Hi Phil.
Yep - Hotpoint 17 and 18 series wraparound machines were being built through to 1986. Myself and Rob have managed to acquire the very last of these machines, in the form of the 18873 Microtronic L.E, which was an exclusive machine for Comet. Picture attached below.
Re the Electra's - ironically it appears that the Creda's available were of the old style, whilst the Electra machines were rebranded Creda 17000-series machines of the new style.
With this being an outlet for exclusive models, you would have thought that it would have been the other way around and that Creda would have demanded that its new series of machines were to be sold, whilst the electra branded exclusives were based on the old style. Perhaps this shows the bargaining power of the old Electricity Board Shops.
The Creda's and Electra's in the above brochures are pure Creda, being of their own design and a good few years before the takeover by Hotpoint.
The English Electric machines that you have worked on were either Currys or Comet exclusives - I cant remember for sure which shop commissioned them though.
The toploading Servis Mk311 was a weird machine and the photo contained in the brochure above, to the best of my knowledge, is the ONLy photograph ever found of this rare and rather impractical model.
Goodness knows what Servis was thinking when they commissioned it, especially when you realise that they were built in Canada, to a Kenmore design, and were imported to the UK!
A very weird situation.
Hope tha waffle helps.
Paul
