Original subtitles

Many years ago, I used to work in a factory, and one of the jobs was mowing

lawn outside.

Love it!

Are you all right, though?

It's very noisy.

What do you reckon?

Well, you would expect the lawn to be lovely, considering they make lawn

inside this factory.

If only we had a drone to look at all my lovely handiwork.

Oh, yeah.

That's the ticket.

Anyhow.

Today, we're at one of the UK's biggest lawnmower factories.

Oh, beautiful.

And I'm mower man.

Well, sort of.

I look like a cross between Buzz Aldrin and a Teletubbies.

On a mission to learn how high -tech machinery... It's like a nitro butter

Makes mighty mowers that deliver.

Right to be proud of. Gorgeous.

It's a factory dedicated to engineering precision.

Would you say that it's like the Bentley of the factory?

Rolls Royce, mate. Rolls Royce!

And while I find out how to get the perfect lawn, Cherry's been let loose on

most hell of a tip of all.

That's right.

I'm at Wembley.

Wow. getting it fit perfect for the biggest game of the season.

I feel like I've died and I've gone to grass heaven.

And historian Ruth Goodman is uplifted by hovercraft technology.

They've been making lawn mowers at this factory since the 1940s. So they

certainly can cut it when it comes to mower construction.

Apologies for that. Welcome to Inside the Factory.

You've done it all.

Chaps.

Anything good on?

Right, OK, I'll move on.

It's forced to stay inside the factory.

Never mind. I can clearly see they're a happy bunch here.

Very important.

This is the Toro factory in Hertfordshire, where they make over 15

lawnmowers every year.

They make all sorts of mowers here.

Oh, look at these.

From biggins for the largest of country manors... That's proper, that.

..to high -tech machines for Wimbledon tennis... and Premier League football

clubs.

But today, I'm following production of this little beauty.

The Hayter Harrier 56 petrol -powered lawnmower.

What a gorgeous bit of kit this is.

Producing something like this is no mean feat.

It's a complex three -dimensional jigsaw puzzle, made up of 87 individual

parts. At its heart is an engine, which powers a rotary cutting

blade underneath, as well as a roller at the back, which propels the

machine forward whilst giving your lawn that classic striped finish.

Production begins with the main body of the mower, called the debt.

And how's that for TV timing?

As design engineer Richard Carter just happens to be receiving a delivery of

them.

Hey -up, Richard.

Hey, Freddie. How are you?

Good to see you, buddy.

I've got to be honest with you, I've had every lawnmower... Under the sun over

the years, I've had petrol ones, electric ones, ride -on ones.

I love a good lawnmower, but these days I've gone a little bit to the dark side.

Artificial grass.

Oh, no.

Well,

hopefully by the end of today, we'll have you back to where you should be.

fingers crossed, you know, because every time I see Chris Packham, he looks at

me in disgust.

So these are the decks.

These are the aluminium decks that we use to create the main part of the

lawnmower. And instantly recognisable for me, that. Now, why aluminium?

With aluminium, it doesn't rust.

It'll last you a lifetime.

Are these done on site?

These are done off site in Asia.

So just looking at the gubbins, I suppose the main things in there are

the blade and the roller.

That's right. So you can see on the underside, there's a lot of engineering.

the rear roller goes here. The engine gets mounted there. And then the blade

sits right in the middle and goes, sweeps around the cutting chamber here.

Well, what we need to do now is get this ready for paint. So we're going to take

this over to the paint line over there and get it hung up.

Even aluminium mowers need painting to prevent corrosion in the British

Here we go.

Here we are.

Let's help on here, Paddy. Yeah.

Clicking them in there. That's it, just hooks into there.

And they make their way round to the first station to get cleaned up, ready

get painted.

Send them off, pal.

Let's go.

Let's go.

You've got to have a bit of authority in your voice, Richard.

Time to start the stopwatch.

As the decks head off at quite a leisurely speed, I have to say.

Can we have a look at where the paint is at?

We'd like you to help out, Paddy, but you might want to cover yourself up a

Is it going to be that messy?

Just a little bit. I've done a bit of painting and cutting in at home.

What's going on here? This kind of paint, Paddy, is quite different to what

you're used to at home. You know what?

I was enjoying today because I can see the whites of your eyes. I've not got

the PPE on.

But just as I get out, they drag me back in again. And I'll tell you something

now. Ruth Goodman, our historian, will not have to put up with this. She'll be

swallowing about at the minute.

Some manor house living the dream.

There you go.

Told you.

300 years ago, grand lawns were not really a thing.

Posh country houses had straight gravel paths, box hedging in elaborate

patterns.

