Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club

The cutting width is 19 inch. I wondered about the cowling being apparently aluminium so it appears it is a GT2 JLO model. Now I just have to get it going, does it have the usual points and condenser under the flywheel?

Many thanks for the detailed information.

I remember my father having a number of barrow sprayers in the 1970’s thrown in the hedge as no longer used on our hop farm in Kent. Most were made by Drake and Fletcher or Weeks of Maidstone but the iron frame was different to yours. Where are you based as it could be of local manufacture.

You could try Jon Cruse at http://www.themowercentrehailsham.com. he has a good selection of vintage parts.

According to the 1959 Ferodo Belt Catalogue the Gunsmith takes flat belt W34 which has an inside circumference of 38 inches with one and a half inches width and one eighth inch thickness. Hope this helps. They were £1.18/6 in 1959!

Logo on my spreader

Thanks Alan, it’s nice to see a contemporary advert and the cross section diagram. Apparently chosen British manufactured items were exhibited at the Design centre in Haymarket, London where the public could go and see (and presumably order) them. The product could then carry the triangular Design centre sticker.

Coborn (Browett and Lindley) were taken over by Petters Ltd after the 2nd world war. You could try the Internal Fire Museum in W Wales who have the Petter engine records and may have got some records for Coborn engines in with them.

Villiersparts are out of replacements, expressed surprise at the type of unit in my magneto. Definitely not original so looks as if I am looking for another engine.

The stallholder smiled and said ‘If you can identify that, I will reduce the price’, so I surprised him and said what it was, his surprise didn’t reduce it much though.
Some years ago I found an Edwardian postcard of a man in a field hitting his scythe with a hammer. That set me off on a journey of research and I discovered in the history of…[Read more]

Jensales do a reproduction Johnson Iron Horse manual which you can download, but it is not cheap.

Thanks Andrew for the information, sounds like a useful machine for restoring lawns. What is the best time of year to use it to improve the sward?

A picture would help.
There was a Johnson Iron horse which is a small air cooled engine often attached to a generator, these were made in America and I believe manuals are available in the US if you search on the web.

Thanks for your help with dating info, I believe the mower was originally used in the grounds of the local university

This is my Ransomes Mk10 no B3413 which I believe also dates to around 1939 and which I found recently in the next village. It is all freed up but I have not had it running yet.
I have not been able to find any original pre war mower catalogues although there is/was someone in Australia reproducing some of the older ones and I got a nice copy of a…[Read more]