Tucked away in the north of the island, a warehouse is alive with a small team of dedicated engineers working on some truly remarkable machinery.

Led by Chris Wedgwood, GMA Engineering specialises in heritage transport and steam power. The company has worked with the government on the island’s railways and also provides services for owners of some special and rare vehicles and even boasts some celebrity customers.

Chris said his interest is predominantly in the early days of motoring, from the late 19th into the early 20th century.

He explained: ’Being brought up on steam powered engines, I tend to concentrate on them so I’ve become a bit of a world authority on three different makes which are considered by a lot of people to be awkward to work on.’

The makes Chris has become famous amongst collectors for working on includes Whites, which was a company based in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

He said: ’We make a lot of bits for the Whites and there’s a French car, called the Serpollet, which was equally as awkward, which we do bits for. Leon Serpollet, died in 1907, so his cars were from that early period.’

’Then there was a real genius in the States called Abner Doble who was working from the 1920s through the 30s for himself and worked as a consultant after that. He brought electric controls into cars and we do some of them as well.’

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the collectors who sent their cars to Chris and his team have put the blocks on restoration work which has led to some of the cars gathering dust.

However, work on other projects has continued despite the pandemic including repairing and restoring engines for clients from around the world.

Chris said: ’We make everything here right down to the crankshaft webs, water pumps, pistons, piston rods, burners, we make all the parts for that engine.’

Part of the restoration work has seen GMA creating new cylinder blocks for engines which are over 100 years old. Many of the older engines, having been heated and cooled throughout their life time, are now showing signs of wear and require replacing.

Chris said there is a large amount of work involved in making them from scratch, which required extremely detailed plans and engineering.

Among the work that Chris and his team are doing, one engine on the shelf has a celebrity owner, American actor, comedian, late night talk show host and car fanatic Jay Leno.

Chris explained: ’In my life, in my involvement with business and people, I’ve had a couple of mentors, including Chris Kelly and Robert White. Robert White was a very wealthy guy from the south of England and he was a collector of motorbikes and cars.

’He’d met Jay and become friends with him and Jay’s got White steam cars so since Robert’s surname was White, he decided he had to have one. So he bought one but knew nothing about it so was pointed in my direction.

’So myself and Robert, we just always got on and I worked on his car and he introduced me to Jay. Unfortunately Robert died of cancer when he was only 62 and he left all his wealth to the NHS, he ring fenced it to build a cancer centre in Dorchester.

’He wanted to start it before he died so he sold his collection to Jay Leno and started the centre. He introduced me to Jay and we’ve always got on quite well.

’I go over the States every other year and he seems to appreciate the work I do and the Americans seem to have more money to spend than we do on this kind of thing, certainly the car people are much wealthier.’

While he has clients all round the world, Chris very much wants to build his business in the island and employs Manx staff and wants to see his, and other businesses, awarded more contracts to ensure skills and jobs stay in the island.

He said: ’You’re talking about not only employing people in the Isle of Man but the trickle down effects of what they spend their money on and the risk of trades dying out, which would be reinvigorated.’

Jordan Parkinson, who works with Chris, has been at the company for about 18 months.

Chris added: ’There is skill on the island, but it’s about nurturing it as well. The sort of things we do are fairly unique and you perhaps would never come across them ever again.’

The range of work undertaken in Jurby by GMA can be seen looking around the warehouse where engines, steam powered cars and even parts of clock replicas made for Dr John Taylor.