Between 1825 and 1830 he designed a Pepper Box pistol which was further advanced than Samuel Colt’s patent of 1836. In 1840, along with the Earl of Ducie and Richard Clyburn (the latter was the inventor of the threshing drum), he designed a machine for cutting vegetable substances.

In 1843, along with George Lister of Dursley, he improved the carding machine the same machine from which he obtained his own ideal to design the lawn mower. The improvements to the carding machine have never been altered, even in today’s machines. Budding also designed a shifting spanner and a lathe.

In 1830, on designing the lawn mower, he went into partnership with John Ferrabee, owner of the Phoenix Iron Works and known for producing high quality engineering goods. The partnership concluded that Edwin Budding would solve any problems in the production while John Ferrabee took care of sales and legality of the patent license.

The first machine produced was 19in in width with a frame made of wrought iron. The mower was pushed from behind with the motive power coming from the rear land roller which drove gears to transfer the drive to the knives on the cutting cylinder; the ratio was 16:1. There was another roller placed in between the cutting cylinder and the land roller which was adjustable to alter the height of cut. On cutting, the grass clippings were hurled forward into a tray like box. It was soon realized, however, that an extra handle was needed in front of the machine which could be used to help pull it along.

Two of the earliest Budding machines sold went to Regent’s Park Zoological Gardens in London and the Oxford Colleges.
John Ferrabee soon realized that, although his own selling network was well established, he needed a larger field.

In 1832 Ransom’s of Ipswich gained a license to produce and wholesale the Budding mower. This was an ideal situation as now the mowers were being sold within a well established network, Ransom’s being the principal producers of agricultural plough shares.

During the 1830s Ferrabee extended the range with 16in and 22in machines and by 1840 over 1,000 Budding mowers had been sold. Initially Ransom’s were acting as wholesalers from their showroom in Bury St Edmund’s but in 1837 they started to produce the machines under license.

An extract from George Biddell’s memoirs states: “It was during April in the year 1840 when I came to the foundry on probation. The principal work being done by the firm was fitting up Budding lawn mowers” (George Biddell later be came the first lawn mower manager for Ransom’s). Unfortunately Edwin Beard Budding died of a stroke in 1846 at the age of 50 and, like so many inventors, did not see the full results of his design.

W F Carnegie of Arbroath, Scotland, was another purchaser of a Budding lawn mower. Carnegie’s problem was that his lawns covered 2½ acres and the Budding machine was not up to the job. He engaged a local engineer, James Shanks, to set about making a machine of 27in width which could be pulled by two men or a pony. The latter was found to be best and when cutting was carried out in dry weather the pony left no traces on the grass.

In 1842 James Shanks patented his design in Scotland. Up to 1852 Scotland had its own patent system so Budding’s patent only covered England and Wales. Nonetheless, Ferrabee traveled to Scotland in 1841 to check with Shanks to make sure there were no infringements. Shanks started lawn mower production in 1842 but the machines were designed by Mr Talbot, an employee of Shanks. His machine was of 48in width.
Shanks mowers soon became well known.

In 1846 a machine was sold to Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire and an article written at the time stated: “The machine has been in constant use in the gardens at Clumber for upwards of three months. It is constructed on the same principle of Budding’s patent mowing machine but altogether stronger and, of course less liable to go out of repair, the cutters are forty-two inches in length, it is drawn by one horse requiring a boy to lead the horse and a man to direct the machine. The saving in labor has amounted to seventy per cent.”

History of the Lawnmower: 1850s – 1870s

    By 1852 Ferrabee had made improvements to the original Budding design and added two more sizes, a 30in and a 36in machine. By now they had sold upwards of 4,000 machines. In their advertisements for 1852 they stated that only mowers marked Budding were guaranteed a suggestion of competition from a new source. In fact what happened was that the Patent Office had started to allow lawn mower improvements in design to be patented and this opened up the field to others.
The first patented improvement was that of Samuel Boyd in 1854. The company which manufactured the machine were Samuelson of Banbury, agricultural implement makers. The mower designed was on the same principle as Budding except that it was lighter in draught and easier.
   In 1855 a new contender,

Thomas Green of Leeds, entered the field of lawn mower manufacturers. Thomas Green was a blacksmith and maker of wrought iron gates who that year designed a machine which could be drawn from behind (in fact Shanks sold the same design in August 1856). Green made improvements on the Budding design by reducing its weight by one third and added a rake to lift the grass before it was cut. This mower was produced in a wide range of sizes from the smallest of 8in to the largest at 42in. A 48in model was tried but it was found that too much flex and wear on the gears made it impracticable.