And they don't come much posher than the magnificent 18th century Blenheim

Palace in Oxfordshire.

To find out how these formal grounds were transformed by a very special

gardener, I'm meeting historians.

kate feller hello hi ruth lovely to see you what a wonderful

patterned sort of a garden this is isn't it amazing very very formal but this is

just a fraction of what was here here's a plan from 1717 which shows the

scale of the great parterre so what we're in is just that little beast there

it's tiny in comparison this is yeah the great parterre was 30 times

larger than today's patterned garden and this was built to emulate

french gardens so it was like the versailles of england but i want to show

what it looks like today okay follow me

oh

it's all gone it's all gone all ripped out

And what you get instead is this beautiful sweep of lawn.

The kind of embodiment of the English landscape style, they called it. It was

reaction against the French gardens of the earliest century.

Here you get simplicity.

The fourth Duke of Marlborough had grown tired of the fussy, formal French style

he'd inherited at Blenheim Palace.

And so in 1764, the Duke employed the celebrity gardener of the day,

Brown, to transform his vast estate.

The lavish project cost the equivalent of over £2 million and took ten years to

complete.

He did an awful lot of tree planting. He created the lake around the other side

of the palace. And here particularly, he got rid of the great parterre. So the

scale... of the job of removing it was absolutely vast

the original great parterre was

10 times the size of the palace but undaunted capability brown swept it away

hundreds of tons of stone gravel and hedging were hauled off by as many as a

thousand laborers

It's all done by hand with men with shovels and wheelbarrows. It's before

even, let alone the sort of machinery that we have today.

They did have horsepower, which was used to plough the soil before grass seed

was sown.

When finished, the results were spectacular.

With both the front and back of the palace.

framed by vast lawns. So this is about celebrating those elements of the

countryside, the greenness of it. Absolutely.

With the fields, the grass, this openness, the trees, the hills.

Real quintessential Englishness.

And these long vistas. I mean, they're busily saying, I own all this.

But the 60 acres of newly created grass did leave the Duke with a bit of a

problem.

How on earth are they cutting a lawn on this sort of scale?

Before the invention of the mechanical lawnmower, you had this very clever

invention called sheep.

Right.

And they can graze it quite short, down to about five centimetres. But you

wouldn't want the sheep wandering into your house, would you? No, you wouldn't.

But equally, you wouldn't want to see a fence. So here he used this wonderful

invention, the ha -ha. The ha -ha.

A ditch but with a wall on one side, so it's a sheer face.

Exactly. But it's invisible in the landscape.

It looks as if this lawn just carries on forever.

That's the whole trick of it. And you get to the edge and you realise at the

last minute that it's there, aha, you say.

Hence the word, aha.

But with sheep banished from the lawns near the house...

and the invention of the mechanical lawnmower some 60 years away, the Duke

to employ a large team of gardeners whose sole job was to keep the lawn

using scythes.

How many people would you need to be able to keep a lawn scythed like that?

Well, the Duke had 80 outdoor servants and probably 35 of them were employed

just on the south lawn here.

I mean, talk about a status symbol.

Exactly.

And that is hard work.

But it's skilled as well. They could judge it just right. The grass would be

about three centimetres, same as a modern mechanical lawnmower.

After the grass was cut, there would be weeder women who would come out

regularly and they would pull out those last weeds.

And then it would be rolled.

And all of that for a lawn.

Absolutely. But it has its uses.

You can play cricket out here. You can have big parties.

And really, the lawn became the height of fashion.

King George III was so impressed by the view of the lawn when he visited

Blenheim in 1786 that he demanded one of his own.

And soon, Buckingham Palace had a perfectly manicured lawn for royal

parties.

And then, we all wanted one.

We can but dream, Ruth.

We can but dream.

Back at the factory, things are moving on.

The bodies of my lawnmowers have been cleaned with phosphoric acid to remove

dust.

And sprayed with a protective primer.

And I've got my own protective coating to have a go at painting them.

Look at the state of that.

I look like I'm breaking out of an egg.

I look like a croft between Buzz Aldrin and a Teletubby.

Lead on.

You can never be too careful. Say no more.

That's all right for Richard. He doesn't have to wear it.

The decks are sprayed by both human hands and robot arms.

Not with traditional paint, but a plastic polymer powder, which provides a

strong, weather -resistant coating.

Would you like to have a go?

Well, Richard, I've not spent half an hour getting all this on for nothing.

Is my oxygen on?

You're on and running.

Beautiful. Right.

It's Jordan Edwards' job to make sure every deck is covered with a precise 0

.1mm layer of polymer powder.

You all right, Jordan?

