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I have poked around the internet to see what I can find about the buildings on Stirling Corner Borehamwood. I assume these were the Opperman premises – but if anyone knows differently then please correct me.
The Ordnance Survey maps show a building appeared at Stirling Corner in 1938 – Opperman started there in 1938/39. This building no longer exists as the Morrisons supermarket building has replaced it.
The same footprint of buildings is on a 1945 image.
Interestingly, the roundabout at Sterling Corner features in many films, presumably because the Elstree Studios are only 1.5 miles up the road and filming was done in this area. The buildings on this corner appear briefly in an episode of the 1958 detective series ‘Dial 999’ – I looked at the film and have a screenshot. Were these the Borehamwood Opperman premises?
Monty Python filmed the sketch “The 127th Upper Class Twit of the Year” on the sports field on the opposite side of the road to the buildings, but it’s too vague to see anything.
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That does look like a Gutbrod ride-on mower – or identical to a Gutbrod. Is there any Gubrod identification and can you tell the original colour?
Your tractor looks complete, although I cannot see if you have the mower deck. It is a reasonably scarce machine and the 1966 engine code seems a likely date.
I recall the mower deck would possibly have been 24″ wide. It would have been side-discharge by the front right wheel.
There can be a slight difference in the seat spring, bonnet design, engine size (4 or 5 hp), gearbox can be 1 or 3 forward speeds, and tyres can be pneumatic or the semi-pneumatic ones which essentially are just hard rubber.
On the Gutbrods, the steel seat, steering wheel, engine, mower deck and wheel centres would have been painted white. The rest of the machine, apart from the unpainted gearbox, would have been red.
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It could certainly be from a tree or nursery stock.
A few years ago when working I found many tags from fruit trees and plants that had fallen to the ground and been buried for decades. I still have quite a few in different shapes and sizes. One unusual one is for Narcissus Masterpiece – this cast plant label measures 62mm x 18mm x 5mm thick, and so the mystery disk at 51mm across and 4mm thick is probably not an unusual size for a cast tag/label.
There was quite a bit of label production in the 1800s and 1900s. One report recommended writing the name on the tree trunk in case the label fell off in transit!
The attached advert from 1875 describes the newly adopted labels for the Royal Gardens at Windsor. The labels were made from ‘white metal’ with raised black-faced letters. They were made by J Smith, The Royal Label Factory, Stratford-on-Avon.
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There’s a photo in the spring 1977 issue of the Agricultural Machinery Journal for the smaller F80. There’s also a snippet of text regarding what was on sale at that same time.
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The Westwood Groundhog machines were introduced in the 1970s. There’s no mention of the groundhogs in 1973, but in autumn 1974 adverts were promoting the ‘NEW’ Westwood Groundhogs. When launched the 3 hp model was advertised at £95.
The date of your GT5 machine could be determined by the code stamped into the cowling on the engine.
The attached advert from 1976 shows that the Groundhog could be had with 3 to 5 hp engines.
A Westwood factory advert from Plympton in 1975 (the factory was brand new at this point) shows a row of Groundhogs in the background.
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I hadn’t heard of ABC engines so looked them up. Sources say that a company called A.B.C. Motors Ltd, London, were started in 1912 and was known for aircraft engines including vee, vertical and radial types.
This reminded me about Wankel rotary engines used on a few mower brands including Wolf.
Indeed, Drayton engines and also Blackburne to add to the list.
I have seen on adverts (but don’t know the manufacturer):
Acme & Intermotor (Danarm/Bertolini cultivators)
Oleo-Mac (on their chainsaws)
Komatsu ZenoahThat is an intriguing item!
There’s a TV show called ‘Would I lie to you?’, and on that theme there could be some interesting ideas as to what this mushroom shaped copper item is… so could it be for catching earwigs much like putting an upside down plant pot full of straw at the top of a cane. Here though, a small pot of straw would be put in the device attracting the crawling insects – although with a small candle it could attract moths instead.
Or could it be attached to a paraffin heater to distribute heat downwards to warm a greenhouse bench for seedlings etc – preceding the later use of electrically heated cables.
Or could it be for fumigation as Charlie suggests?
What convincing ideas have other members got?
