A lawnmower enthusiast's paradise

Brian Radam is mad about lawnmowers - he loves their smell, their sound, the way they look and the way they're built. And he's not the only one.

Lawnmower-lovers gather in the tiny rooms above his shop hidden away in the back streets of the genteel British seaside town of Southport, overjoyed to share their passion with others.

"There are lots of keen collectors, but they don't tell anybody about it. If you went to the pub and you said: 'Do you want to see the dozen lawnmowers that I've got at home?' they'd think you were nuts," Radam said.

Apparently plenty of people are "nuts" in gardening-obsessed Britain, a country with a reputation for eccentricity where pursuits such as cheese-rolling, train-spotting and bog-snorkelling barely raise an eyebrow.

"We call them closet lawnmower-collectors," said Radam, surrounded by grass-cutting implements of every size and description.

There are even races for mowing enthusiasts put on by the British Lawn Mower Racing Association. Its last meeting was at Cuckoo Fayre in Laughton and it's no surprise that Radam is a former champion.

About 5000 visitors, from all points of the compass, come each year to his shop - which is also what Radam claims is the world's only lawnmower museum.

"Kids drag their parents along to the museum. They're besotted with lawnmowers," said the bearded and bespectacled 54-year-old.

With the demise of car maker MG Rover, the British lawnmower collection also serves as a poignant reminder of a once-proud tradition of engineering.

Britain's royal family and stars including Queen guitarist Brian May have donated old machines to Radam's collection, much of which he has assembled from salvaged, scrapped and unloved mowers that date back more than a century.

Other attractions include a working thumb-sized mower, a robot mower and machines put together by such venerable names in engineering as Rolls-Royce and Royal Enfield.

"Every one of these would bring a smile to your face when you cut the grass," said Radam.

"They create their own sound, they have their own smell. They've been in the family for generations."

And family, longevity and history are a big part of why lawnmower lovers feel the way they do.

Radam's passion for lawnmowers was fired by his father, who repaired them as part of his business. He then went on to serve an apprenticeship with a lawnmower manufacturer, before going back to work in his father's shop.

One day, Radam spied an abandoned Rolls-Royce machine.

"When it came to throw the scrap out, I said, 'It would be a shame, it's really good engineering'. We then started restoring them one by one, and it built up from there," Radam said.

"They're so well made. We've lost virtually all our British manufacturing, and so this is keeping a bit of our heritage going," he added.

The visitors' book in the shop pays testament to the memories rekindled by the collection.

Some spotted grandfather's old machine; others were reminded of less health-conscious times by a yellowed 1950s advertisement in which a gardener proclaims: "Now I can smoke and mow!"

The future for mowing enthusiasts looks rosy.

In 1830, British lawnmower inventor Edwin Budding tested his contraption at night for fear of being labelled a lunatic, Radam said. Now Budding's direct descendant sings the musical accompaniment to Radam's Lawnmowerworld DVD, a documentary about garden machinery through the ages.

Radam also has plans to build the world's fastest mower. With a target speed of 100mph (160km/h), the partially completed machine promises to be a blur of speed and grass clippings. Previous prototypes proved unstable at about 65mph (105km/h).

While speed may mark the industry's future, the museum inspires nostalgia for a gentler pace of life, transporting some of its visitors back to childhood and perhaps the smell of fresh-cut grass on a sunny spring morning.

"I have been to many museums, but none so exciting or interesting as this one," reads one guestbook entry.

"Must get a lawn."

Lawn lore

* The first patent for a lawnmower was taken out in 1830 by engineer Edwin Beard Budding, from Gloucestershire, England.

* Until then, lawns had to be trimmed with scythes or shears, or grazed by animals.

* Motorised mowers appeared in the 1890s, powered either by steam or petrol engines.

* Electric mowers were introduced in the 1920s.

* The first "hover" mowers were introduced by Flymo in the early 1960s.

- REUTERS