So what am I doing, Paul? Right. You can see it's both areas of the aluminium

part. Oh, yeah. All you want to do is fill in the nooks and the crannies, and

then you're all done. Beautiful.

Beautiful. Right, here we go.

Hey, I'll tell you what.

As the green powder leaves the nozzle of the paint gun, it's given a negative

electrostatic charge.

Which causes it to cling tightly to the aluminium surface.

perfectly caught in the deck.

How's that looking, Joe? Have I missed any bits, pal?

Absolutely perfect, Paddy. We're all done.

I've got to say, I think you've got the best job here.

That's belting, that. Look at that.

Quite therapeutic.

Yeah, relaxing.

I'm going to go again.

I'm going to go again, Joe.

Get yourself a cup of tea, pal.

While I lose myself in powder coating heaven, our rather

dull decks travel through what looks like a giant doner kebab grill.

Inside, they're blasted with 300 degrees Celsius heat, melting the polymer

powder coating to give a smooth and toughened finish.

And one and a half hours into lawnmower production, we've got a glossy,

deep green, weatherproof deck.

Oh, look at these.

This is a beautiful colour.

Looking good, aren't they, Paddy? Look at the finish on them. They are looking

absolute top draw.

Yes. Beautiful.

Can you just give me a hand with that, Paddy? Of course, yeah.

and we'll just lower it into the box lower it in so i give you a push let's

from the painting area our decks

travel to the start of the assembly line

it's

the beating heart of the factory we're a team of highly skilled workers

busily attach over 80 different components.

Along the line there are six main stations to construct different sections

the mower.

Each one crewed by a specialist worker who has six minutes to do their bit.

Assembling the specific parts onto each deck before rolling it down the line to

the next stage.

It all seems to run like clockwork.

Here we are.

I hope I don't put a spanner in the works.

This is the first stage where we put the decks and the engines together.

Our mower features a 159cc petrol engine.

It'll power the rotary cutting blade and drive the roller at the back,

propelling the machine forward.

The man responsible for attaching this vital component is Yip Le.

Nice to meet you, Yip.

I realise I'm extending a handshake as you're mid -screw there.

Carry on screwing.

If we use car analogies here, would you say this particular amour is like the

Bentley of the factory?

It's Rolls -Royce, mate. Rolls -Royce?

Yeah. Beautiful.

It's not quite a Rolls -Royce.

But this engine has 4 .5 horsepower, roughly the same as a moped,

which is more than enough to propel the mower and spin the cutting blade 46

times every second.

This is a bit of me there. I love out like this.

Would you like to do the next one, Paddy? Do you know what? I'd love to.

I'll get out your way.

Oh, that's nice. He's gone. Right, yep, shows how it's done. First of all, we've

got two stickers.

This is a rules race. I've got to get it absolutely bang on.

Not bad for your first attempt.

If you'd like to lift this engine, I'll put it on the actual case over there.

Right, okay.

What weight is that?

About five, six kilos.

Maybe more, isn't it? Maybe more.

This is about 12.

You've worked here too long.

Your arms are too strong.

That way? That's right, yeah.

Got that in there, yeah. Smash in.

Feel a bit like the f1 team here when it comes in for a pit stop, but we're

doing a little bit more on it Say they should be absolutely perfect them

I painted up

Three

30 millimeter tough and steel bolts say what I'm enjoying this is all it takes

to attach the engine

It's not quite as quick as a Formula One pit stop.

Got it, yeah.

But if I don't get this done within six minutes, I'll be holding up the whole

production line.

Great bit of kit, this.

You know what I love? That.

No putting it down. Up in the air.

A little bit of good fun axle.

Yeah.

This axle is where the front wheels will attack later.

You can see why it's only six minutes now. You work quick.

Done. Clear.

Off it goes.

Thanks very much for that, pal.

I'll see you in a little bit.

This factory is so calm and well organised.

Everything's in its place.

Just ready to go.

Gorgeous.

All geared up to make mowers fit for our back gardens.

But when it comes to grass for top -level sport, how do the pros do it?

Cherry, the lucky rascal, is finding out.

I've got some pretty amazing access to a little football ground you may have

heard of. It is the home of English football. It is the one and only Wembley

Stadium.

Over the decades, this famous ground has witnessed the highs and lows of our

national sport.

With some of the greatest players in the history of the game taking centre stage

on its hallowed turf.

I've been given a very special invitation to come and see how they

ground for the FA Cup final.

In just a few days, 90 ,000 fans will greet the players as they emerge from

famous Wembley Tunnel.

Oh my goodness me.

Wow.

This is epic.

And the man in charge of making sure it's all pitch perfect for the big match

grounds manager Carl Standley.