The first lawn mower trial took place in the London Horticultural Gardens at Chiswick in 1858. The trial area was at the side of the arboretum and plots were drawn of equal size. The entrants were Shanks, Ferrabee, Samuelson and Green. They all brought machines of 22in width, excepting for Green whose machine was a 24in model. Green’s machine was judged the best with Shanks and Ferrabee runners up. Samuelson was placed last, having received a poor write up because the gears kept clogging. That same year, after selling some 1,500 machines, Ransoms stopped producing the Budding mowers. Instead they became wholesalers for Thomas Green and Shanks. The following year Ferrabee’s son James took over the engineering works and made improvements to the Budding design.



Thomas Green patented the first lawn mower to be driven by chains, a fundamental development because chain drive meant a lighter machine. He named this machine the Silens Messor which implies silent running. Although the Silens Messor range altered shape over the years the fundamental principles did not and the range was to become the backbone to Thomas Green’s business until production finally ended in 1935.

In 1861 Ransoms re-entered the lawn mower market with their now improved machine. Although still resembling the Budding machine, it was shown at the International Exhibition of 1862 along with Shanks, Ferrabee and Green. In fact Green had an enormous stand at the exhibition and managed to win most of the medals on offer. The International Exhibition created interest from new companies who started to produce their own style of mowers.

Morton’s Patent, by Grimmond Laird of Arbroath, Scotland, appeared in 1863 but was short-lived as there was no real improvement to that already on offer. From 1864 most manufacturers had left behind the predominant style of the Budding machine.



The land rollers had reduced in diameter, the material for the castings had altered because by now most companies were using cast iron. Cast iron was found to be a vast improvement because, when molten, it could be poured into a cast, enabling the most intricate shapes to be produced.

In 1864 Barnard, Bishop & Barnard invented a new style of drive whereby instead of a chain or gear drive, three rubber tired wheels, of different diameters were used. As the mower was pushed along, the wheels turned by friction. This idea, however, was not successful and by 1866 a return to gear-drive had been made.
Ransoms in 1867 introduced a totally new design of mower, the Automaton which became an instant success with over 1,000 machines being sold in the first season. This design was to put Ransoms level with the other two main producers, Shanks and Green.
Follows and Bates entered the market in 1869 with a mower called the Climax. This machine was a major innovation – the land roller was removed and replaced by two land wheels placed on the outside of the side-frames. A gear inside the land wheel drove the cutting cylinder. This meant that the machine had fewer parts and therefore was much lighter. It also meant a reduction in costs. By 1871 Follows and Bates had sold over 4,000 of these machines. But regular maintenance was required to keep the knives sharp.

Thomas Green’s idea was to have a reversible cutting cylinder which could be alternated to produce even wear. Ransoms devised a clever system whereby one of the wooden handle grips would unscrew and placed in a special hole in one of the side gears. The handle could then be used to turn the gear backwards making the cutting cylinder rotate in reverse. By placing flowers of emery on the edge of the knives the cylinder could be ground in. Alternatively, special sharpening tools were devised in which the cutting cylinder was removed from the mower and placed on a machine bed and ground. Ransoms also developed an early machine for just this purpose.

History of the Lawnmower: 1870s – 1890s

    The year 1870 saw the first influx of American manufactured machines to the British market. The one machine that created the largest impact was the Archimedean, so named as the cutting cylinder worked on the Archimedean screw principle. It was said that the machine could even be worked in wet conditions, there being two skids at the front replacing the roller.

By 1878 the design had altered and the Archimedean had gained two front wheels. Towards the end of the 1870s numbers of different makes of lawn mowers were being imported from America.



On the whole these machines appeared cheaper and were of a lot lighter in construction. Most of the designs favored the Follows and Bates Climax

One reason for this was that in American the grass grew more openly, similar to rye. These American machines became great favorites with the ironmongery trade.

Later, in the late 1880s, if an ironmonger ordered a large enough quantity he could have name cast in as an advertisement, hence a new trade was formed. The name given to this type of machine was a catalogue. The main companies involved in this trade were E C Stearns of Syracuse, White and Bateman and Milburns.

