British
Lawnmower Museum
106-114 Shakespeare Street,
Southport, Lancashire PR8 5AJ
Tel: 01704 501336 Fax: 01704 500564
The British Lawnmower Museum, located
in the picturesque Victorian seaside holiday resort of
Southport, houses a collection of pristine exhibits of special
interest built up over a period of over 50 years and is now a
tribute to the garden machinery industry which has developed
over the past 170 years. Many of the machines have been
rescued from the scrap yard and restored to their present very
high standard. In addition to early grass cutting and garden
machines dating from the 1830s, the exhibition houses the
largest collection of vintage toy lawnmowers and games in the
world.
The lawnmower was invented in 1830
by Edwin Budding of Gloucester, thought of as a madman testing
the strange contraption at night. Originally designed to trim
the nap from cloth, the cylinder machine he devised has not
changed in principle since that date and has been the only
traditional lawnmower for formal lawns used throughout Great
Britain.
Included in this unique national
collection are manufacturers not normally associated with the
garden industry, names such as Rolls Royce, Royal Enfield,
Daimler, Hawker Sidley, Perkins Diesel, British Leyland and
many more. A lot of the exhibits, memorabilia and industrial
artifacts are from the Victorian and Edwardian era and have
been restored and keep a small part of British engineering
heritage alive. In addition there are many examples previously
owned by the rich and famous.
