Dorset Enterprises

Started in 1914 by a Bournemouth Councillor, Dorset Enterprises was initially set up to provide work for injured soldiers returning from the First World War who would make a variety of wooden objects for use by the council and externally. Over the years it slowly became a disability workshop employing a range of disabled people.

About 10 years ago they wanted a web presence for their two trading arms, DeckchairsUK and Escor Toys. I must say that working with them was one of the most interesting and enjoyable piece of work I’ve done.

Escor Toys as the name suggests made quality wooden toys. After I had set up the website I was stuck by the number of enquiries from parents and even grandparents who had Escor Toys as children and wanted to pass on their toys to their children or grandchildren but over the years figures had been lost and they were asking if they could get a replacements. I don’t think many toys that get passed down the generations these days. These toys were built to last

DeckchairsUK made wooden deckchairs, luggage stands, windbreakers and the like. The luggage stands can be seen in many top hotels around the country and other customers range from the Prince of Wales High Grove estate to a company that I shouldn’t really name, just to say that they have hosted the UK Gov Camp in the past.

Sadly EU regulations on the testing of toys became too expensive and with cheap imports the Escor Toys side of the businesses closed a few years back. Dorset Enterprises has struggled over recent years their turnover reducing by half what it was a few years back. It the last three years they made an operations loss on average of £470,000 a year. Bournemouth Borough Council has decided that it can no longer afford to subsidise the company and has pulled the plug on its funding. It was a sad day when I received the e-mail asking me if I would put a message on their website stating that the company will cease trading on 31st March 2013 after 99 years of trading.

Many people have companied against the closure, citing that the Council could find the £8.5 million to buy a building (the Imax) and then demolish it and spend huge sums on a surf reef that has never lived up to expectations. They asked if the company was given time and with the right business support and sales advice they believed that Dorset Enterprises could return to profitability. Unfortunately their campaigning failed and 30 odd staff, 19 of which have some form of disability (some severe) will loose their jobs at the end of the month.

My overriding memory of Dorset Enterprises will be the tour of the premises I took when I first got involved. Seeing people with severe mental and physical disability operate the huge machinery that I was too scared to go near. They were truly an inspiration.

Looking for aircraft in France, Ireland and Portsmouth Harbour

As many of you know I spend some of my spare time travelling round the UK and Europe aircraft spotting. Indeed last night I booked a day trip to Toulouse in France for later this month in order to visit the Airbus factory there. I also put my name down for a week long aircraft spotting trip around Northern and Southern Ireland for early next year. It will be so interesting to do Northern Ireland a place I’ve never been to.


One thing aircraft buffs like myself down here on the South coast like to keep an eye on is movements in and out of Portsmouth Naval Base. Not because we are all ship spotters as well, but some navy ships carry helicopters. A navy frigate might have a helicopter deck on which there will be helicopters. We like to keep track of any visiting foreign navy vessels in case they turn up with a helicopter or two on board. Last year I did manage to bag a nice Australian Navy ‘copter when one of its ships visited Portsmouth Navy Base. Rumours fly around when ships are due. Even more so when it is an American Carrier due. They are too big to enter Portsmouth but will anchor in Stokes Bay just off the coast. Local harbour tour companies will run trips out to do circuits of the carrier when they are in. I know a few lucky people who manage to get on the carriers when they are in but how they get on the official invite list is kept a closely guarded secret. I’d love to know how they did it.

Anyway, the reason I’m writing this today is that rumours abound that on Friday a French Helicopter Carrier is due into Portsmouth. The rumours state that it is off on a five month tour and therefore there is a good chance that there will be helicopters on board. Confirmation of the ships arrival will be publicised at lunchtime on the Thursday when the Queens Harbour Master at Portsmouth publish their list of movements planned for the next day. Its on their website in HTML and PDF formats. Perhaps a good candidate for an app or #opendata? Anyway, I’ll be checking those lists to see if the rumours are true and they ship is coming in and if the weather is good I’ll take some time off work to go and see it and hope that there are helicopters on board. The rumours state that the ship will go out on Saturday but I’ll be in London at UKGC13. Fingers crossed that it does come it and that any helicopters on it will be on deck.

However I’m always fearful that it could be a wasted journey. I remember one time in the very early days of the internet when the amount of information on it was nothing like what it is today. We had basic email lists to exchange rumours and one such rumour at the time concerned a US Navy ship that was due to visit Portsmouth. People were asking if the ship had helicopters on board. The rumour mill kicked into full force, to such an extent that by the night before the ship was due that rumours stated that the ship was a Frigate and defiantly had a helicopter on board. The ship was due at around 7.30 the following day and one guy got up really early and drove down from Oxfordshire to Portsmouth to see it arrive. By nine o’clock he was at work and posted on the email list how he drove all that way but it was a total waste of his time and money. The ship had arrived but he confirmed that it defiantly did not have a helicopter on board due to the fact… that the ‘ship’ was a submarine!