John Post Lawrence was a young businessman, while visiting the Chicago World Fair of 1878 was introduced to Lloyd, Suplee and Walton, makers of the Pennsylvania lawn mower. On his return to this country he set up an agency in London named Lloyd, Lawrence & Co. The design was on the same principle as the Climax except that a further gear was placed between the land wheel and the gear on the end of the cutting cylinder shaft, allowing the operator to push the mower with greater ease. The design was to prove so good that other companies copied it and Lloyd went from strength to strength. Today they still hold the record for the machine longest in production.

In the 1880s Thomas Green introduced a range of mowers designed for small plots. Called the Multum in Parvo which, translated from Latin, means ‘with little, much’, Shanks were also to follow the American design with a machine called the Yankee. It was about this time that Shanks, Green and Ransoms started to export their mowers, with many being sold to countries in the British Empire. Both Shanks and Ransoms were to achieve a foothold in Australia and New Zealand, the latter being a particularly good market, having a climate relative to our own.



With the advancements of sport in the 1880s more companies were becoming involved in the manufacture of grass cutting machinery. A few of the more notable names were Crowley of Sheffield with their Invincible range, Samuelson with the Favourite, Hartley Sugden of Halifax with a range of pony mowers called Windsor, Atlas and Balmoral. B Hurst & Sons, (better known for the production of children’s playground equipment) also sold a small gear driven machine.

Towards the end of the 1890s more sports were developing, all requiring a better playing turf which, in turn, put pressure on to produce better machines.

By this time Ransoms were into the science of turf cutting and in 1897 came up with two new ideas. The first was ribbing on the land roller to stop the mower slipping when moving along banks. The second, a double angled cutting cylinder, sometimes called a split cutting cylinder. It was noticed that, on a normal cylinder, the grass tended to be thrown to one side of the collecting box so this double angle method directed the grass to the center of the box. A drawback to this innovation, however, meant that uneven wear would occur on the center of the bottom blade.

In the latter part of 1893 a new form of motive power was added to the lawn mower, namely steam, the inventor of the first steam lawn mower being one James Sumner of Leyland, Lancashire. His machine created a lot of attention. Fired by paraffin under pressure, it was said that the engine could be raised to working pressure in ten minutes. The machine came in three sizes, 25in, 30in and 36in.
A water tank was slung under the handle arms so the weight was all balanced on the rear roller which helped when turning. The Sumner engine was also sold as an adaptation to owners of horse drawn mowers. The first trials of steam mowing were held at Lords Cricket Ground in London.

One of the selling points of the steam mower was that you did not have to wait for the coachman to return before mowing could begin.

History of the Lawnmower: 1870s – 1900s

    When James Sumner first developed his steam-powered mower in 1893 it was met by the lawn mower profession with some anticipation and was even classed as a novelty. Although rivals, Shanks and in particular Thomas Green, were known for developing other successful steam powered equipment, it was not until 1902 that they ventured into production of their own versions of the steam lawn mower.

Shanks produced two models. The largest with a width of 42in weighed 1½ tons and could be used as just a roller if required. The smaller model was a pedestrian machine. Like the Sumner machines, both Shanks mowers were oil-fired, oil being preferred to coal because it fired a lot faster.

A disadvantage of oil as fuel meant that the boiler working pressure was much higher, about 200psi, which created a need for a larger lawn. On some models this was overcome by introducing a multi-tubular boiler, containing as many as 200 small bore pipes. Greens produced three sizes of coal-fired steam lawn mowers of 24in, 30in and 36in widths. Greens had a patent on their boilers, their idea being to transfer the heat from the fire via an inverted funnel within the center of the boiler. This system proved successful and they went on to produce a conversion steam unit suitable for use on horse-drawn mowers.

Enter the internal combustion engine. In 1896, on the other side of the Atlantic, WJ Stephenson-Peach produced a prototype internal combustion-engined lawn mower. Later, in about 1906, CoIdwell were to sell these machines commercially.

Ransoms of Ipswich, in 1902, were the first company to patent and commercially produce petrol engine-powered lawn mowers. Their patent was for a large 42in machine which was also a combination roller with the operator sitting over the rear roller. Steering was by a worm drive which turned the rear roller. The center roller drove via a reduction gear direct from the engine by roller chains which enabled the machine to turn in very tight corners. The mowing apparatus was a complete unit attached in front of the drive roller on two pivots that could be adjusted in height (this is now known as a floating cutting cylinder). Ransoms design was invariably copied and later was improved by both Green and Shanks. A pedestrian machine of 24in had a conventional mowing unit, as found on most pony-drawn mowers of the period. The engine used was a Simms of German extraction.

