Composite tubes may be fabricated by filament winding a layer of resin impregnated carbon fibre with a near-axial fibre orientation over a mandrel and over end-fittings. Bands of resin-impregnated fibres are then wound circumferentially around this near-axial layer in a position that coincides with a circumferential groove in the underlying end-fittings. The ends of the near-axial layer are folded back over the bands, resulting in a double layer of intact near-axial fibres locked into the groove on the end-fittings by the bands of intact circumferential fibres. Testing has shown this arrangement to be effective for introducing very high axial loads onto the composite tube.