Boulton Paul Aircraft Ltd was a British aircraft manufacturer that was created in 1934 although its origins lay in 1914 and lasted until 1961. The company mainly built and modified aircraft under contract to other manufacturers but had a few notable designs of its own such as the Boulton Paul Defiant. The company's origins date back to an ironmonger's shop founded in 1797 in Norwich . By the early 1900s Boulton & Paul Ltd was a successful general manufacturing firm.