For years, I’ve had the vague idea that I’d like to pick up a hand-powered lawnmower. We’ve never gone much for large lawns and, although our Flymo still works, it seems half the time is spent getting it plugged in and managing the cable run. The trouble is that they aren’t widely made any more and so it has sat on the backburner for a long while.

Earlier this year, I spotted a push lawnmower in B&Q for about £45. I was tempted but the construction looked pretty flimsy and so I decided to leave it. However, it set a benchmark for price and, while on eBay the other day, I came across a classic mower for £15, which I picked up this evening.

It is a Folbate mower, probably a Folbate J2 although I’ll have to look for a definite model mark on the chassis. It is missing the grass collection box shown in the manual but although clearly old, seems in reasonable condition. Better yet, as I rolled it down to the shed, I spotted it was doing a fine job cutting some of the upstanding weeds and it turns out that, even before trying to sharpen it, it gave the grass a nice trim.

I’ll need to do a bit of work to figure out exactly which model I have and to establish a suitable maintenance routine but I think it is going to prove ideal for pulling out and doing a quick walk up and down the garden, keeping what lawn we have presentable and good for strolling over.