HRH The Prince of Wales has praised the quality of British of engineering during a visit to the General Dynamics factory in Oakdale.
Prince Charles was yesterday visiting the area as part of annual tour of Wales and was shown around the defence company’s facility on Oakdale Business Park.
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, The Rifles, were on hand to demonstrate Bowman – a tactical communications system used by British armed forces and manufactured by the company.
HRH The Prince of Wales was then introduced to a group of engineering apprentices and graduates who are working on a variety of programmes across the business and learned about their roles and their experiences of working at General Dynamics UK.
His Royal Highness was then given a tour of the Scout SV area, where the next generation of Armoured Fighting Vehicles are being developed. As well as meeting a number of employees, the Prince heard from soldiers of the Armoured Trials and Development Unit, who are working closely with the General Dynamics UK development team to provide user input.
Prince Charles addressed all the employees and said: “Today’s visit has been a wonderful demonstration of the best of British engineering. This country has an extraordinary reputation in producing the most remarkable engineering talent, so I was very pleased to meet some of the graduates today.
“Warmest congratulations to all of you on the huge team effort that I know goes into producing something of such a high standard and high quality. I hope that you all feel very proud about what you do, as it certainly makes me feel proud of what you manage to do.”
Steve Rowbotham, chief operating officer at General Dynamics UK, said: “We were delighted that Prince Charles was able to visit us today. His visit was a great honour and recognition of the importance of the work we do here. The Prince addressed the entire workforce at the end of his visit, leaving everyone feeling immensely proud of the work they do here in Oakdale.”
The visit took place on the fourth day of this year’s tour of Wales by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, which sees the couple visit a variety of businesses, organisations and people around the country.
As if he knew anything about Engineering.
I would think that Charles’ knowledge of engineering is similar to my knowledge of horses; which is, they have four legs and a tail.
I’m hearing more good news about factories and engineering facilities opening up or expanding in the UK with reasonable regularity these days. It seems that we’ve turned a bit of a corner all be it slowly. Perhaps the slow pace is a sign of a good foundation or perhaps I’m being optimistic.
I’m glad Charlie boy shows an interest in such things I would have been pleased as punch if I were part of the work force and he came to congratulate us.