DURING his tour, the Duke of York took time to find out more about the two Malvern companies he visited from the staff themselves.

He struggled to get to grips with the complex work of Malvern Instruments and had to stop commercial director Dr Jane Bishop half-way through her presentation to clarify one point.

"What exactly does particle characterisation mean?" he asked.

The duke then spoke to distributor sales manager, Stuart Wakefield, who said the visit would be beneficial to the business.

He said: "He asked about the business - how we are doing and how we plan to develop. It's good for the company. The only time I'd had anything to do with royalty before was when I collected my Duke of Edinburgh Award!"

The duke also chatted with cell assembly technicians Brian Kelly and Paul Robinson and enquired about how long it took them to build the cells and the manufacturing process.

The company has been in Malvern for 35 years and is a major exporter of particle measurement equipment for a range of industries.

The duke was similarly enquiring during his tour of the Morgan Motor Company. Test driver Keith Dalley showed him the Aero 8 sports car and talked about what it was like to drive.

Mr Dalley, who thinks that he has one of the best jobs in the world, said that he had enjoyed meeting the duke.

He said: "I just explained about the tracking of the car and the wheel alignment. I was pleased to meet him and he seemed friendly."