David G. Halford

David G. Halford became interested in old lawnmowers in 1974 when he was asked, as Senior Lecturer in Horticultural Machinery at the Lancashire College of Agriculture and Horticulture (now Myerscough College, Preston), to look after some old lawnmowers belonging to the County Council. Some of the first ones that arrived at the college were very old and so different from modern machines that, when he commenced restoring them, he became so interested that he tried to find out something of their history. No one had made a study of mowers, so he started the long task of researching back to the time of the first invention. He also started a collection of the various types and makes of old machines. Many of these have now been restored to working order. Following a television appearance he received many offers of old mowers, and these have been added to the collection. Storage became a problem but this was solved when the National Trust set up a permanent exhibition of the collection at Trerice Manor near Newquay in Cornwall.