Well, this is kind of amazing.

Carl, so nice to meet you.

Welcome. How are you? I feel like I've died and I've gone to grass heaven.

you very much. We're getting it ready for the busiest time of the year. There

are millions of blades of grass out there. Each one of them has to be

yeah. It's so vibrant.

How do you grow this grass?

It's the Wembley Pitch, actually grown in sand.

Oh, wow.

Why do you grow it in sand?

It's a winter sports pitch, so in the wintertime, it rains. You want to be

pushing water through it. What would happen if this was grown just on a soil

base? It would be very much a mud bath.

And is this the grass growing here?

No, so this is polyethylene plastic fibres.

Isn't that cheating?

The reason we have plastic in here, a very small amount, is that when the

actually germinates, a root comes out of it. And the idea is that that root

actually wraps itself around this plastic, which goes down 55 millimetres,

that's what gives you the stability, which allows us to do multiple games.

Oh, I see.

It's almost like scaffolding for the grass.

Very much so, yeah.

Unlike this small sample, the Wembley pitch is created on a massive scale

at a turf nursery in a top secret location.

Grown for three months, it's 95 % real grass with soil and sand and 5

% plastic.

Every year after a summer of concerts, the old pitch is ripped up with the

plastic recycled into benthos.

And the brand -new pitch is laid out, using 720 1 .2 -metre wide

rolls. It takes just five days to install.

Once you've laid it down, is it happy as Larry?

No, it's not. It's like growing grass in a giant shoebox. So for six months of

the year, the one thing we need is sunlight.

So we have artificial lighting systems that actually roll out onto the playing

surface. We have under -salt heating pipes, so we can constantly keep the

at around about 16 degrees throughout the winter. That is so bougie. In the

summer, we have to have an irrigation system that we can water the pitch.

The surface is mown every day and three times on the morning of the FA Cup

final.

Carl, how does everyone know where to go?

You see some strings down the playing surface, and that's how we keep the

really straight.

Why don't you just have a great big ride -on mower?

Well, first of all, it's more weight on the playing surface, which we want to

keep away from.

And also, you don't really get the feel of the playing surface.

They could be cutting, they could be looking at what they're doing, and then

suddenly you see an area of, OK, there's an issue there or a problem there, we

can sort that.

It takes a total of 12 miles of walking.

to cut the Wembley pitch just once, pushing 34 -inch -wide specialist

mowers with razor -sharp teeth that cut each blade of grass to precisely 23

millimetres.

These mowers are also equipped with large rollers to create those iconic

stripes.

Imagine it's the day of the FA Cup final.

It's a huge day, high pressure. What's your routine?

First thing is we walk the pitch, look at any issues, concerns, and then we

start to prep the pitch.

So we have to add a little bit of water to the playing surface to put in a

little bit of slickness on the surface.

So when the ball flicks across the surface, it gives it speed, and that's

the players want.

And then suddenly we're in game mode.

The noise erupts.

You then realise, my God, this job's pretty cool.

That must be the most incredible feeling.

I sit there with my cup of tea and I watch the game.

And then throughout the game, I'll just move around to each corner, watching how

the pitch is performing.

I mean, Carl, to me, it looks completely pristine.

What about you? Do you think it's 10 out of 10? I think there's only one way

you've got to find out, and that's by you giving it a quick run.

I think it's perfect.

Thank you. I'll tell the grounds team.

Oh, you jammy so -and -so.

Wembley Stadium!

Do you know what? Cherry gets all the best gigs.

When I'm watching football at home, I'm watching the football, but I should

imagine you're sat looking at the pitch.

What would you say is your best pitch to look at? You go, that's a lovely cut.

I'm a bit of a fan of what they do at the West Ham Stadium.

Olympic Stadium, lovely ground, lovely pitch.

On our lawnmower assembly line, Yip is busy bolting engines to the deck.

And at the next station, the lads are adding a plastic chute that will carry

grass cuttings from the blade to the collection bag.

But next comes the key to getting those stadium -quality lawn stripes at home.

The roller, which sits at the back instead of rear wheel.

And is held in place by a roller frame made from 11 separate steel components.

Production of the frame begins away from the assembly line at the laser cutter.

So if we want to put that big stripe on our lawn, we need to hold a roller on

the back of the mower. Do you know, I think when you say about the stripes on

the lawn, there's certain things in life that are just heaven.

And a good stripe on a lawn, honestly, is as boring as it sounds. I could

literally sit with a cup of tea just looking at it.

The framework for the roller starts live as a 5mm thick sheet of steel.

Inside the cutting machine, a 5 -kilowatt laser begins to carve out

brackets.

