[alan]

That’s a good question!

Anything that’s a snapshot in time, so an item with box (small hand tools etc), with instructions, with an advert from the time and with price or receipt or some history.

I’d suggest anything unusual or anything from a small factory rather than a generic re-badged item from a massive churn-them-out factory. This is particularly true for future battery models, look back at potential futuristic machines from the 50’s and 60’s that hardly made production, are some of our items nowadays going to be short-run production items too?

In 2000 I bought a lawnmower cheap from Focus DIY as they were flogging them off for £99. I did at the time think of buying another one and putting it away, unused and in it’s box. Would it be worth £99 today 20 years on, the Briggs and Stratton engine would have been a good investment if it still worked! Although I have this nagging feeling that the steel deck would have rusted through and mice would have made a nest in the box!

[alan]

I don’t know much about Flymo’s but I’ve had a search and found an advert from 1980. It looks very similar and based on that I’d say it is a GL 19 inch. They were advertised from the late-ish 1970’s into the 1980’s and maybe beyond that.

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[alan]

I’m not sure how many of the 600 series tractors are in the UK. I’ve done some research on the Case range of garden and lawn tractors as we have quite a few in the collection but not a 600.

Research has thrown up a lot of newspaper adverts from independent machinery dealers advertising the Case range of tractors.

I have a Case brochure and have attached an image for the 600 Series from it.

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[alan]

The Fairlawn instructions can be downloaded from the members section:

Literature-Downloads

I’m re-doing the download pages bit at present.

[alan]

Thanks for that Charlie.

In 2014 I made a short video walking through the horticultural exhibits at Newby Hall, North Yorkshire. Video is on Youtube, I haven’t yet shared it on FB.

One day we will all get back to wandering through machinery again.

[alan]

When I researched the Ginge article for the VHGMC I struggled to find a great deal about Ginge. However, it did appear that the push cylinder mowers were very popular at the time but my guess is that many will have ended up in the back of sheds, got corroded and then ended up at the tip. Newer versions are available today which shows how good the mechanics were.

I’d suggest keeping the mower, particularly since it appears to be a good colour scheme and it has the reasonably rare Ginge-Raadvad logo on it too (if my memory is correct Ginge is now owned by Alko).

It’s probably one of those items that if it was at a show people would comment that they used to have one! Why not clean it up a little, sit in on a piece of astro-turf and add some vintage adverts to it? It’s be quite unusual to see.

[alan]

The brochures show a red and silver colour scheme as well.

[alan]

Thanks for the replies and useful info.

I’ve had another look. Batric adverts indicate that they were making electric powered machines back in the 1960’s and were still selling them into the 1980’s. Indeed it does appears mobility scooters etc became a main avenue in the 1970’s and beyond and were a great success.

Thanks for the info on Braune of Stroud (whom I did not know about) appears they made agricultural and horticultural machinery stuff too.

A few photos added. I’ll make a Batric page in the gallery for them all.

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[alan]

Hello Ian

The only image I can find is of a 1905 advert. At the bottom is mentioned the Excelsior and Improved Excelsior. ‘The Excelsior was awarded first prize, Royal Horticultural Society, 1886; also first prize, Paris Int. Ex. 1889. Many additional advantages are included in the 1905 pattern of the Improved Excelsior’

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[alan]

Just for info, there are handbooks and parts lists to download on the Hayter website;

https://www.hayter.co.uk/handbooks

[alan]

In 1977 the Horwool business was purchased by Nickerson Bros. of Lincolnshire.

[alan]

The only thing I can think of is that the shaft size may be different depending on engine and (from experience) require a pulley with a larger/smaller centre hole to fit on to the engine. I swapped a Tecumseh engine (cannot remember what machine)) for a much better Briggs and it required a new double pulley as the Tecumseh-sized one wouldn’t fit the Briggs.

I’ll attach the W6 brochure here as PDF for future reference for anyone (and subsequently devalue all W6 brochures being sold in online auctions). The brochure refers to the W6 as the Baby Gazelle.

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[alan]

I have the brochure, it says the W6 has a 222cc, 6hp, Tecumseh 4 stroke engine. The W6 was recoil start and the W6E was electric start.

The W8 model had a 314cc, 8hp, Briggs and Stratton 4 stroke engine with electric start.

However, this isn’t to say that the W6 was never available with a Briggs engine at some point. I’d be tempted to install a Briggs engine in any case if the current engine proves beyond repair.

[alan]

At the other end of the scale, I bought some brochures last week with free postage. Made an offer that was accepted by the seller, when they turned up the seller had paid more for the postage than I had for the brochures. They’d made a loss after taking into account the postage, listing fees and Paypal. I wonder if they were aware?

[alan]

Just had a look online, 1950’s by the Rowe Mfg Co.

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[Author]

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