Cutting the grass in Mottingham …. in them olden days

I like this picture for several reasons, not least because it is one I have never seen before.

It comes from a delightful slim volume entitled Eltham Village and was published in 1984.

Happily, the authors have given me permission to use the images with of course a credit to Gus White, Ian Murdock and Paula Richardson who collected the 43 images of Eltham and the surrounding villages.

And so back to number 6, Horse drawn mower, Mottingham Playing Fields, circa 1914.  

The picture carried the caption "Mr. Groves and young helper tending the pitches of the London Playing Fields Ground Court Farm Lane.  The land was presented by the Goldsmith Company to the London Playing Fields Association in 1905 to provide ‘sports facilities for Londoners’”.

If you are of a certain age you will remember those lawn mowers which didn’t rely on electricity or diesel and instead were worked with muscle power, be it a man in shirtsleeves or men in shirt sleeves with horse.

Apparently, they are making a coming back with manual lawn mowers costing  anything from £44 and heading up towards a hundred.

And for those like me who didn't know, "The London Playing Fields Foundation was formed in 1890 by visionary Victorian philanthropists concerned about the loss of green space in London and the need to provide sport and recreation for current and future generations".**

So, there you are.

Location; Mottingham

Picture; Horse drawn mower, Mottingham Playing Fields, 1914, courtesy of Eltham Village

*Eltham Village,  Gus White, Ian Murdock and Paula Richardson in 1984 and published by G & Pi Publications Eltham

****The London Playing Fields Foundation, https://www.lpff.org.uk/about/history/