It's like a knife through butter. It is. It works with a near -infrared light

wave that comes from a laser generation unit in the corner. It beams down

through the unit down to a lens.

Now, to translate Dr Spock here...

The laser heats the molecules in the steel to 1 ,500 degrees Celsius.

Enough to melt and precisely cut the steel.

Here we go. Set your phasers to dumb.

It's just mind -blowing.

Quite hypnotic, actually.

Looks very effortless, doesn't it? Yeah.

In just over one hour, the laser makes parts for 54 roller frames.

There they are.

When I look at the thickness of that, it amazes me how it cuts through it so

effortlessly. We've got a lovely, lovely clean cut around here. Look at that.

Fantastic. We'll get them all together and take them down to the welding shop.

Perfect, let's do it.

Three steel bracket plates from the laser cutter, along with eight other

components, are clamped onto a jig, which holds the pieces in place.

Ready to be welded together.

So, Paddy, here's our welder, our robot welder.

Who named her Betty?

Ah, always been known as Betty. Lost in the mess of time.

OK. A pre -programmed robot goes around and puts everything together and does

the full weld.

On Betty's robot arm is a hot torch which belts copper -coated steel wire

into the joints of the roller frame.

permanently welding the 11 pieces together in just three minutes.

You can see that all of these welds have been put neatly into place around all

of the rods with the magic hot torch.

Yeah. Here, here and here.

All nice and bonny and ready for the next day. Correct.

Smashing. See you later, Betty.

Didn't reply to me.

Once Betty's done her thing, the roller frames are sprayed black with the same

kind of polymer powder we used for the decks.

And after being fired in the kebab grill and then cooled, they're ready for the

all -important roller.

These are made from glass reinforced plastic.

And why are the little ridges in there? To give traction. These rollers are

driven by the engine, and that drives the machine along.

Love that.

Who's this, by the way? This is Dave. Oh, are you Dave?

We've got a bit of a malfunction with this roller. Oh, we've come at the wrong

time. Don't worry, Dave. It's not as though it's on the telly. You're the man

fix it.

Dave connects the rollers together so they'll spin smoothly, which sometimes

takes careful adjustment.

Have you sorted that out, Dave?

So now he's applying grease into those mechanisms.

Here at Dave's station, the roller is even fitted with a gearbox, which will

connected to the engine via a chain.

Once fired up, it'll send power to the roller, propelling the mower forward at

various speeds.

It reminds me a little bit like when you go to somewhere like McLaren.

So they're working on F1 car and everything's just calm.

Yeah. People are getting on with it. Clean work areas.

Yeah. It's great to see.

I'm telling you now, the longer I spend here, the more I want to get back to

having a real lawn.

Is that you done, Dave? It is, mate.

Fantastic. Dave, F1's loss is lawnmowers gain.

Beautiful.

Back on the main assembly line, Keith has the job of installing the roller and

frame onto the underside of the deck.

It's connected to the engine, and then it's on to Paul,

who fixes two wheels onto the axle.

And with those front wheels on, we're ready for the cutting edge part of the

assembly.

This is where Paul is putting on the blades.

The sharp end of the factory.

Indeed it is. Yes, well done.

So this is your cutting blade, and you can see that it's got the cut edge put

the tip there.

It's not very sharp. No, but it doesn't need to be.

Only that section of the blade really does all of the work while it's spinning

through the grass as you're walking forwards. Okay. You think this thing is

turning at 2 ,800 RPM, now around sort of 180 miles an hour, that tip speed.

And it's the speed of that impact that really does a lot of the work. Yeah, I

don't think any blades of grass are standing up at 180 like that. Not

You're pretty quick though, Paul.

How long does it take you to do that?

30 seconds.

Oh, my word.

He's throwing them out there. There's a new one for you. Thank you very much. I

mean,

looking at the inside of that, how do you develop it to cut so well?

We use the same kind of aeronautical software they use to design Formula One

wings on cars.

So we will model the shape of the deck, the shape of the blade, the shape of the

wings to cut that grass and get it up that chute and into the grass bag.

The blade has wings on its edges, which creates suction and pushes her upwards,

lifting freshly mown grass away from the cutting area and into a collection bag

at the back of the mower.

Right, well, I've been in here all morning. I'm not being rude, Richard,

you've not offered me a cup of tea yet.

So let's get the kettle on.

Milk, no sugar.

So, while Richard brews up and our mowers travel to the next station on the

line... Ruth's getting to grips with the history of a very different kind of

lawn cutting machine, the hover mower.

You all right there, Ruth?

The very first mechanical lawn mower, invented in 1830, was such

a beast that it took two people to operate it.

Ready, Clive?

