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.

Another Working Steam Mower Discovered

Submitted by olcadmin on

We don't see steam mowers very often so you can imagine we were quite excited when Steve Schlemmer contacted us earlier this year. Steve's clearly a proficient engineer and he told us that he assembled the steam plant from a machined kit of parts from Maxitrak. It's a modified, 1/3rd scale model of a Welsh quarry locomotive. He then fitted the engine to an Atco motor mower that he bought from another Old Lawnmower Club member. This particular model was chosen because it had a Villiers engine mounted on two, sturdy, angle iron cross members. According to Steve these provided an excellent mounting for the boiler and motion which has full Stephenson reversing gear. The boiler’s fed from both a crank pump and a hand pump. The mower also has a whistle to alert bystanders when moving off and turning.

Another Great Annual Rally

Submitted by olcadmin on

Our Annual Rally at Milton Keynes Museum on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 May was another great success, with members from all over the UK making the effort to join us. We even had a couple of members from overseas - we are, after all, an international club even if most of our members are in the UK. There was a great variety of machines on display including a number of highly unusual (and one or two unique) examples to be found.

You can look at a selection of mowers and members on two special galleries.

The auction is now an established feature of the Sunday programme and this year we had over 60 lots on sale, including something for every taste and pocket. You can find a full list of entries - with hammer/sale prices - here.

Annual Rally This Weekend

Submitted by olcadmin on

This weekend is our annual rally. It's our biggest event of the year and we are expecting members from all over the country to be there - and a few from even further afield if the rumours are true.

We've been holding this event at Milton Keynes Museum since the club was founded in 1990 so this year will be our 28th annual rally. A lot of things have changed over the years but one thing that's never diminished is our members' passion for mowers and their shared commitment to collecting, preserving and displaying lawn mowers or all shapes, sizes and ages.

This year we have two special themes. The first is mowers with animal names - we've featured this theme before and it was popular with our members. It's surprising how many different models there are with animal or bird names (as there are cars and motor bikes) so no doubt quite a a few will be on display over the weekend. The second theme aims to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of Milton Keynes which was the last "new town" to be built in the UK. There aren't any mower manufacturers with a direct connection to MK but we're expecting a few examples of machines made in the 1960s (hopefully a few from 1967) to help with the celebrations. And who knows, we might even feature a few with local histories.

The event is taking place on Saturday and Sunday. The majority of members (and mowers on display) will be present on the Sunday. We hope you can join us.

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