THE OLD LAWNMOWER CLUB

ANNUAL RALLY 2003

Milton Keynes Museum

Saturday 17/Sunday 18 May

Another successful year for the Club's Annual Rally and AGM. It rained for most of the weekend but this did not stop members coming from all over the UK to be at the Museum. There were around 200 machines on show at one point on the Sunday afternoon. More than 60 Club Members were present at the AGM on Sunday morning.

This is a small selection of the mowers on show. Click on any of the thumbnails to see a larger version of the picture.

THE NEGOTIATORS!

Meeting up with old friends and making new ones is a big part of the rally. With members coming from all over the UK, the Milton Keynes event is usually the only chance to see each other each year. And there's always something new to see.

HOW DOES THAT WORK?

Checking out mowers at the rally helps Old Lawnmower Club members with their own restorations. Here, a group inspect a 1920s Automower (left) while another group ponders a bigger model from the same company made some years later.

BIG GAME HUNTING

* * * *

The club's Annual Rally attracts some of the biggest mowers. Here can be seen, from left to right, large Automower (c1940s), cast iron Ransomes motor mower (pre 1910), Ransomes ride on mower (1920s) and a large water cooled Atco (1930s).

SMALL IS OK TOO, YOU KNOW  

Not everyone brings the biggest machine in the boot of the car. Here are three shots showing a selection of smaller hand mowers dating from the 1800 to the 1940s.

YOU DON'T SEE ONE OF THESE EVERY DAY!

There are always a few mowers that even the most avid collector hasn't seen.

From left to right these are:
Corse & Carne motor mower made in Bedford, 1920s, belonging to Alec Hillyar.
Different view of the Corse & Carne.
Greens Light Motor Mower dating from the 1920s, belonging to Steve Smith.
Shanks Scot sidewheel mower complete with Slatter's "front runner" that allowed the mower to operate while overhanging the lawn edge.

YOU DON'T NEED THAT ON A DAY LIKE TODAY

Mowers were rarely water cooled but one that was is this JP from the 1920s. It was so wet at Milton Keynes Museum this year that most of the water needed to fill the open water jacket simply fell down from the sky.

* *

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

Someone's just about to make an announcement. Nobody wants to miss out...

AND THE WINNER IS...

Each year the club members who come to the rally choose their favourite mower and the owner of that machine receives a special award, The Andrew Grout Plate, named after one of our founder members. This year the prize went to Stan Hardwick for his Ransomes "Reversible" hand mower. This is a very unusual and small mower that was designed so that the handle swings from front to back to allow the mower to be used in tight spaces.

Andrew Grout (left) presents Stan (centre) and Jonathan (right) Hardwick with the special plate and tankard.

This year we instituted a new prize named the Charlie Jones Award. The prize will be awarded annually to a member of the club who has contributed something "above and beyond the call of duty". The first winner was John Bloxham who was at the club's very first rally in 1989 and who has hardly missed one since.

John Bloxham (left) receives the Charlie Jones Award from Charlie's son David (right) with Keith Wootton (centre).

Check out the images from the 2001 Annual Rally and the 2002 Annual Rally.

Images marked * by Bill Heath.