One, two, three, go!

It used a cutting blade on a cylinder powered by a heavy roller and a lot of

push and pull.

London Zoo even tried using camels to help. And early steam and petrol mowers

introduced in the 1890s also proved cumbersome.

But... Fast forward through the decades to the 1960s.

When the suburbs were expanding with new homeowners, all desperate to

create perfectly cut lawns, and suddenly a new lightweight mower

landed on the scene.

Hello, madam. I've come to demonstrate the revolutionary Flymo lawnmower.

Complete with a free demo.

So the fly mower is totally revolutionary.

Lawmower historian Clive Gravett has certainly learnt the salesman's patter.

You've got no rollers, no wheels, and it just simply floats on a cushion of air.

It was invented by Carl Darlem in 1963.

He was inspired by David Cockrell's hovercraft.

The hovercraft had made global headlines with its first successful crossing of

the English Channel in 1959.

It could float across water and hover over land using a unique jet propulsion

system. A fly mower, because it's a flying mower. We've got a petrol engine

you have these vents where air is sucked in.

Yeah. And an impeller goes round underneath.

An impeller.

Oh, that's what this disc is. And that pushes the air down, creating a cushion

of air.

And the blade, obviously, also going round to actually cut the grass.

Apparently, Carl Darlem experimented with a dustbin lid.

And then you can hover in any direction.

So no more straight lines. You can... You can go round. You can even go round

a circle. It just floats on air.

It is a completely different way of thinking about lawn mowing. Every man

have his own hovercraft in the garden.

But despite an initial flurry of excitement, most blokes soldiered on

traditional heavy roller mowers.

So in the early 1970s, attention was turned to the women of the home, when

Swedish consumer goods company, Electrolux, marketed an all -new, fully

hover mower in flexible, colourful, lightweight plastic.

Top advertising executive Rosie Arnold.

Welcome to the 1970s.

Believed the fashionable women of the 70s gave this mower liftoff.

So what was it about the Flymo that turned it into the brand that we know

What they'd identified at that time was a new market of housewives.

In the house, there were so many new gadgets. There were vacuum cleaners,

were washing machines, there were blenders. It was all about speed,

That was the way the world was going.

And they identified that women were the major buyers of these things. Right. And

they thought, why not talk about the garden? So how were they doing this

I think, you know, one of the first ads here...

Jenny, you're not a grass widow again.

And it says, you're not going to tell us your husband still has that old tank of

a mower. So that's leading straight in to that idea about this big, archaic,

masculine machine, whereas this is this light thing that even a woman can use.

My eyes are drawn to this one, I have to say, and that's mostly because... I

want that dress.

Doesn't she look wonderful?

So little effort, in fact, that when eight arrives, you and your lawn are

looking good.

It's a very odd thing, isn't it? This is being marketed at women, and yet, to

our modern ears, it's as patronising as heck.

What you have to remember is that it was men doing the advertising.

In these mid -70s adverts, I noticed that the mirror itself is blue.

The story goes that they were doing a research group amongst housewives, and

they all got together and asked for it to be changed to the much more

fashionable orange.

Because at the time, orange was massively fashionable.

So we've got the space hopper and the Dukes of Hazzard car.

It was an it colour.

And actually, it was a stroke of marketing genius because it set it aside

all the other mowers that were out there. So that, combined with

women, you'd got an absolute killer strategy.

And after 1977, all fly mowers were orange.

Marvellous.

Ooh!

I think we have liftoff!

By the end of the 1980s, the Orange Hover was making up a third of all

purchases across the UK and Europe.

And it's all thanks to a Swede with a fascination for the hovercraft.

Yeah, it's OK, Ruth. We can hear you.

there pal.

I've been pepped up with a nice brew.

And after nearly three and a half hours our mowers are rolling along the

assembly line.

Where work starts on the upper body.

With the addition of a mechanism to adjust the cutting height of the grass.

But I'm off in search of a secret.

This is where they keep Cherry Healy's dental records.

Various teeth she puts in and out.

Look at these curtains.

Like a Kubrick movie, this.

Never look in there.

The secret I'm looking for is how to mow those perfect stripes.

And for that, I need to head out into the sunshine.

Oh, beautiful.

Oh, at last. This is what we're talking about.

Yeah.

This is one of our test fields, Paddy.

I've been on loads of test track. This is my first test field.

What's the optimal height for good stripage?

Well... For stripes, you actually need a little bit of length left in the grass,

because it's the bending of the grass that gives you that striped effect.

All them years we've struggled, and that's the answer.

A bit longer in length.

According to Richard, for the best stripes, set your blade height to cut

grass at 46 centimetres.

