Viva Brighton Issue #77 July 2019

MY SPACE
.............................
Photos by Lizzie Lower
The Museum of Gardening
Founder Clive Gravett
What’s in the museum? I’m a lawnmower
historian, so predominantly mowers. The
lawnmower was invented in 1830, and we’ve
got models from the 1860s to the 1980s. We’ve
probably got 60 or 70 on show, with as many
or more hidden away. There’s all sorts of other
gardening kit too: spraying and watering tools,
cucumber straighteners, and a collection of
Sussex-made terracotta.
Is anything missing from the collection? A
Budding mower from the 1830s, but we don’t
think any still exist. Edwin Budding developed
the lawnmower’s cutting cylinder and also the
screw adjustment for the adjustable wrench. He
was a brilliant engineer. He was working in the
wool industry – making a crosscutting machine
to take the nap off woven fabric – when he came
up with the idea for the lawnmower. I like to
think that he saw men working with scythes,
out of the factory window, and realised that his
cylinder cutter could do the same job.
What’s the rarest piece here? We’ve got
several mowers and edgers that we believe are
the only ones of their kind. I help run The Old
Lawnmower Club – we’ve got 500 members
worldwide – and no one has seen anything like
them. The strangest piece is a hand-operated
mower from the United States. You could
control the speed on the cutting cylinder with a
hand wheel.
You’ve written a book, Two Men Went to
Mow? Yes. It’s the story of Edwin Budding
and what I’ve done in his name: my search
for the little-known inventor, a walk through
lawnmower history and its impact on sport and
society, and how I’ve created a museum and
charity in his name.
Tell me about the charity. I set up The
Budding Foundation on my 60th birthday, nine
years after I’d retired from banking. I’d been
doing horticultural workshops in schools, and
I had family members who worked for Social
Services, so I had gained an insight into young
people in need. We support kids aged from 5-18
....88....