Lawncare has been practised for over 300 years. Formal lawns were a feature of landed estates since at least the early 1700s, when grass was kept short by grazing animals or hand-cut with shears and scythes. But history was made in 1830, when Englishman Edwin Bear Budding was granted the patent for the first mechanical lawn mower. In the 1850s steam-powered mowers were invented. No doubt they were heavy! These mowers were of the cylinder type. In 1870, Elwood McGuire of Richmond, Indiana, USA designed a human-pushed lawn mower, which was relatively lightweight (but heavy by today’s standards) and was a commercial success. The rise in popularity of lawn sports helped prompt the spread of the invention.

Rotary mowers were not developed until engines were small enough and powerful enough to run the blades at a high speed. These didn’t become commercially available until the 1950s. In In 1953, an English company Briggs & Stratton revolutionised the lawn and garden industry by developing the first lightweight aluminium engine. The next big change was the invention of the hover mower in 1964, by the well-known firm Flymo.