The company was founded in 1913 as Pemberton-Billing Ltd on the River Itchen close to Woolston, Southampton, on ground previously purchased by Noel Pemberton Billing to construct motor launches.

On land at Oakbank Wharf on the river Itchen in Woolston, Southampton that Billing had previously purchased, the company established a factory with Hubert Scott-Paine as work manager.

After completion of the Nighthawk Scott-Paine dropped Billing's fixation with anti-Zeppelin defence fighters, and in the hope of gaining orders for flying boats forged a strong relationship with the RNAS through their local liaison officer James Bird.

[17] The successful applicant was R. J. Mitchell, who so impressed Scott-Paine he was hired on the spot and given a range of roles within the company to expose him to every aspect of the business including within a year acted for a period as assistant works manager.

The signing of the armistice agreement, with little prospect of any military contracts for some time, led to the company diversifying by employing its woodworkers in constructing everything from toilet seats to wooden framed bodies for Ford Model T cars.

[19] At the end of the war Supermarine was the only British aircraft constructor dedicated to building flying boats and Scott-Paine still wished the company to continue in this specialist field.

Once the ban on civilian flying was lifted in May 1919 the ten aircraft were registered in June 1919, with three being granted civil certificates of airworthiness at the end of July of that same year.

Following the completion of his duties for the Royal Naval Air Service NZAS James Bird (1883–1946) was invited in 1919 by Scott-Paine to join Supermarine as a director.

Still short of room, in early 1927 the company took out a lease on the Air Ministry's large wartime flying boat assembly and testing facilities at Hythe.

Identifying that a manufacturer of flying boats would be good fit with their existing expertise designing and constructing land-based aircraft they evaluated a number of possible acquisitions.

Mitchell returned in the New Year, expressed his outrage at Wallis's presumption and immediately moved him to a disused loft in a remote corner of the Woolston works with orders to his staff not to make the interloper comfortable.

In response to the onset of the Depression in 1929, with completion of contracts for Southampton running down and no new aircraft orders being received it was necessary to reduce construction staff numbers by a third over the winter of 1930.

Soon after the design of the Scapa was finalised, the Air Ministry issued specification R.24/31 for a twin-engined general purpose flying boat, in response to which Supermarine developed the Stranraer.

In 1930, the Air Ministry began formulating the requirements for an advanced high-performance fighter which were spelled out in specification F.7/30, which was in turn issued in the autumn of 1931 to a number of aircraft manufacturers.

Given the name Spitfire by the Vickers board, the prototype Type 300 when it first flew on 5 March 1936 at nearby Eastleigh airport marked a revolutionary advance for the RAF.

While it was intended that outside sub-contractors would be employed in manufacturing many major components, Vickers-Armstrongs was initially reluctant to see companies from outside of the group involved and so was slow in releasing the necessary sub-components and drawings.

As delays mounted the Air Ministry proposed that Supermarine would only complete the initial order and then once the Hawker Typhoon was ready for service in 1941 switch over to making Bristol Beaufighters.

The major components were then taken on trucks to Eastleigh Aerodrome where fitting of the engines, final assembly and flight testing was undertaken before being distributed to operational RAF bases.

[46] In response to Air Ministry specification B.12/36, which was issued in July 1936 to all the major aircraft manufacturers for a four-engined heavy bomber, Mitchell designed the Type 316 which carried its bombs in both the fuselage and wings.

[49] Following the death of Mitchell in June 1937 after a long battle with cancer and with Supermarine having problems meeting the demand for the Spitfire the Air Ministry realised that work on the prototypes would be delayed.

Upon the commencement of the war to protect the Supermarine factory at Woolston, anti-aircraft guns were placed at Peartree Green, the Railway Bridge and Taggarts Wharf.

[62] Located close to Winchester, this large stately house was requisitioned by the Ministry of Aircraft Production from the Dowager Lady Mary Cooper, who remained in residence until June 1942.

[65] When looking for suitable sites, preference was placed on buildings with wide concrete floors, uncluttered by pillars, with high ceilings and large access doors.

While garages, vehicle showrooms and other workshops were capable of constructing sub-assemblies and even complete fuselages, bus depots with their extra height were valued for the making of wings.

The Hants and Dorset Bus Depot on Winchester Road in Southampton was already being used to store sandbags and pumps needed by the Fire Brigade in the event of an air raid.

Eventually sufficient official pressure was brought to bear and the council moved the buses and pumps out, leaving Supermarine with the job of disposing of sandbags.

[65] The Mayor of Salisbury initially objected to the takeover of the city's bus depot until it was pointed out to him by MAP that as the local patron of the Spitfire Fund, it was no use collecting money if there was nowhere to build the aircraft.

[69] The manufacturing facilities were split into the Southern (Chilbolton, Eastleigh, Hursley and Itchen) under Leonard Gooch and Northern (South Marston and Trowbridge) under Stuart Lefevre.

The production starred David Birrell (Fred/Hugh), Catherine Cusack (Lil/Sylvia), Lorna Fitzgerald (Jackie Dimmock), Hilton McRae (Lord Beaverbrook) and Daniel York (Len Gooch).

Only the pre-cast reinforced concrete slipway still exists – designed by noted modernist architect Oliver Bernard in 1936/37 together with the much expanded factory and Grade II Listed since 27 June 2011.