[alan]

It does remind me of the Valor Ironcrete mower from the late 1960’s onwards, called the ‘twelve plus’ or something. I have a photo somewhere, though I recall that my photo shows an orange mower with a Valor decal on the corner of the grassbox. They possibly made a battery version in the 1980/90s which might have been the orange one…?

Valor Engineering LTD, Birmingham.

Whether or not it’s a Valor, it’s a pretty standard machine of the time of which others made similar machines, monetary value not massive but a tidy machine if in working order.

[alan]

Excellent photos, many thanks for posting those.

The Barford with the sawbench is a nice display.

[alan]

What appears to be the matter? It’ll cost you a pork pie.

[alan]

And then I have an image sent which is of the same Wheelhorse model in 1960 in France. Apparently sold by a company called Champion.

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[alan]

The ploughing section is at:

Ploughing

Also there’s some paid member downloads at:

Ransomes MG Downloads

[alan]

That’s an interesting and possibly rare piece of equipment, you really must give it a try!

I’ve found a piece of text from 1953 which explains it:

“The Fairlawn spreader is made by the Fairlawn Company, Fairfield Works, Buxton, Derbyshire, to fit any normal wheelbarrow and enables accurate distribution of small repeated doses of artificial fertiliser”.

It could spread weedkiller, lime, sand etc at a rate of 1/2 oz to 1lb per square yard. Simple controls and satisfaction guaranteed. Cost was £9/10/0 carriage paid in 1956.

A company called Fairfield International Spreaders were also based at the Fairfield works in 1954.

Interestingly the Fairfield Works have had many uses including the Buxton Mineral water Co. in the late 1800’s.

[alan]

I think it’s a Flymo DM rotavator with 3hp Briggs engine. Introduced in 1978 and sold for many years.

[alan]

The earliest reference and advert I have to the Grassmaster is 1951, so it could well have been several years old by 1969.

[alan]

I’ll add a closeup if I can…

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[alan]

Actually I cheated and searched the website via Google.

To search the site from the Google search bar on the Google homepage type site:vhgmc.co.uk followed by the search wanted

e.g. site:vhgmc.co.uk landmaster 150

The search includes images too and I see there’s some photos of the engine amongst them.

[alan]

Also an 1960 advert for the L150 – I assume this is the machine in question, but it doesn’t mention the engine.

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[alan]

There’s some information that may help, it’s possibly a JAP 16H.

https://vhgmc.co.uk/forums/topic/landmaster-numbering/

[alan]

As far as I know the Landmaster trucks were made by Byron Horticultural Engineering Ltd which was originally a manufacturer of greenhouses in the 50’s and 60’s. It was started by Frank Bonser, and somewhere in the muddle are a few Bonser companies including Frank Bonser (Sales) Ltd, Frank Bonser & Co. Ltd and Bonser engineering Ltd – I’m assuming connected to the Bonser truck and possibly why they made a truck for Landmaster?

Anyone know any more?

[alan]

Indeed there was two different pressed deck designs and both on sale at the same time too. One had a blue grass box, but you could well be right about the blue painted deck….as there was also an orange one too!

There’s an image of both mowers and info on one of the VHGMC articles:

https://vhgmc.co.uk/2017/08/when-machines-go-modern/

[alan]

The Jetstream was a very popular machine in it’s day. Impressively it was not just a UK machine but also sold across Europe and gained a ‘Best Buy’ award in 1975 by one of the consumer associations over there.

According to magazine reports, as electric mowers became more popular through the 1970’s Qualcast decided to introduce an electric version of the Jetstream – whether it looked like it’s petrol powered brother I don’t know.

Jetstreams do appear on auction site sometimes, in fact one has just sold for £75 which is similar figure to what it was new!

[Author]

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