@MrX
Just a couple of points on your last post.
Firstly, as far as is known Colston did NOT go under in 1964, you are confusing it with Rolls who primarily manufactured twin tubs although they also did sell Colston dishwashers under the Rolls name.
The name Colston appears to have emerged in the very late 1950s - a Colston dishwasher appeared in the Which December 1960 report. I have often wondered if there is any relationship with the 1950s Hoover MD (NOT Sir Charles who basically set up Hoover in the 1920) and indeed if the dishwasher could have been a design that Hoover had been developing but dropped. THIS IS JUST MY SPECULATION, AND I MAY BE MAKING 2+2 = 5.
Anyway, Rolls emerged about the same time, into the burgeoning UK twin tub market. Initially they imported these from Holland but shortly began manufacturing them here in the UK. They bought the motors for these machine from a company called Bylock whom they took over in late 1963. Bylock first appeared in the 1930s manufacturing hair dryers but they expanded after WW2 into vacuum cleaners & polishers - the vacuum cleaners, initially, where based on designs from the US Apex company. I believe that there was also a Bylock twin tub which presumably was a Rolls design. When Rolls went bust in 1964 they took Bylock with them.
After Rolls went bust the manufacturing facility was taken over by a company called Tallent, who had a relationship with Rolls as one of their suppliers (from memory) and the machines continued to be produced under a variety of well known names (including English Electric, Goblin, HMV and many others) before being consolidated (and restyled) under the Colston name. During this period Colston increased their range to include a more "squared off" counter-top model and a floor standing machine although these were fundamentally the same machine as the older model under the skin.
And so it continued into the 1970s with the addition of the automatic washer & washer/dryer and also a more conventional (12 place) floor standing dishwasher. Steve's washer drier above must be a later one as it is branded Colston Ariston (so post Ariston takeover), I think I have also seen these branded as Colston only.
It was in the early 1980s (maybe even 1980) that Colston were taken over by Ariston, God knows why as their dishwashers had disappeared in the mid 1970s and the twin tubs were certainly very long in the tooth, in a market that was (and had been for several years) shrinking rapidly. They even brought out a single tub and spin drier (fair enough based on the old technology) at the end of the 1970s when this market was even smaller. Initially branded as Colston-Ariston the Colston name was soon dropped and shortly after that the whole lot disappeared for ever - by my reckoning about 1982 or so.
And a final note, this time on the Thor. I had a Philips branded washer drier purchased (new) in around 1984 or maybe early 1985 which was similar to the Thor 950. This seems to have been a development of 850 (so maybe manufactured by Riber) which vented out the back - mine did have a vent hose. It had one curious thing about it in that there was a little L shaped hose which drained out the door boot into the (outer) wash drum. A gimmick for, which a very short time, with all the movement & vibration it had split sending waster all over the place.
I have an ad for the 950 which I recorded on RTE back when you were still in your pram which I will try and get onto YouTube this weekend
Al
and I got early rid of it giving to another washers lover (rikbio77)