Pull up the handle, then pull the engine start.

Right, OK, then. Right.

A pull cord...

Start the engine to light.

Push on there and you'll be away.

Squeezing the handlebar engages the gears in the roller, propelling it

Oh, beautiful.

Look at that.

Feels smooth as silk.

Tripod that. Might want to get rid of that off the lawn.

Occupational hazard.

Shall I go back up the other way, get the strike going?

Yeah.

We're all going on a summer holiday.

No more working for a week or two.

Oh, now we're more thrilled.

I am here for this.

Oh, what a treat.

The mower weighs 47 kilograms, which pushes down on the roller, creating the

stripes.

Oh, my God.

I've got two bad lines.

At least it's consistent.

And I'm getting the two different colours.

You are.

When the grass is bent away from you, you get a lot of light reflecting back

from the blades. That looks like a light green stripe. When the grass is bent

towards you, you're looking down the ends of the tips of the blades of grass,

that gives you the dark stripe.

I honestly thought it was how low you put your mower.

No, the lower you go, the worse the stripe you'll get.

Oh, I think that's a bit better, Paddy.

I could happily spend the day here on my own testing lawnmowers.

If you're looking for someone, I'm your man.

You're more than welcome. Thank you.

Oh,

it's so satisfying.

Hey, don't walk on the stripes, mate.

Straight across me handiwork.

Oh, sacrilege.

All right, shall we head back inside?

You can, Richard. I'm just going to have another five minutes here looking at me

stripes. Go on, pal, I won't be long. Fair enough.

Hmm.

Gorgeous.

Surely you can't beat this, Jerry.

Well, actually, I think I can, with a day trip to sunny Cambridge.

This is so beautiful, the historic buildings, the punting.

But look at that perfect, gorgeous lawn, stretching all the way down to the

river. But I'm not here for a lesson in how to look after your lawn.

I'm actually here for a lesson in how to not mow your lawn.

They've had a finely manicured lawn here behind the King's College Chapel for

over 250 years.

But now a large section of it has been transformed.

Wow.

all under the watchful eye of botanist Dr. Cicely Marshall.

Hi, Cicely. Hi, Terry.

Welcome to our wildflower meadow.

Why did you decide to dig up half of the lawn of this iconic setting and grow a

meadow? It's been a fine lawn since 1772, and in 2019 we wondered if we

make more of the area for nature.

We've lost 97 % of our species -rich grasslands in this country, mainly

intensified agriculture.

We also wanted to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions.

We also thought it would be beautiful.

It is absolutely stunning.

What plants can I see here?

Well, we've got a species that are typical of hay meadow, so things like

carrot, the oxide daisy, the field scabious. Beautiful, those purple ones.

the slightly pinkier, the greater knapweed. I mean, the difference is so

Here you've got this explosion of flowers, and then you've got almost

else except grass on here.

The meadow was created by scattering a mix of local East Anglian wildflower

seeds and then letting nature do its thing.

Incredibly, 51 of the 84 plant species here today flew in on the wind or

were dormant under the grass all along.

Tending to this huge variety of plants is gardener Charlotte Waters.

I mean, this is so...

stunningly beautiful.

How is it that when I've tried to grow wildflowers at home, nothing's happened?

So I think your key is the yellow rattle.

And you need yellow rattle to help establish the flowers because the yellow

rattle helps break down the grass growth.

The yellow rattle competes with the root of the grass to stunt the growth of the

grass, which means the flowers can then thrive.

It's thanks to this little plant that we have all of this and all this

diversity. Yeah.

What are your favourite things growing in the meadow?

So it has to be a bee orchid because they're so rare and when they arrive,

just, everyone gets excited.

It's like the gossip around the college that there's a bee orchid in the meadow.

It may look gorgeous, but have these wildflowers really provided more food

shelter for wildlife?

To find out, I'm joining a group of volunteers who monitor how the

differs between the meadow and the lawn.

I mean, on the mode lawn, I can see there's not much action happening, but

minute you step into the wild meadow, just a couple of sweeps with my net.

Oh, yeah. Mother Nature's having a party. Look at that. Absolutely teeming

life. Hello, Jiminy Cricket.

As well as using nets to capture and release sun lovers like grasshoppers and

butterflies... UB Light insect traps are set up overnight to monitor nocturnal

critters. Oh, fun, look at this.

Oh, this is a dune bug, which is the type of chafer beetle.

Oh, look, what's that?

That is a heart and club.

Heart and club. We've got a caddis fly, a moth, a beetle and a mayfly. So that's

four different insect orders, which really shows the sort of diversity that

we're getting.

And we have a rather wonderful feast here. Look at this.

