Classic Gardening Magazine | Gardening as it ought to be

Lawnmowers of the rich and famous

You think we mock? Not a bit of it. In the bracing English seaside town of Southport is the British Lawnmower Museum. And they have quite a collection of mowers with notable owners.

What you see here is Paul O'Grady's mower - a handsome machine finished in fluffy shocking pink and leopard skin print. Look closely, though, and you see that it has been well used.

Whether Mr Lily Savage himself followed it up and down the garden we aren't told, but someone has certainly been hard at work with it.

There is also a ride-on Atco that was given to The Prince and Princess of Wales as a wedding present by the manufacturers. Sitting on its seat is a child's mower that was once used by the Princes Andrew and Edward. A cutting from the Daily Mail shows them cutting the lawn at Buckingham Palace.

I particularly like Hilda Ogden's Panther. Hilda, in case you are too young (or foreign) to remember, was a stalwart of Coronation Street, played for many years by Jean Alexander.

Then there is the first solar-powered mower, created at a development cost of £1m in the Nineties using technology developed for the Space Shuttle. At the other end of the technological scale is a very basic machine - just a drum with the cylinder made out of chicken wire. The idea was you put your rabbits or guinea pigs inside and as they nibbled away the 'mower' rolled around the lawn, and the grass got cut.

You can find out more about the museum here

And see a video of my visit here