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00:00Many years ago, I used to work in a factory and one of the jobs was mowing the lawn outside.
00:14Love it!
00:19Are you all right, though?
00:20It's very noisy.
00:22What do you reckon?
00:23Well, you would expect the lawn to be lovely, considering they make lawnmowers inside this factory.
00:30If only we had a drone to look at all my lovely handiwork.
00:36Oh, yes, that's the ticket.
00:40Anyhow.
00:43Today, we're at one of the UK's biggest lawnmower factories.
00:49Oh, beautiful.
00:51And I'm Mower Man.
00:54Well, sort of.
00:56I look like a cross between Buzz Aldrin and a Teletubbie.
01:01On a mission to learn how high-tech machinery...
01:04It's like a knife through butter, that.
01:06...makes mighty mowers that deliver stripes to be proud of.
01:10Gorgeous.
01:11It's a factory dedicated to engineering precision.
01:15Would you say that it's like the Bentley of the factory?
01:18Rose Royce, mate.
01:19Rose Royce!
01:20And while I find out how to get the perfect lawn, Cherry's been let loose on the most hallowed turf of all.
01:27That's right. I'm at Wembley. Wow. Getting it pitch perfect for the biggest game of the season.
01:36I feel like I've died and I've gone to grass heaven.
01:41And historian Ruth Goodman is uplifted by hovercraft technology.
01:48Ooh! I think we have lift-off!
01:50They've been making lawn mowers at this factory since the 1940s.
01:58So they certainly can cut it when it comes to mower construction.
02:02Apologies for that.
02:03Welcome to Inside the Factory.
02:05MUSIC PLAYS
02:06You've done it all
02:24You've broken every coal
02:27Chaps?
02:28Anything good on?
02:32Right, OK, I'll move on.
02:35LAUGHTER
02:36It's poor C inside the factory.
02:38MUSIC PLAYS
02:40Never mind. I can clearly see they're a happy bunch here.
02:47MUSIC PLAYS
02:51Very impulsant.
02:53MUSIC PLAYS
02:55This is the Toro factory in Hertfordshire, where they make over 15,000 lawn mowers every year.
03:05They make all sorts of mowers here.
03:07Oh, look at these.
03:10From big'uns for the largest of country manors...
03:13That's proper, that.
03:16..to high-tech machines for Wimbledon tennis and Premier League football clubs.
03:21MUSIC PLAYS
03:22But today, I'm following production of this little beauty.
03:31The Hayter Harrier 56 petrol-powered lawn mower.
03:36MUSIC PLAYS
03:37What a gorgeous bit of kit this is.
03:42MUSIC PLAYS
03:43Producing something like this is no mean feat.
03:47It's a complex three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, made up of 87 individual parts.
03:57At its heart is an engine, which powers a rotary cutting blade underneath,
04:03as well as a roller at the back,
04:06which propels the machine forwards whilst giving your lawn that classic striped finish.
04:13Production begins with the main body of the mower, called the deck.
04:22MUSIC PLAYS
04:22And how's that for TV timing?
04:28As design engineer Richard Carter just happens to be receiving a delivery of them.
04:34MUSIC PLAYS
04:35Heyo, Richard.
04:37Hey, buddy. How are you?
04:39Good to see you, buddy.
04:40Now, I've got to be honest with you, I've had every lawn mower under the sun over the years.
04:45I've had petrol ones, electric ones, ride-on ones.
04:49I love a good lawn mower, but these days I've gone a little bit to the dark side.
04:54Artificial grass.
04:55Oh, thank you.
04:56I know.
04:56Oh, well, hopefully by the end of the day we'll have you back to where you should be.
05:00Well, fingers crossed, you know,
05:02because every time I see Chris Packham, he looks at me in disgust.
05:06So these are the decks.
05:08These are the aluminium decks that we use to create the main part of the lawn mower.
05:14And instantly recognisable for me, that.