In his day Simms was a very competent engineer, originally working for Daimler. He used a high tension magneto which in those days was regarded as a very advanced method of ignition. Ransoms showed one of their first machines at a motor fair in Birmingham.



This machine was brought by Cadbury Chocolates for use on their sports ground at Bournville and gave many years of good service before being part-exchanged for Green’s version in 1920.

Within a year Ransoms had purchased a license to build their own engines to Simms’ design. They named this engine the Orwell after the river Orwell which runs through Ipswich. The engine on the 42in machine was a water-cooled model (by the thermo-syphon system) rated at 6bhp. Although this system required a greater volume of water it proved successful as Ransoms sold their machines to many countries with hot climates.

By 1905 they had exported machines as far away as the Municipal Council of Shanghai in the east and the Buenos Aires Hurlingham Club in the Royal patronage.

Back home that same year, the Ransoms new 30in pedestrian model underwent trials against a Leyland steam mower. Held at Eaton Hall, Chester, the seat of the Duke of Westminster, these trials concluded that the steam mower was no match for the motor mower.

Towards the end of 1905 HM King Edward VII was given a demonstration at Buckingham Palace, resulting in two 30in machines being duly purchased for the 1906 season.

In 1903 Greens brought out a motor mower based on the ideas of Ransoms but of a lighter construction. By 1904 Shanks had also joined the field with a 42in and 36in ride-on combination roller-mower. Up until the First World War motor mowers were generally classed as a luxury and with prices in the £85 to £150 range they were well beyond the pocket of most people. The mechanical nature of these mowers meant that the operator had to be trained, hence most of the early operators tended to be chauffeurs. For these reasons the bulk of lawn mower sales remained with the hand-pushed and animal-powered machines.

History of the Lawnmower: 1900s – 1910s

    In 1901 Shanks had produced a new side wheel model to their range, the Talisman. This machine was basically a copy of the Lloyd’s Pennsylvania (as mentioned earlier) and the idea was to break into the Lloyd’s share of the market. Meanwhile, Follows & Bate had made improvements to their Climax and added new models, the Runaway and Speedwell for the home market and the Anglo American for the export market, although these were also sold in this country.

At this period machines imported from America tended to be a little cheaper and in many cases the castings were of a better quality iron. This meant that less metal was used but still retained the same strength. From 1890 some American manufacturers had been fitting ball bearing races which gave greater accuracy of the cutting cylinder.

Follows & Bate counteracted by discounting their machines to ironmonger’s (who were generally classed as the wholesale trade) – they even went in for sale or return incentives!

At the lower end of the trade the greatest competitors to Follows & Bate were Hoods of Birmingham who imported machines from America. One of their most popular models was the Premier which they sold for more than 40 years – 1885 to 1925. As a catalogue machine Hoods sold the same machine under many guises.

In 1902 Barford and Perkins added the Wansbrough Patent mechanism to their Godiva range of lawn mowers. This simple but clever device altered the height of cut. A rod, attached to a cam, was placed on the side of the front roller the other end of the rod being attached through an elongated slot by the handle and held in place by a threaded hand grip. To adjust the height of cut the operator simply moved the rod along the slot.

Ransoms gained a license to use Hillman’s Patent on their Ideal mower, intended for cutting the undulating fairways on golf courses etc. and consisted of a cylinder mowing unit slung in a frame with a pair of large land wheels. The cutting unit was raised or lowered by chains. The mower was pulled by a horse while the operator sat above, the cut grass being deflected out behind the machine. This machine became a useful asset in the Ransoms range of mowers, so much so that Shanks were soon to offer a similar version known as the Triumph.

Greens also followed suit, in 1912, with the Silens Messor High Wheel. Ransom’s took up the Orr’s Patent which they sold as an extra for their Patent Gear and Chain range of hand mowers. The Orr’s patent consisted of spring loaded hooks attached to the forward side of the cutting cylinder blades. As the cylinder turned the hooks lifted the bent grass, so giving a keener cut on fine lawns.

By 1913 they had developed a special bents cutter with a cutting cylinder 15in in diameter, the idea being to cut the long stalks the normal cylinder mower left behind. This machine, however, was only sold for a few years.

