Fellowship Tour of P&A Wood’s Business Facility

After nearly 2 years of delay caused by Covid-19 The Fellowship of the Motor Industry finally managed to visit P&A Wood’s world acclaimed operation based near Dunmow in Essex.

As an authorised Rolls-Royce Motor Car Dealer, Bentley Service Dealer and Rolls-Royce and Bentley Heritage Dealers they specialise in sales, service and spare parts for the entire range of pre and post war Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars from 1904 to the present day.

The Fellowship’s East Anglia Region arranged a slot for one of P&A Wood’s highly praised extensive tours of their facilities on 9^th July 2022. The garage facility does not open for normal business on Saturdays but allow a restricted number of heritage tours to take place managed with skeleton staffing levels.

Upon arrival we were warmly greeted at the reception with a welcome coffee and biscuits. At this stage, Nick, our guide for the morning was introduced to our group. He, along with other team members give up their time to conduct the tours. The level of knowledge and enthusiasm shown by Nick throughout the two and a half hour tour is a credit to him and P&A Wood.

The mechanical workshops, body restoring, and painting sections were all open to us and the wealth of beautiful machinery present was jaw-dropping. The finale was the showroom for new Rolls-Royces and the Heritage vehicles available for sale, although we noted that an awful lot of them were marked ‘price on application’ !

Without actually seeing the exhibits it is almost impossible to give an idea of the extent and range of the vehicles and associated items on show. Below are some of the comments that have been made by Fellows regarding the tour.

Clive Bannister :- “It was indeed an eye opener to see Rolls Royce products  at their very best …… both old and new. We were very privileged to be guided around ‘those hallowed halls’ and at the same time feeling free to inspect the lovely motor cars in their various states of work.”

Tony Bone ;- (abridged) “ I’ve visited many garage workshops in my career on traffic  to do vehicle examinations after accidents. I have never seen such a tidy and clean workshop. The cars on display were amazing and Nick certainly showed the pride in his employers, and his knowledge of the firm and the vehicles on display. To see the Montgomery’s five star general car and a Silver Ghost were most unexpected as well as the many other unique cars. Trevor and I spoke about what we had seen for the whole two hour journey home. A truly mind blowing experience.

Robert Chester ;- “Thanks very much for organising both the fantastic visit to P and A Wood and for the superb meal that followed. I can recommend the Sea Bass if you visit the pub again.

Cliff Carter ;- “Thanks for organising our P&A Wood visit. A cracking day which Jen and I thoroughly enjoyed.

David Stevens :- The longest job I had was as the Franchise Manager of Jaguar and later JLR. Hopefully, you can appreciate what it felt like for me to visit a business located in the middle of “nowhere” but with a superb reputation that is known throughout the world. Thank you so much for organising this event which my wife, Rachael, and I really appreciated. The lunch was excellent too.

Following the tour we had the opportunity to say our thanks to Nick for the excellent job he had done. A really professional and enthusiastic approach and attitude. I’m sure he is well appreciated by P&A Wood management.

A donation of £200.00 was made to their chosen charity, the Stroke Association, to show the Fellowships appreciation for the tour. This has since been acknowledged with their thanks.

A short drive took us to the nearby Angel and Harp pub restaurant for lunch. This turned out to be a very popular choice of venue with full tables inside and outside in the garden. A special menu had been prepared for the Fellowship with multiple choices of starter, main course and dessert. We were inside on two long adjacent tables and despite how busy the restaurant was, service was very good and the food excellent.

Our goodbyes were said and we made our journeys home.

BC/12/07/2022