I do not believe any of the old Barford of Belton production records remain as much paperwork and finished parts were scrapped during the British Leyland closure period. My main contact who worked at Belton from the 1960s through to closure in the 1980s believes all to be destroyed.
The usual format is, as stated, to date from the engine date on the flywheel edge and hope your machine is still fitted with the original engine. Our Atom 15 has a Villiers 12HS with 50 stamped on the flywheel dating it to 1950 suggesting it to be fitted with an engine bought in before the launch date, possibly the whole machine being part of the pre-launch build.
Model introduction dates are known: Mechanical Gardener in 1947, the Atom 15 at the Smithfield Show in 1951, and the Atom 30 in 1959 although sales of a previous model may not have ceased when a new model was introduced. Production ended in the late 1960s.
The Barford Atom was one of the best small garden tractors available to be produced by a British company and taking its range of accessories into account one of the most versatile and it is greatly to British Leylands detriment that the product was scrapped and not updated……but then BL’s reputation was to bring companies down rather than to improve them.–Steve
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