Paid a visit to Sewing World at Pratt's Bottom (yes it is a real place!) and had to enter the shop via the back door. In the garden there was a huge pile of "dead" sewing machines. Wish I'd taken a photo but when I asked what they were doing there I was told that they were unrepairable, plastic innard machines. Lesson to all looking to buy a starter machine. Buy an older, reconditioned machine rather than a cheap plastic one!