We ended up spending the afternoon in the depths of his two sheds in search of missing fishing tackle.
The first find was a cloth bag into which l reached with some trepidation . From which emerged this hefty example of a generic Japanese- made fixed spool reel. It was siezed solid but is recovering after successful surgery. Next dip into the bag produced a reel possessed of the name that must not be spoken aloud
The rods when we found them were nothing special ,unbranded fibre glass things, but there was a Shakespeare Polystel " pole that looked quite continental with a little line winder built into one section. I haven't pictured it in case Polystel is a version of an unapproved material.
Update.
I've since been told that Polystel was indeed a version of fibre glass . The pole l saw was incredibly light and almost transparent .