[alan]

It is indeed a Landmaster.

There is a VHGMC article from last year that gives an idea of the small ride-on market in the UK in the 1960s and 70’s. It is easy to get some of the machines confused especially once the stickers or some of the tinwork has been removed as the workings can look very similar – and in some cases are from the same parts bin.

Article about small-ride-ons is here: https://vhgmc.co.uk/2016/06/mini-ride-on-mowers/

And there are some Landmaster ride-on pictures in the gallery: https://vhgmc.co.uk/photo-galleries/landmaster/

[alan]

I’ve done a bit of digging and here’s a little more about Emery. It’s a few random bits in case anyone ever needs to chase up info on Emery.

A. J. Emery and Sons Ltd was a new company started in about July 1940 (image from 23rd July 1940 attached). Located at 7 Whitehall Road, Halesowen, it was to carry on the business of ‘general engineers, toolmakers and machinists etc’. The company capital was £1000, that’s £40K in 2017 money, it was a reasonable amount.

The company was A.J Emery and Sons Limited. The partners being A.J.Emery (father) and S.F.Emery (presumably the son). Their home address was only 250 yards away from the business premises so perhaps that’s why they opted for the Whitehall Road premises?

There are only a couple of adverts with the company details, in one private advert (image attached) advertised for sale is a centre screw cutting lathe in November 1940, this is only shortly after setting up the company.

On old maps, number 7 Whitehall Road was a large premises and certainly capable of large scale production – that is if they had the whole of the premises although they appear to be the only occupiers of the address. The premises no longer exist due to redevelopment, demolished in the 1980/90’s it seems, it is now the site of the Travelodge carpark. There is a photo of the road and premises with the red arrow pointing to the factory (image attached). A 1954 map states the factory to be ‘General Engineering Works’.

There doesn’t appear to be any adverts for recruiting staff, adverts for the products they made (apart from 1940’s mowers) and no real indication of what they did.

The Emery lawnmower was distributed through Holt, Whitney & Co Ltd, Birmingham who were major distributors and exporters at the time sending items to Canada and far afield, although there is no indication that the mowers went abroad.

Holt, Whitney & Co also dealt with sales of the Coleby Cultivator in 1948 as well as the Emery lawnmower at the same time. Would this have spurred Emery into creating their own cultivator?

We may never know.

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[alan]

There appears to be quite a few different Turfmaster models. I’ve had a look and sadly cannot find any mention of a model 25 PS.

As far as I see the company changed hands in the 1980’s and it’s possible there might have been different model number changes then.

[alan]

I’ve just looked up Emery in newspaper archives and info is a bit thin on the ground.

They did have a 14″ Universal Rotary Cultivator at Chelsea Flower Show in 1951. Apparently it was described as having a 3hp engine and a low price and was ‘just the job’ for nursery and market-gardening work.

A 1955 advert says that Loxhams of Lancaster were selling new and reconditioned Emery Rotary Cultivators (as well as new Singer and OTA 10hp tractors).

There are a few Emery adverts for lawnmowers, one attached here. But not much else!

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[alan]

Also, any ideas on this machine?

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[alan]

Google is thankfully incredibly good at indexing the VHGMC stuff.

For example try the following link to search for Monro Tiller and see the search criteria in the search box:

site:vhgmc.co.uk monro tiller

[alan]

Searching the site can be done from Google too, go to Google and type in:

site:vhgmc.co.uk followed by what you are searching for, as an example:

site:vhgmc.co.uk qualcast panther

Google will search through the images too.

[alan]

More:

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[alan]

And yet a few more:

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[alan]

And a few more:

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[alan]

There’s some Gunsmith images in the gallery which may be of interest:

https://vhgmc.co.uk/photo-galleries/gunsmith/

I’ve just found a couple of new images this week showing some interesting attachments, the first is a sprayer exhibited at the 1950 Smithfield Show. The second from 1951 is a 5cwt tipping skip which could be lowered and emptied from the drivers seat.

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[alan]

I think Charlie may be right that it’s a Stothert & Pitt roller, they did many rollers powered by Villiers Mk12, Mk25 and Mk40 engines. They did make a vibrating self propelled roller and also a 28 inch one too both with Mk25 engines certainly in the early 1960’s onwards. Also, Greens did a Unirol pedestrian roller with a Villiers Mk25 engine.

[alan]

Chris, next time I’m searching I’ll see if there are any private adverts for Bolens 4-wheeled tractors. Like the Australian extract on the article where someone had imported a Bolens 2 wheeler even before Bolens had, there may be tractors in the UK before 1959.

[alan]

Thanks for the question.

The database is held securely and also since the site doesn’t take payment details – they are securely processed by Paypal – any security risk is on a par with any other website.

As a reminder to all, we do advice members not to post their email address or phone number on the website. It also reminds me that years ago we were asked if we’d do a members map on the website, however it was a great way to pinpoint members and their machines so we did not proceed with that function. However I know of one machinery forum that has a members map and it is a major security risk for all the members involved.

[alan]

I remember when I studied proper design work (this was just before I did landscape design and then everyone was allowed to be “artistic” and draw like 4 year olds) we had to show our ability at technical drawing and copy out existing plans of equipment – lay it out on paper and do the proper presentation, lettering, etc. One of the images was certainly Stephenson’s Rocket. I just wonder if Chris’ thoughts about it being a design exercise or something along those lines may be in the right direction.

[Author]

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