Thought to have been first advertised during 1924, the original Lineker & Winfield lathe was an inexpensive little 2.75-inch centre height by 10-inches between centres model. Sold in Australia by the distributors R.J.Sheen complete with their Sydney address (but with Made in England left cast into the bed) this lathe may have been the first-ever product of the later and better-known Winfield Company; however, this cannot be confirmed - and it is just as likely to have been an independent effort that passed into oblivion.  Little advertised, the lathe was built in at least two forms, one with flat belt drive and the other (which must have been an earlier model) to take a round leather "rope". Described very modestly by the makers as a "Utility" model, the lathe was offered in plain-turning form at just £3 : 15s : 0d  but with backgear available for £1 : 5s : 0d) and screwcutting at £2. These were two important features that lathes of a similar size from Portass neglected to offer, though the latter company (who invested heavily in advertising) was to prove the more successful in the long term. At a total of £7 the machine offered good value for money, the backgear and screwcutting allowing this tiny machine to tackle a wide variety of work with ease. A review conducted by the well-known engineering writer George Gentry (and reproduced at the bottom of this page) cannot have harmed sales. In the days when any press criticism was to be found "between the lines" - or by careful omission - Gentry conducted a series of stringent tests that the lathe passed with flying colours. Although the article did not mention it, Gentry made arrangements to buy the test lathe from the makers and wrote a further series articles, during WW2, describing how he had modified and improved the lathe to better suit his needs.
All versions of the Lineker were built on a cantilever-form, flat-topped, V-edged bed cast as-one with the headstock - a design that mirrored popular contemporise practice and gave the lathe a foundation of decent rigidity. Obviously intended for use by serious amateurs, the lathe had a proper backgear assembly (rather like that used on Randa lathes, with the unit clustered to the left of the headstock spindle) together with a very useful auto-knock-off mechanism that disengaged the carriage drive though the standard-fit dog clutch. On early versions the 1/2" x 8 t.p.i. leadscrew was carried in brackets bolted to the end faces of the bed, whilst the later model used a separate bracket at the headstock end and a cast-in bearing by the tailstock
Running in simple, split-bronze parallel-bore bearings, the No. 1 Morse taper spindle was bored through 3/8" and fitted with a 3-step pulley in cast iron with a narrow V to take a round leather drive rope of about 1/4" diameter. Mounted to the left of the pulley was the backgear, the rear gears carried on a spindle fastened to an inner plate that pivoted on an outer plate - the latter bolted to the end of the bed so as to provide a leadscrew-support bearing and changewheel banjo holder. This neat and simple arrangement allowed the makers to offer backgear as an economically engineered, bolt-on accessory (that an owner could retro fit himself) and make alignment of the various leadscrew parts so much easier.
Neither model appears to have been fitted with a compound slide rest, the earlier version having its saddle formed as a boring table with two transverse V-shaped slots to hold a cross slide with three V-slots upon which an American-pattern lantern toolpost was mounted. V-slots were a feature used by some machine-tool makers until the late 1800s, but after that were increasingly rare and, on a lathe of this lighter type, virtually unknown. Although a feedscrew offset to the side of the top-slide casting was often to be found on some classic bench-precision lathes, on a cheap, lightweight machine it was distinctly unusual. It would also have brought in its wake some unwanted, out-of-line stresses and can have done little enhance either accuracy or feel. Naturally, no micrometer dials were fitted, not any gear or belt guards (in the early ears of the 20th century safety was down to the operator) though as most machinists at the time were adept with callipers and micrometers this mattered little in day-to-day use. The later Lineker and Winfield appears to have been fitted with an entirely different saddle and slide rest, but with the side-mounted feed-screw retained.
Formed in one piece - and so unable to be set over for taper turning - the tailstock carried a No. 1 Morse taper spindle locked by a bolt closing down on a long slot in the casting. Happily, the barrel was hollow - in the manner of the Myford ML7 - and so handy for adaptation to long-hole boring in wood and allowing a stuck centre to be knocked free with great ease.
If you have a Lineker & Winfield lathe, or a Sheen, the writer would be interested to hear from you..

Formed in one piece - and so unable to be set over for taper turning - the tailstock carried a No. 1 Morse taper spindle locked down by a bolt closing down on a long slot in the casting. Happily the barrel was hollow - in the manner of the Myford ML7 - and so handy for adaptation to long-hole boring in wood and simple to knock out a firmly stuck centre.

What must have been a later Lineker & Winfield with flat-belt drive and no backgear. This lathe has a number of detail design changes including a different slide-rest assembly and leadscrew carried in a bolt-on bracket at the headstock end and a cast-in bearing by the tailstock.