Open Days 2004

Once again, the ‘Chester UK Open Days’ were a superbly attended occasion visited by many from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and even the Isle of Man!! The special donations we had at the entrance door on the refreshments table raised a fantastic £270.00 for local Alder Hey Children's Hospital. On behalf of the Hospital we would like to thank everyone who donated any monies to a very good cause.

The Gardner Gas Engine, Stuart Turner Engine, Congrive Clock and the Two Stroke Marine Engine, to name a few, attracted great attention with many visitors attempting to prise these away from their respective owners for nominal fees! We would like to thank Chris O’Hare and Arthur Williams for displaying their personal exhibits. We would like to thank the person responsible for displaying the Two Stroke Marine Engine but unfortunately it comes from an unknown origin and we are hoping somebody would recognise this and stake claim to their property, so if you recognised this item and wish to contact the person or ourselves please do so we can return this to its rightful owner. On the point of thanking, we would also like to thank Cerys O’Hare for providing assistance with serving refreshments to the many visitors as well as the musical entertainment!! Apparently, Simon Cowell is trying to get in touch with her to sign her up for the next Pop Idol series!!

The Slide Show in the entrance showing the ever expanding Chester UK range of Machine Tools as well as our new purpose built manufacturing plant in China was well observed. The in-depth pictures of the ‘New Chester Bandsaw’ at production stage was well received by all and we look forward to receiving the first batch in the coming weeks. Many of our existing customers were over wrought by the recent extension we have had built to our premises here, people commenting that it is somewhat different to our previous premises in Waverton. The extension was just the first part of a series of improvements and extensions here so hopefully many of you will be able to return in the near future when our extended showroom will be completed, Watch this Space!

As always, our impressive range of Model Engineering machines were available for viewing along with our ever growing range of Industrial Machines. The Radial Arm Drills and 2 Metre geared Head Lathes brought back fond (and not so fond!!) memories of days on the production lines! The superb Accurite Millpwr CNC System on our own 1050VS Turret Mill attracted much attention. Many people commented that they didn’t think the ‘missus’ would approve though if a vehicle turned up with this on the back so ‘I had better stick to a more conventional machine’ was a much heard comment! The machine on show has now left our premises and it is on its way to a new Hi-Tech University in Jordan, Middle East. The new-look ‘Newall’ DRO display was on show as always and Brian Mosley took great delight in explaining the many features of the British made DRO systems for which there is now a Myford fitting kit available.

Final thanks goes to our friend and Leeds-based Engineer Dave Noble for demonstrating the Chester Crusader Lathe. Dave’s expertises were greatly appreciated by both current owners and now new owners of this machine.

Finally we would once again like to thank all who attended our 3rd Annual Open Day and making it such a great success and hope you all had safe journeys home respectively. We would like to add that we sincerely hope that the many of you who attended for more than one day got a good days rest in the workshop on Sunday!!

The Chester UK Open Days will return next year so watch this space for dates of nest year’s event!! - might even remember the camera next time