However, the initials `AE' stand for "Assured Excellence" and if the present management team and the skilled workforce can continue to maintain the highest quality for their products, at competitive prices, then the Company should continue to operate effectively in the national and international markets.

The current management team is led by Director and Generat Manager, Mr Alan Turner, supported by Bill Heaton (Plant Manager), Frank Holmes (Production Manager), Jerry Vise (Quality Assurance Manager), Ken Mullins (General Service Manager), Martin Cooper (Finance) and Ron Cox (Personel).

Of course, much has changed over the last one hundred years. The first torpedoes were hand made and individually shaped, with virtually no production documentation. Nowdays a great deal of expensive research and development is carried out on each components before it is carefully documented and scheduled for volume prodution at the Works.

With product quality and reliability being so important, it is planned for at all stages - from research and design, to prototype manufacture, through final production, to packing and distribution. A modern worker on Quality Assurance must be familiar with such phrases as Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, and Statistical Process Control. The photograph shows Alec Neale in the Standards Room, which has a temperature controlled environment. Alec is using optical test equipment capable of measuring with great accuracy the roundness of a component, along with any hole positions. It will also compute and trace out component centres. Other equipment in the Room will measure hardness and surface finish.

Slowly the management are investing in modern production machines which rely heavily on computer controlled techniques to set up the machining process. In the High Technology Shop (the extension to the old British Admiralty Shop) Japanese turning machines have been installed. They enable the cast iron piston head blanks to be quickly and accurately machined to size, including the required piston ring grooves and profiles on the outside liner surfaces. They are in use for 24 hours a day and like most modern machinery, are almost completely enclosed to minimise the risk of accidents and noise.

The following photographs were taken in April 1991 by Weymouth photographer Bill Macey. They show that the fabric of many of the original factory buildings, now 100 years old, is continuing to deteriorate. Some of buildings still look the same as they did in the photographs taken at the start of the century. One major change has been the demolition in 1984 of the 70 foot high foundry chimney. With the advent of modern machinery there has been a significant reduction in the total numbers employed in the Works, which now stands at around 280 workers. In a factory that once emplyed 1700 people it means that there is now a considerable amount of empty space in some of the machine shops. Several of the outbuilding are out of bounds because of their crumbling brickwork. In the Tool Room, which provides a back up service for Production, a variety of operations can be carried out, including cutting and grinding. The Millwrights area contains a "Spare Machine" to enable production equipment to be given a complete overhaul without introducing production delays. The Lower Gudgeon Pin Shop is where the start of the Pin manufacturing process commences. Dave Hawker is shown overseeing the operation of a Band Saw capable of slicing through up to 40 metal bars at one time. In the Heat Treatment Department the liners are differentially hardened after heating in an electric'salt bath. 

One thing that has changed over the last one hundred years is the outlook and expectations of the men and women that work in the factory. Nowdays they quite rightly expect better working conditions, good health and safety procedures, along with much shorter hours and higher wages.

In return workers are expected to be able to operate increasingly sophisticated machines and production processes. They need to be better educated and trained than ever before and a great deal of time and resources are dedicated to their selection, training and development and a high priority is placed on individuals being able to work within a multi-disciplinary team.

With the loss of the Downclose Sports Ground in the previous decade, the amount of outdoor competitive sports played by teams representing the Works has fallen drastically from the high levels of many years ago. However, many of the younger workers play for local teams not connected with the Works and a remarkable co-incidence occurred in the Spring of 1991, when a football team of local young  1991 men, playing out of the Wyke Smugglers (the old Wyke Hotel) won the Dorset County Minor Cup - the same Cup, complete with an engraved torpedo, that had been presented to the Dorset FA in 1894 by Whitehead's first General Manager, Captain Payne Gallwey. The Wyke Smugglers team was managed by a Alan Hoskins, a noted and popular local spoitsman in his younger days and a worker at the factory for many years.

The new Wellworthy Sports and Social Club at Downclose has grown in popularity since its opening in 1987. The Bowling Section in particular continues to thrive, with several players making their mark at Dorset County level. Social Club members Barry Patterson and his son Martin, achieved great distinction for themselves by winning the English Father and Son Indoor Bowls title.

As this brief history of the Ferrybridge Works has shown, fishing has long been one of the most popular pastimes for workers. An Angling Section has recently been reformed under the auspices of the Sports and Social Club and encouraged by Moggy and Betty Moore it now boast a thriving membership.

Of course, the Sports and Social Club has only survived down the years because of the willingness of ordinary working men to take on extra work and responsibilities, with little thought of personal reward. The present Committee is no exception and under their guidance the Club should continue to flourish.

To finish our story, perhaps it is fitting to record what the residents of Wyke Regis see as they take their evening or weekend stroll along Portland Road, past the Works entrance, along the bed of the old Weymouth to Portland railway line, or along the footpath by the Ferrybridge cottages.

If they were to enter the factory gates they would be assured of a cheerful reception from some of the office and secretarial staff. If they felt even more adventurous they could take a boat out to the Distant Range building on the centre arm of the Portland Breakwater, where the Ministry of Defence still use the facility for torpedo development trials.

In a modern, competitive world there is no way of knowing how long the Ferrybridge Engineering Works will continue to survive, creating real wealth for the people of Wyke Regis, Weymouth and Portland. If the skill of the workers and the committment of the management team is anything to go by, then we have nothing to fear.

Let us all hope it will survive for another 100 years, for we will all be much the poorer without this great enterprise, created exactly a century ago by Robert Whitehead and the men of Wyke Regis.