05:16Now, why aluminium?
05:18With aluminium, it doesn't rust.
05:20It'll last you a lifetime.
05:22Are these done on-site?
05:23These are done off-site in Asia.
05:25So just looking at the gubbins,
05:27I suppose the main things in there are obviously the blade and the roller.
05:30Yeah, that's right.
05:31So you can see on the underside there's a lot of engineering
05:34and the rear roller goes here, the engine gets mounted there
05:36and then the blade sits right in the middle
05:38and goes, sweeps around the cutting chamber here.
05:41Well, what we need to do now is get this ready for paint.
05:43So we're going to take this over to the paint line over there
05:45and get it hung up.
05:48Even aluminium mowers need painting to prevent corrosion in the British climate.
05:54Here we go.
05:55Here we are.
05:56Let's help on here, Paddy.
05:57Yeah.
05:59Clicking them in there.
06:00That's it, just hooks into there.
06:02And they make their way round to the first station
06:04to get cleaned up, ready to get painted.
06:07Send them off, pal.
06:08Let's go.
06:11Let's go.
06:17You've got to have a bit of authority in your voice, Richard.
06:20Time to start the stopwatch.
06:24As the decks head off at quite a leisurely speed, I have to say.
06:30Can we have a look at where they paint it, then?
06:36We'd like you to help out, Paddy, but you might want to cover yourself up a bit.
06:41What the heck?
06:41Is it going to be that messy?
06:43Just a little bit.
06:44I've done a bit of painting and cutting in at home.
06:46What's going on here?
06:47Yeah.
06:48This kind of paint, Paddy, is quite different to what you're used to at home.
06:51You know what?
06:51I was enjoying today, because I can see the whites of your eyes.
06:54I've not got all the PPE on.
06:56But just as I get out, they drag me back in again.
07:00And I'll tell you something now.
07:01Ruth Goodman, our historian, will not have to put up with this.
07:04She'll be swanning about at the minute.
07:06Some manor house, living the dream.
07:07There you go.
07:15Told you.
07:20300 years ago, grand lawns were not really a thing.
07:27Posh country houses had straight gravel paths,
07:30box hedging in elaborate patterns.
07:33And they don't come much posher than the magnificent 18th century
07:40Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
07:43To find out how these formal grounds were transformed
07:46by a very special gardener, I'm meeting historian Kate Fellas.
07:52Hello.
07:54Hi, Ruth.
07:54Lovely to see you.
07:55What a wonderful, patterned sort of a garden this is.
07:59Isn't it amazing?
08:01Very, very formal.
08:02But this is just a fraction of what was here.
08:05Here's a plan from 1717,
08:08which shows the scale of the great parterre.
08:11So what we're in is just that little beast there.
08:14It's tiny in comparison.
08:15This is vast.
08:16Yeah.
08:17The great parterre was 30 times larger
08:21than today's patterned garden.
08:24And this was built to emulate French gardens,
08:28so it was like the Versailles of England.
08:29But I want to show you what it looks like today.
08:33OK.
08:34Follow me.
08:40Oh!
08:41It's all gone.
08:43It's all gone.
08:44All ripped out.
08:45And what you get instead is this beautiful sweep of lawn.
08:57The kind of embodiment of the English landscape style, they called it.
09:02It was a reaction against the French gardens of the earliest century.
09:06Here you get simplicity.
09:07The fourth Duke of Marlborough had grown tired of the fussy, formal French style
09:15he'd inherited at Blenheim Palace.
09:17And so in 1764, the Duke employed the celebrity gardener of the day,
09:22Capability Brown, to transform his vast estate.
09:27The lavish project cost the equivalent of over two million pounds
09:30and took ten years to complete.
09:34He did an awful lot of tree planting.
09:37He created the lake around the other side of the palace.
09:39And here particularly, he got rid of the great parterre.
09:43So the scale of the job of removing it was absolutely vast.
