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As a postscript, the project team from Allett came over yesterday to collect the Regal now that it’s finished.
Suitably refreshed (Mrs. Geoff had been baking cakes all morning!) they took it away and sent me some photo’s of it outside it’s new home, the Reception at Regal House, Hixon.
They seemed to approve of the work I’d done, so let’s hope it has a long second life welcoming visitors to the factory for many years to come.
My thanks go to all at Allett Mowers Ltd. for allowing me to tinker with something that is undeniably part of their company’s history.
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Ha- you thought the story was over!
Yesterday, November 4th to be precise, Allett Mowers held an open day for selected dealers and suppliers; part of the day involved the official unveiling of the Regal that I restored on these pages, so I was asked to say a few words by way of telling the story about how I came to be involved.
It was a very interesting talk, starting with Reg Allett’s two sons, Roy and David who spoke about the early days and how it came about that the first one was sold. Then representatives of the cricket club that had used it for so many years told their story about how it was used for years until it became unreliable so it was put into storage on a club members’ farm; then the farmer’s son who tried to sell it on Ebay without success, how it nearly got weighed in for scrap, how Roy Allett came to hear about it and,….well, the rest you know about! My piece was at the end and I spoke about how I came to be involved after SALTEX last year and why it was decided to restore it but to keep it looking old and original.
At the end it was driven around to the Reception and mounted on a plinth. Any of the guests present were invited to have their photo’s taken with the mower and the Allett brothers (myself included!).
For myself the biggest surprise of the day was that Austin Jarrett had commissioned four glass blocks, laser cut inside with a three-dimensional picture of an Allett Regal mower. I felt immensely pleased to have been presented with one of these mementos and will treasure it for many years to come- my thanks go out to everyone at Allett who had a hand in this and I simply can’t say how grateful I am that you thought to present me with it!
Here are a few photo’s of the day, courtesy of Charlie Moore who came with me. I told him there was a hog roast and he said that wild horses wouldn’t keep him away!
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A well deserved day out and presentation. I can remember when the introduction of the machine was covered in an article in either the Sunday Times or Telegraph. As well as the use of the Reliant engine I recollect that the article mentioned that purchasers could return them to the works for an annual overhaul.
Very much along the lines of the early ATCO style of servicing, where they set up service centres around the country to recondition customers’ mowers over winter. I doubt Allett sold enough to warrant this kind of set up though and their winter servicing would have been done in the workshops at Stamford.
Something that I came across in my early days in the mower world was that ATCO used to completely strip all of the machinery that came in. It would be put on a production line, everything paint stripped and re-painted and re-assembled with new decals so everything looked brand new when finished. The only trouble was that you couldn’t guarantee that you’d get your original parts back- things like engines and a side frame (that had serial numbers on) would get returned, but the rest would be made up from serviceable reconditioned parts from the production line. This was told to me in the early 1990’s by somebody that had worked at the service centre at Wooton Wawen in Warwickshire so I’m pretty sure it’s got an element of truth about it!
Anyway, back to the main theme, and here are some more photo’s of that lovely glass memento that I was given. Thanks very much, Austin!
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