Burgess of Brentwood were well-known as agricultural implement manufacturers for more than a century when, in 1910, they produced a small water-cooled motor mower. Built in 24in and 30in widths, these had a ribbed land wheel to give better grip on slopes. The main reason for this machine’s success was its price of just £60 compared to the Ransoms range which started at £75.
Ransoms, however, were not deterred as they were the market leaders in mower design, Greens the bulk producer and Shanks the major exporter.

1913 was a record year for Lloyd Lawrence with their Pennsylvania mower having sold upwards of 1¼ million machines since its introduction in 1878.

In 1914 Europe was at war. Advertisements for lawn mowers were still to be found during the first two years of the war, although these were reduced in numbers. In the main, they came from Greens and Shanks.

By 1915 most companies were involved with production of munitions for the war effort. That year a patent was granted to Rendle for a motor attachment to be added to a conventional push mower. This was not, however, put into production until the early 1920s.

By June 1916 the Board of Trade had prohibited all imports of lawn mowers into this country, a ban that was not lifted until late 1919. This ban had a profound effect on the lawn mower sales after the war. Our country lost many young lives and, like every war before, this affected the whole of society. On one hand, many of the country’s gardeners did not return while, on the other side, companies involved with the war effort had learned better engineering principles and the art of mechanization.

In 1919 new companies were starting to show an interest in lawn mower production. One in particular were Jerram & Pearson, who patented their idea of a push mower based on the latest material available. The sides were made from cast aluminum with chain drive running in an oil bath within one side of the casting. The cutting cylinder could be removed very easily by removing the center spline. This mower was soon to become known as J.P. Mowers, the Rolls-Royce of Lawn Mowers (and were nearly as expensive).

History of the Lawnmower: 1920s – 1930s

    Times remained difficult for the manufacturers of lawn mowers and it took many companies until 1920 before they could resume their pre-war activities. In many cases the stocks of lawn mowers on sale were actually made before the war, plus spare parts were very scarce, especially for the imported machines.

Around this time Burgess of Brentford embarked on the latest craze – motor conversion kits for hand-powered machines. Other notable companies involved in this area were Nash of Wandsworth, London, Young’s of North London and MP Company of Oxford Street, London. The latter concern, being the sister company to Ransomes, were the most successful. The MP conversion kit came in three engine sizes, the K, L and M, and consisted of a Villiers engine mounted in a frame which drove a set of land wheels. The operator sat on top of the unit frame which would be attached to the rear of any make of hand push mower. On the larger units a roller could be towed at the same time.

In America a Mr Worthington, in 1914, had developed and patented a new machine to help with the maintenance of large grass areas. He had three side-wheel mowers connected together by a frame which was pulled by a horse. They were known as mower units and it was soon found that other units could be added to increase the cutting path. In 1920 Ransomes gained a license to produce these ‘gang’ mowers in Britain.

Up until 1919 the engines used for motor mowers had chain- or gear-driven magnetos to provide the required ignition. Villiers were well-known cycle component makers and by 1913 had produced their first engine based on magneto ignition. In 1919 a young engineer, Frank Pountney, joined the company and later went on to develop the flywheel magneto. The magneto was developed so that the coil and points were placed inside the flywheel with the magnets to produce an electrical field on the concave section of the flywheel. This idea, resulting in a bigger spark at low speeds, proved a great success and was patented in 1919.
This engine soon became very popular with lawn mower manufacturers because it meant lighter, smaller and more easily managed models could be produced. Ransomes used the Villiers engine in their 18in and 20in fine turf models while Shanks used it in their equivalent machine, the 20in Jehu.

Greens, however, did not follow suit as they were producing engines to their own design. The Atco company, the greatest users of Villiers engine, did not enter the field until 1920.

Charles H Pugh had a factory in Birmingham, the Whitworth Works, where they specialized in the repetition industry, making many parts for the textile and cycle trades.
In 1920 Charles H Pugh entered the field of the lawn mower, producing a machine with a 22in cut, powered by a Villiers engine and costing £75. The machine’s frame was made of cast iron because the company’s own malleable iron foundry was on strike. A catchy name was needed for these machines.

Charles H Pugh owned the Atlas Chain Company which just so happened to have the registered name of ‘Atco’, although at that time not used commercially. This soon changed for, by the end of 1920, the name of Atco had been registered all over the world.

By 1922 the prices of Atco mowers had been reduced and a system of deferred payments had been introduced. By the end of 1922 Atco had set up their own network of service depots, spanning the country. The first of these were at Eckington, nr Sheffield, Reading and Exeter. 1923 saw Atco extend the range of mowers to include the 16in and 30in models.