09:47The original great parterre was ten times the size of the palace.
09:56But undaunted, Capability Brown swept it away.
10:01Hundreds of tonnes of stone, gravel and hedging
10:04were hauled off by as many as a thousand labourers.
10:11It's all done by hand with men with shovels and wheelbarrows.
10:15It's before steam even, let alone the sort of machinery that we have today.
10:22They did have horsepower,
10:24which was used to plough the soil before grass seed was sown.
10:28When finished, the results were spectacular.
10:35With both the front and back of the palace framed by vast lawns.
10:41So this is about celebrating those elements of the English countryside,
10:44the greenness of it, absolutely.
10:47With the fields, the grass, this openness, the trees, the hills.
10:52Real quintessential Englishness.
10:54And these long vistas.
10:55I mean, they're busily saying, I own all this.
10:59But the 60 acres of newly created grass
11:02did leave the Duke with a bit of a problem.
11:05How on earth are they cutting a lawn on this sort of scale?
11:11Before the invention of the mechanical lawnmower,
11:14you had this very clever invention called sheep.
11:19Right.
11:20And they can graze it quite short, down to about five centimetres.
11:23But you wouldn't want the sheep wandering into your house, would you?
11:26No, you wouldn't.
11:28But equally, you wouldn't want to see a fence.
11:30So here, he used this wonderful invention.
11:34The ha-ha.
11:35The ha-ha.
11:36A ditch, but with a wall on one side, so it's a sheer face.
11:40Exactly.
11:41But it's invisible in the landscape.
11:47It looks as if this lawn just carries on forever.
11:51That's the whole trick of it.
11:52And you get to the edge and you realise,
11:54at the last minute that it's there,
11:56ha-ha, you say.
11:58Ha-ha.
11:59Hence the word ha-ha.
12:02But with sheep banished from the lawns near the house
12:05and the invention of the mechanical lawnmower some 60 years away,
12:10the Duke had to employ a large team of gardeners
12:13whose sole job was to keep the lawns short using scythes.
12:20How many people would you need to be able to keep a lawn scythed like that?
12:25Well, the Duke had 80 outdoor servants
12:27and probably 35 of them were employed just on the south lawn here.
12:32I mean, talk about a status symbol.
12:34Exactly.
12:36And that is hard work.
12:38But it's skilled as well.
12:40They could judge it just right,
12:41so the grass would be about three centimetres,
12:43same as a modern mechanical lawnmower.
12:48After the grass was cut,
12:49there would be weeder women who would come out regularly
12:52and they would pull out those last weeds.
12:56And then it would be rolled.
12:59And all of that for a lawn.
13:01Absolutely.
13:03But it has its uses.
13:04You can play cricket out here.
13:05You can have big parties.
13:07And really, the lawn became the height of fashion.
13:13King George III was so impressed by the view of the lawn
13:16when he visited Blenheim in 1786
13:18that he demanded one of his own.
13:22And soon, Buckingham Palace had a perfectly manicured lawn
13:26for royal garden parties.
13:29And then, we all wanted one.
13:34We can but dream, Ruth.
13:36We can but dream.
13:37Back at the factory, things are moving on.
13:53The bodies of my lawn mowers have been cleaned with phosphoric acid
13:57to remove dust
13:58and sprayed with a protective primer.
14:04And I've got me own protective coating
14:06to have a go at painting them.
14:08Look at the state of that.
14:15I look like I'm breaking out of an egg.
14:22I look like a cross between Buzz Aldrin and a Teletubby.
14:27Lead on.
14:28You can never be too careful.
14:29Say no more.
14:30That's all right for Richard.
14:32He doesn't have to worry.
14:38The decks are sprayed by both human hands and robot arms.
14:43Not with traditional paint,
14:45but a plastic polymer powder,
14:47which provides a strong, weather-resistant coating.
14:52Would you like to have a go?
