A real mystery, this gap-bed, backgeared and screwcutting bench lathe has a centre height that appears to be as much as five inches and a capacity between centres of perhaps eighteen inches. Although the bed mirrors that type of flat type found on other early, small Colchester lathes, every other respect of its design is entirely different. The 3-step headstock pulley is clearly intended to take an A-section V-belt (rather than a round leather), the first use of which on small machines tools did not occur before 1931/2 on lathes by the American Atlas Company. Hence, built in the 1930s, this lathe presents something of an enigma - as nothing the writer has ever seen advertised - by Colchester, Colchester-Britannia or any other maker - that matches either its general appearance nor any particular detail of its construction, yet it's clearly marked with "Colchester" cast into the bed.
Unusual points include a headstock sitting on a raiser block - yet with no evidence that the compound slide rest or tailstock have been modified in a similar way; an oddly-shaped, 3-slot changewheel bracket; an unusually wide gap for a small lathe; a cross slide with two T-slots that, with the top slide removed, could form a small boring table and an apron that appears to have some sort of separate "extension" at its right-hand end to hold the carriage-drive handwheel. Unfortunately, this is the only known picture - unless you now own it, in which case the writer would be most interested to hear from you..