Although advertised in 1924 by J. Edwards & Co. of 51 Hardman Street, Manchester, as "All-British" the origins of the "Edwards" is uncertain for, in common with many tool merchants of the time who wished to disguise the origins of their stock, they used genuine makers' names unadorned but had the decency to enclose "adopted" names in quotation marks. Of 3.25-inch centre height and 12 inches between centres the lathe had its bed and cross slide ways formed from round bars, a simple, cheap and surprisingly effective way of making a small lathe - and one used by many makers over the years from the simple Emco SL and Drummond "Little Goliath" to more sophisticated and accurate machines like the Swiss Scintilla and multi-purpose Leinweiber. Whilst the Edwards lacked a proper compound rest, the cross slide was arranged to swivel on its mounting boss (this was mounted between the bed rails and formed part of the carriage), the headstock carried (unguarded) backgears for slow speeds and the bracket to carry changewheels was not only long enough to mount a proper compound reduction gear train but the gears ran on studs of unusually large diameter. The carriage was driven along the bed by a leadscrew supported at both ends - even on the non-screwcutting version - but, unaccountably, this was positioned at the front of the bed bars instead of between them, the designer thus managing to introduce some unwanted leverage and flexibility into what would otherwise have been a tolerably rigid assembly. Whilst the tailstock was fitted with a sole plate that allowed the top to be set over for taper turning the barrel was locked by that simple and hopelessly ineffective means of a screw bearing down directly against it.
Offered at a competitive £5 : 10s : 0d including carriage by the time the screwcutting attachment (with machine-cut gears) had been added at £2 : 10 : 0d and a "treadle drive" assembly  - almost certainly a "foot motor" to mount under the owners own bench - at a further £2 : 18 : 6d, the price no longer looked so attractive.
Have more than a handful of "Edwards" lathes survived ? If you have one, the writer would be interested to hear from you.