Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club

Would you like to test your knowledge on vintage garden machinery? Here are ten general questions to pass five minutes, the answers are at the bottom of the page. 

If you missed the Christmas questions – they are much harder – then they can be found here: Christmas machinery quiz.


Questions:

1. Brott mowers (see gallery) are interesting machines from the 1960’s and 1970’s. They are ride-on mowers with a flail cutting action. Brott also introduced a pedestrian controlled flail mower to their range in 1972, what descriptive name did they give this mower? 

A: Cuttit
B: Cropet
C: Choppit

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2. The Dynamark 10/36 ride-on-mower was available in the UK, image right (or larger image). It looks familiar to other ride-on-mowers of the 70’s and 80’s but which other manufacturer had an almost identical machine?

A: Mountfield
B: Lawnflite
C: Westwood



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3. The Merry Tiller was a versatile machine with many attachments. Which of the following was a genuine attachment for some of the machines? 

A: Cement Mixer
B: Paint Sprayer
C: Elevator


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4. Massey Ferguson retailed a range of their MF badged machinery. Although most were painted red, which other colour were some of their early tractors painted?

A: Blue
B: Yellow
C: Green

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5. A yellow painted two-wheel drive quad-bike called the ‘Scout’ with an air-cooled Piaggio engine was produced by a well known machinery manufacturer in the 1980’s, but who was it? 

A: Marshall
B: Sisis
C: Massey Ferguson

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6. The company called O.T.A. made tractors that  started to appear in the late 1940’s. In 1953 the rights were sold to the Singer Motor Co. But what does O.T.A. stand for? 

A: Opperman Tractor Assembly 
B: Oak Tree Appliances
C: Oxford Trading Association

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7. An attachment was available to make some Flymo motorised cultivators more useful for the gardener, but which of the three listed attachments was it?

A: A wheelbarrow 
B: A chainsaw
C: A trailer

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8. Another attachment question:  In 1964 Landmaster Ltd was advertising the Gardenmaster tiller. It was a very useful piece of equipment and versatile, too. Advertised as being able to use various attachments it could be used for digging, weeding, lawn raking, grass cutting and which other task? 

A: Edging lawns
B: Sweeping paths
C: Hedge trimming

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9. Around 1960 Lea Francis Cars based in Coventry were struggling with sales of  their new Lynx motor car and to try to fill the gap they produced which type of horticultural machine for a very short time?

A: A pedestrian mower with optional seat 
B: A garden tiller with flexi-drive tools
C: A tractor with optional attachments

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10. A certain food product can sometimes be found on VHGMC show stands if the Chairman is in attendance. What food item does he take along to share with everyone?

A: Pick & Mix
B: Luxury Belgian chocolate selection
C: Pork Pie

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Answers:

1: B: The pedestrian controlled Brott flail mower was called the Cropet, it had an 80cm cut and featured hydrostatic drive.

2: C: The Westwood range of ride-on-mowers with the plastic front end are much the same machines as the Dynamark. 

3: A: A Baromix cement mixer was available for some of the Merry Tillers

4: B: Yellow. Some of the early MF tractors such as the MF Elf were painted bright yellow and were based on Gutbrod tractors. 

5: A: Marshall had a couple of ‘Scout’ quad bikes produced and brought to the UK. After assessment they were dropped and never went on sale. 

6: B: The initials stand for Oak Tree Appliances. 

7: A: A wheelbarrow attachment was available for some Flymo cultivators. It attached to the front of the machine. 

8: C: The Gardenmaster (as in Q8 image) could be equipped with a hedge trimming attachment that enabled hedges to be cut ten times faster than with hand shears. 

9: C: A tractor. Lea Francis produced the Uni-Horse tractor for about a year before they ceased trading. Manufacturing of the tractors was taken over by another company.

10:C: Pork pie.