Filey gardener owns 500-piece lawnmower collection worth thousands of pounds and is still adding to it

Green-fingered Jonathon Hardwick from Filey is 'spoiled for choice' when mowing his lawn for the first time this year - after inheriting one of Britain's biggest vintage lawnmower collections.

Jonathon, 49, took over the huge 500-piece collection belonging to his late father, Stan Hardwick, who was an ex golf club greenskeeper, after he died in 2024 aged 84 from prostate cancer.

The massive collection - which is over 35 years in the making and worth several thousand pounds - is crammed across nine sheds, a double garage, and inside the conservatory of Stan's old house in Filey, North Yorkshire, where his wife Margaret still lives.

The oldest mowers in the collection - which is thought to be Britain's second biggest - date back to the 19th century which include a handful of models some of which are believed to be the only ones in existence.

Jonathan regularly cuts the lawn at his mum's house and with spring arriving many gardeners will be preparing to make their first cut of the year. And Jonathon says there are 'plenty of options' that he could use.

He said: "There are so many to choose, I am spoiled for choice really. But I have decided this year I think I will use the Ransomes Automaton which dates back to the 1920s. It is a solid machine and has a nice weight. It has eight blades in the cylinder meaning it will give a nice low cut, exactly what the lawn needs."

Stan used to cut his lawn twice a week using a trusty 1930s push mower. The rarest model in the collection - valued at £5,000 - is an 1861 Shanks. Others include a Shanks roller triple mower from the mid 20s, which is believed to be the only one in existence, as well as a Ransomes Reversible mower from the 1870s, with only three others known.

He has even revealed he has used a number of mowers on garden jobs, including a 1900s Pennsylvania trimmer and edger and a 1930s 30-inch Dennis mower which weighs half a tonne to flatten out a customer's lawn.

Following Stan's death, Jonathan has vowed to maintain and even add to the huge collection.

He said: "My aim is to try and look after and maintain it the best that I can. There are so many, the hardest part is preserving them, ensuring they don't start rusting. I looked after the collection alongside my father since being a boy around 10 years old tinkering with them on weekends.

"I'm still adding to the collection, if I see a mower that will fill a gap I will get hold of it. I'm really proud of it - I see it as preserving a bit of British history. They remind me of my father each time I walk through the front door, his memory is living on through them. I look to keep hold of it for as long as possible, with no plans of selling up anytime soon."

Britain's biggest vintage lawnmower collection belongs to Andrew Hall, 65, and Michael Duck, 74, who live in Somerset which includes over 1,500 machines, including one from Donald Trump's golf course in Scotland.