Alan

I just looked up Pugh and Atco and didn’t know that!

Andrew,

I reckon your Sheffield/Rome question has either got something to do with:

1, Seven Hills
2, Russell Crowe, him off that there Gladiators film lives there and works part time in the Co-Op.
3, There’s a replica of the Colosseum round t’back of Weatherspoons

Geoff thinks it’s that Russell Crowe bloke, but I’m doubtful.

Re:photos. I’ve just checked on iPad (new version, 8th generation) and photos open fine, and VHGMC software is up to date too. I’d check any pop up/ security settings in case that’s blocking images.

It’s interesting what some companies made. I recall that Huffy ride-on-mowers were (and still are) bike manufacturers and also made sewing machines. Husqvarna made all sorts including household and kitchen appliances including washing machines and cookers, and also motorbikes.

That looks a very good lineup of Colebys. And the sun was shining!

This year has certainly seen a significant rise in the amount of visitors passing through the VHGMC website looking for information or doing research. I noted that one major manufacturer (who will remain nameless) used some information about their vintage machines that had been…[Read more]

That’s great news.

I’ve had need to contact a few manufacturers recently regarding their archive material, it can be very hit and miss getting a reply!

It would be good to see a copy of the article when it appears in their publication.

I have had a look through newspaper archives and see that some dealer adverts in the 1950’s onwards refer to ‘Howard Rotavators’ as in the attached 1956 Cyril Johnson advert, this may however just be a sloppy way of the person who compiled the advert referring to the Howard company or what they produced. The Johnson advert also says “If it’s not a…[Read more]

I can see the confusion. Handlebars aside, looking at the tin work it looks very similar to the Atco Ensign from the brochures…but then many mowers do look the same. Perhaps an upgrade of their mower to an Atco, much like sticking go-faster stripes to a car!
 
Anyone any ideas?

I never thought to look at the VHGMC stuff, instead I looked through some magazines! That’ll teach me!

Many thanks for linking the two threads together.

B.O.I.L stands for British Overhead Irrigation Ltd. So can assume it’s from one of their irrigation systems, dating from the early 1950’s onwards.

Bits of info say that the Wizard Simplex was an oscillator irrigating crops 25′ to each side, does this sound right?

B.O.I.L were for many years based at Upper Halliford, Shepperton, Middlesex. I’ll…[Read more]

Andy, Many thanks for the information.

I have had a look and found information on the Festival Auto Culto. I have found an advert and have a photo from which the advert image was taken. I’ll attach both. I’m sure that if I look harder I’ll find some other manufacturers that attended.

The archives relating to the Festival are held by the National…[Read more]

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…[Read more]

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.

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…[Read more]

The Fairlawn instructions can be downloaded from the members section:

Literature-Downloads

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

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.