home to the company's airborne radar work since World War II, and was responsible for the equipment used in a number of later RAF fighters such as the Buccaneer and Sea Harrier. Ferranti became GEC-Ferranti, when GEC acquired the company in 1990, and it was later to become the home of Marconi Electronic Systems Avionics Division.

In 1999, the original factory building was demolished to make way for redevelopment, as the Radar and Countermeasure Systems Division developed to maintain its position as a world class aerospace company.