When we moved into our new home in the late ’90s I used to cut the lawn using my Dad’s old electric mower - a Qualcast something or other. It was old, blunt and rather wobbly and sort of tore at the grass rather than cut it.

For whatever reason I’d always fancied an old fashioned push mower so about 3 or 4 years ago I started to look around for one. I’d decided that I wanted an old one rather than a new one though thinking back I can’t recall why that was!

After much fruitless searching, by chance I stumbled upon an advert in a copy of Loot and a chap was offering a used push mower. We didn’t live close to each other so we met up in a road outside Warrington. The chap was offering an old, sturdy Ransomes Ajax mower and was asking £50 for it. I started to haggle when he pulled out his trump card …he had a second Ransomes mower in the boot and would let me have both for £80! He twisted my arm and I handed over my money. It would have been a perfect deal but for the fact there was only one grassbox.

The photo on the homepage is one of those Ransomes and I’ve used it since to mow my lawns. It’s a lovely, sturdy mower and cuts my (not great quality) lawns well. It’s simple to use with no cable to look out for or  cable to pull-start. The only downside is the split steel roller on the back as it’s rather heavy - todays models are more user friendly of course!