Oh, my goodness me.

It's an elephant hawk moth. That's a moth. I had no idea they came

multicoloured. It looks like something from a tropical country.

This is absolutely...

Beautiful. We've got 2 ,500 species of moths in Britain.

The flat lawn gives them nowhere to hide, but that lovely, rough, sort of

-dimensional architecture of the meadow makes a big difference.

They make really good food for bats as well. What, he does?

Yeah. No, don't say that!

Shh, you didn't mean it.

So is it working? Is the wildflower meadow attracting more diverse plant and

animal species?

Absolutely it is.

The results of the study have so far revealed over three times more bugs and

bats in the meadow, which now creates a vital wildlife corridor in the city.

And no mowing has also reduced carbon emissions.

What can we do at home to create something like this?

Well, a simple thing you can do is just to stop mowing your lawn and see what

you've got. And you might find your lawn is more species rich than you think it

is. So more diverse flowers, more diverse animals, a happier ecosystem.

If letting our lawns grow wild means attracting more beauties like this, I

let it grow.

Yep, that does look nice, Cherry.

But some lawnmowers are absolute beauties too.

Having fun?

Yes. Oh, well. Inside time.

Oh.

Party pooper.

Thoroughly enjoyed that.

Frankie Dittori.

Luckily, Richard does have some classic power tools inside.

Ah.

Look at that.

Proper. To lure me back in.

Wow.

This is like being in a thought shop.

Oh.

On the assembly line, we're ready to finish the fittings on the top of the

lawnmower deck.

There we are. All right, Paddy. This is Merrick. We're just going to put on some

of the last parts of the assembly now. So we've got a top cover to go on. We've

got one here for you. Yep.

Stand aside, Merrick. I'm going in.

You just lower that cover over the top.

That's it. The black plastic cover provides a nice finish around that all

-important height adjustment lever.

Oh, we like that.

Little cap on the top of that lever.

More, more, more.

More? More.

How's that?

Yeah, and you check.

Don't move.

Ah.

Pretty solid, that.

I'll just give it one more.

Yeah. Feels good.

So next stage is handlebars.

If you'd like to pass these over to Merrick and he'll get them fitted up.

Merrick, you're back on, pal.

Okay. Good luck.

Thank you. Look after her.

Merrick installs the steel handlebars which can fold away for storage.

And now we've nearly finished, look who's turned up.

Woo!

All the hard work is done and Cherry's here to steal the glory.

Ah, here we are.

Ta -da!

Look at this, isn't it beautiful?

So shiny and new. And I can spin it round.

Like a lazy Susan.

Do you have any chance of Richard putting hand look first, Cherry? That's

right, though.

Brilliant, that.

This is your final mower, Paddy and Cherry. Ready to go.

Oh, beautiful.

What a piece of kit that is.

And now we've got a shiny, finished mower. I think I'll go and put my feet

and let Cherry give Gavin a hand boxing up.

We'll put this under the handlebar.

There we go. Put that down. That is one big box. That is one big box.

And it's ready to go in. Okay, here we go. Light it up perfectly.

Oh, use your muscles.

There you go.

All right.

Lift her up. Oh, my God. Don't drop it.

Don't drop it.

There you go.

Perfect.

Woo!

Nice one, Cherry.

Right, let's get these boxes over to dispatch.

We've got a delivery to fulfil.

You all right, Richard?

Hey, Paddy. Hey, Cherry.

I'm going to go over there and I start boxing these.

No, hey, up.

That's it, down.

How many mowers on a lorry like this? So with the one that Paddy's been

building, we get 96 in a lorry.

Beautiful stuff.

Let's wrap her up.

We get up to four lorries a day going out of this side.

And on they go, onto the lorry ready for dispatch.

Not sure the wrapping on that's very good. Who did that one?

Couldn't possibly say.

Good job. You did so good. Thank you. It looks great.

Beautiful. Hey, Richard, thank you so much for showing us around today, pal.

Been a pleasure, Paddy. It's fully loaded. Get the doors down.

Off it goes.

Just four hours and 20 minutes after the start of production, our mowers are

leaving the factory.

From Hertfordshire, they head out all over the UK and Ireland, ready to make

neighbours green with envy over perfectly mown grass.

But as far as I'm concerned, there's only one way to properly christen a

mown lawn.

I've not got real grass at home, but after spending the day here, I'm very

tempted to get it put back in. Enjoy.

Game on!

Go on, Ian.

Tell you what's kicking off over on

BBC Three now, a brand new episode of RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs The World.

And from glamazons to gut health, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall serves The Fibre

Factor. Listen on sound.

Here next, Silent Witness.