Located in sunny Southport, The British Lawnmower Museum is a celebration of one of our most ordinary household items. Entering the fascinating world of this internationally famous Museum where the restored exhibits are devoted to keeping a small part of British engineering Heritage alive.
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00:00 Located in sunny Southport, the British Law Mower Museum is a celebration of one of our
00:06 most ordinary household items. Enter the fascinating world of this internationally famous museum
00:12 and the restored exhibits are devoted to keeping a small part of British engineering heritage
00:17 alive.
00:18 It's one of the reasons why we started the museum because the British engineering in
00:23 the garden machinery industry, it was the best and one of the biggest in the world and
00:28 sadly we've lost such a lot of it. So we started collecting the machines as the companies closed
00:38 down.
00:40 But where did the idea for such a machine come from? Well, the law mower was patented
00:45 by Edward Beard Budding in 1830. He was working in a textile mill in Stroud Gloucester where
00:50 he designed a machine initially to trim the nap off cloth. His revolutionary idea was
00:56 to use it to cut grass. People thought the idea was pretty eccentric at the time so he
01:01 tested the machine at night so no one could see him.
01:05 The museum supplies lawn mowers and garden machinery for film and TV. Most recently the
01:10 Downton Abbey film where Brian says if you look closely you might spot his feet in the
01:16 shot too.
01:17 Quite often supply lawn mowers for films and TV programmes which is quite a nice thing
01:24 just to get so it's authentic for the programme.
01:27 We had a call from Brian May from the Rockvan Queen and he just rang up and said, "Is Brian
01:32 May here, would you like my old lawn mower?" and he wanted it to have a happy retirement.
01:36 From there we've got Paul O'Grady, Hilda Ogden, Dean Alexander from Coronation Street,
01:44 and Nicholas Parsons, Eric Morkhams.
01:48 I know we're all keen to do our bit when it comes to climate change but did you know that
01:52 just by having grass in your garden you are helping?
01:57 Grass plays a crucial role in producing oxygen. In fact it produces it at a rate greater than
02:04 trees.
02:05 Included in this unique national collection are manufacturers not normally associated
02:10 with the garden industry such as Rolls Royce, Royal Enfield, Dennis and many more.
02:15 With technical and industrial artefacts from the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
02:21 London Zoo was one of the first companies to buy a lawn mower and they had it pulled
02:26 by a camel. A camel is perfect because its hoof spreads out and you don't get hoof marks
02:32 into the freshly cut grass.
02:34 In a survey, the top smell came out to be freshly cut grass and things like that. It
02:43 creates things in your memory of sunny picnics on the lawn and that sort of thing.
02:50 The British Lawn Mower Museum in Southport is open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5.30pm.
02:57 Now does anyone know how to turn this thing on?
03:00 (bell dings)
03:02 (audience laughing)