Welcome To The Old Lawnmower Club

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The Old Lawnmower Club was formed in 1990 to promote the collection, preservation and display of lawn mowers made from 1830 onwards. We have more than 500 members around the world.

Membership is open to anyone with an interest in old lawn mowers. We participate in a number of events throughout the year at museums, garden shows, vintage rallies and steam fairs. You can find out more about what we do on this site.

Best of British

Submitted by olcadmin on

Club member Roy Osborne is featured in the new edition of Best of British magazine, on sale from 1 August. Roy created a small museum at Copped Hall in Essex to display some of his collection. He tells us that it can be seen when the Hall is open on the third Sunday of every month whe. Roy will also be giving special talks about the mowers on 25 August and 13 October. Check the dates and times on the venue's website.

There are many other museums around the world that display old lawn mowers as part of their collections. You can see a list here.

Cricket and the Lawn Mower

Submitted by olcadmin on

For English and Australian fans, cricket doesn't get more exciting than the first day of an Ashes Test Series. In recent series (in England and Australia) we have seen the home side winning and it's now been 18 years since Australia won the Ashes in England. Over the next few weeks we'll find out if this home advantage can be broken. Before a ball is bowled it looks like it could be close but cricket has a way of throwing up surprises. Good luck to both sides - with members in both countries (and other cricket-playing countries) we can't be too partisan, but...

Mowers at works at Lord's Cricket Ground, London

The lawn mower - it could be argued - played a significant role during the 19th century in the development of all major sports - including cricket - played on grass because it enabled clubs (and their ground keeping staff) to prepare the surfaces more easily and quickly. Lords - the home of the MCC - claims to have bought its first mower in 1864 to remove the "necessity to keep sheep!" and the same year they relaid the field. All first-class cricket clubs and countless non-league, town and village teams all around the world still rely on their mowers to help them prepare their grounds for their games. How much of this would be possible without the invention of the lawn mower?

Pony mower at an unknown cricket ground in England, probably 19th century

Mower Directory Now Online

Submitted by olcadmin on

Visitors to our website can now access our online Directory of Manufacturers and Models. This directory was originally created as a printed booklet by one of our members some years ago. The objective, then as now, was to compile a comprehensive reference list of mower manufacturers and the models they produced. It's been updated many times as newly-discovered models and manufacturers have been unearthed and added to the list. We know there are many gaps to fill in terms of missing companies or machines or additional information about existing entries. It's still a work in progress.

There are some simple rules for items to be included: one of our editors must have seen either an actual example of a mower or a published reference (such as a photograph, advert or editorial) about a company or one of its models. We'll be happy to add or amend entries when we receive information that meets these criteria. Mowers made after 1970 are generally not included.

The Directory was transferred from a printed to online version a while back but access was restricted to full members of the Old Lawnmower Club. However, we have now decided that this valuable reference resource should be made available for everyone.

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