In the hand-powered market there was another new company producing machines of a side-wheel type, similar to Follow & Bates. This company, the Derwent Iron Foundry, from 1920 had the registered trade name of Qualcast, a name derived from the quality of their castings. One main reason Qualcast managed to get a foothold was the Board of Trade’s ruling on foreign imports.





Dennis of Guildford, well-known in the field of commercial transport, produced a motor mower in 1921. It was not a great success and the design based on aluminum castings was dropped later that year. They were to reappear in 1923 with an entirely new design, well-advanced for the period.



The frame of this mower was of sheet steel construction which was far more expensive to produce than malleable iron. The original 24in model was joined in 1924 by a 30in machine.
The Dennis machines were built for heavy duty work and soon gained a market with councils and government departments. More relevant, however, was that Dennis had already achieved a good name for their other products, namely buses.

History of the Lawnmower: 1930s – 1940s

    Many regional companies were producing their own machines, one being Automower of Norton St Phillip, nr Bath, Somerset.

George Grist first entered the market in the early 1920s by adding an engine unit to Ransomes & Green’s pony mowers. By 1925 Automower were producing their own steel-constructed models which were to become a great success with owners of large country houses. Automower was to design the AutoRoller synonymous to all grounds men to this very day.



The Royal Horticultural Society conducted motor mower trials in May 1925 in Regent’s Park, London, with 25 machines from different makers present. Ransomes entered an M.P. mower pusher pulling a Ransomes gang unit capable of cutting 6in high grass. Awards of Merit went to Green, Shanks and Dennis in the 30in to 42in range. The Atco, Automower, M.P. mower pusher and Rendle’s motor mower attachments were highly commended. Godiva Engineering and F Mitchell from Nottingham (under license from J.P.) were also commended. These R.H.S. trials certainly put the seal of approval on motor mowers.

A new development in motive power came in 1926 when Ransomes introduced their electrically-powered 16in mower, sold complete with 50 yards of flex. Ransomes were well-advanced with electrical propulsion in general, having produced their first commercial electric lorry in 1901.



By the end of the 1920s most companies were designing mowers using steel because it was becoming cheaper and the need for greater strength was growing. In 1929 Greens added the Prince to their range of hand mowers. This machine was of a total steel construction except the handles which were of malleable iron.

In 1930 Atco had gained their Royal Warrant along with other such names as Ransomes, Shanks, Green and Dennis.

The depression years of 1931 and 1932 saw many people out of work. Undeterred, Atco introduced a totally new range of steel-constructed mowers.

The 1930s saw a new market open for the lawn mower. The middle classes of this country were becoming first-time buyers of houses with small gardens and small lawns. To fulfill the need Ransomes developed the Midget 14in cut cylinder motor mower.
The 1930s also saw Ransomes become one of the largest lawn mower producers in the world.

In 1933 came the most radical development in lawn mower design since Budding’s first patent. This was the rotary mower developed by Power Specialities of Slough, Berkshire. The ideal was to cut the grass in a rotary action at speed by use of an engine. The blade had a hood over the top so that, as it turned, it created a vacuum allowing the cut grass to be lifted into a grass collector behind. The engine was of a two-stroke variety as it had to operate at different angles.

The design was at first shunned by the profession, possibly because the marketing idea was aimed at the domestic user. It was, however, quickly realized that the mower could make a good job on short grass as well as long. The machine came in many different sizes; the 10in to 13in models were electrically-powered while 15in to 18in were powered by a petrol (gas) engine.

By 1936 Power Specialities had introduced fluid transmission into the range. In 1937 the 15in and 18in models were renamed Eton and Windsor respectively.



In 1935 Greens finally withdrew the Silens Messor from production although it could still be purchased new after the Second World War.

By the late 1930s Qualcast had overtaken Follows & Bates in the push mower market and, as the clouds of war once again loomed over Britain, normal production of lawn mowers ended.

Those companies involved with production of gang mowers were allowed to continue making spare parts alongside their munitions work for gang mowers were still needed for the cutting of aircraft runways.

In February 1940 a very sympathetic government introduced petrol (gas) rationing for lawn mowers with coupons being obtainable from local Post Offices, after filling in a RMS5 form.

We will end this post with the 1940s an begin again as I collect more history. Don’t forget to leave a comment after all it’s FREE.