14:54Well, Richard,
14:55I've not spent half hour getting all this on for nothing.
14:58There's my oxygen on.
15:00You're on and running.
15:02Beautiful.
15:03Right.
15:03It's Jordan Edwards' job
15:05to make sure every deck is covered
15:07with a precise 0.1mm layer of polymer powder.
15:13You all right, Jordan?
15:14Howdy.
15:14So what am I doing, Paul?
15:15Right.
15:15You can see the exposed areas of the aluminium cast.
15:18Oh, yeah.
15:19All you want to do
15:20is fill in the nooks and the crannies,
15:22and then you're all done.
15:23Beautiful.
15:24Beautiful.
15:25Right.
15:25Here we go.
15:28Hey, I tell you what.
15:30Yeah, there's some bits in there.
15:36It's quite a gun, this, actually.
15:39Just finding them little bits.
15:42As the green powder leaves the nozzle of the paint gun,
15:45it's given a negative electrostatic charge.
15:49Get that under there,
15:50ridden away, right under the rim.
15:53Get stuck in.
15:53Which causes it to cling tightly
15:56to the aluminium surface,
15:59perfectly coating the deck.
16:01How's that looking, Jordan?
16:02Have I missed any bits, pal?
16:04Absolutely perfect padding.
16:06We're all done.
16:07I've got to say,
16:08I think you've got the best job here.
16:10That's belting, that.
16:11I love that.
16:12It's quite therapeutic.
16:14Yeah.
16:15Relaxing.
16:15I'm going to go again.
16:19I'm going to go again, Jordan.
16:21Relax.
16:22Get yourself a cup of tea, pal.
16:23MUSIC PLAYS
16:25While I lose myself in powder-caught in heaven,
16:38our rather dull decks travel through
16:41what looks like a giant donna kebab grill.
16:44Inside, they're blasted with 300 degrees Celsius heat,
16:55melting the polymer powder-caught in
16:57to give a smooth and toughened finish.
17:01And one and a half hours into lawnmower production,
17:05we've got a glossy, deep green, weatherproof deck.
17:11MUSIC PLAYS
17:13Oh, look at these.
17:16This is a beautiful colour.
17:19Looking good, aren't they, Paddy?
17:20Look at the finish on them.
17:22They are looking absolute top draw.
17:25Yeah.
17:26Beautiful.
17:28Can you just give me a hand with that, Paddy?
17:30Of course, yeah.
17:31And we'll just lower it into the box.
17:32Lower it in.
17:34Shall I give you a push?
17:35Let's go.
17:36From the painting area,
17:40our decks travel to the start of the assembly line.
17:45MUSIC PLAYS
17:46It's the beating heart of the factory.
17:55MUSIC PLAYS
17:56We're a team of highly skilled workers,
17:59MUSIC PLAYS
18:00Busily attach over 80 different components.
18:04MUSIC PLAYS
18:05Along the line, there are six main stations
18:10to construct different sections of the mower,
18:13each one crewed by a specialist worker
18:17who has six minutes to do their bit,
18:20assembling their specific parts onto each deck
18:26before rolling it down the line to the next stage.
18:35MUSIC PLAYS
18:36It all seems to run like clockwork.
18:39Here we are.
18:41I hope I don't put a spanner in the works.
18:44This is the first stage
18:45where we put the decks and the engines together.
18:49Our mower features a 159cc petrol engine.
18:55It'll power the rotary cutting blade
18:57and drive the roller at the back,
19:01propelling the machine forward.
19:03The man responsible for attaching this vital component
19:07is Yip Le.
19:10Nice to meet you, Yip.
19:12I realise I'm extending handshake
19:14because you're mid-screw there.
19:16Carry on screwing.
19:18If we use car analogies here,
19:20would you say this particular mower
19:22is like the Bentley of the factory?
19:25Rolls-Royce, mate.
19:26Rolls-Royce!
19:27Yeah.
19:27Beautiful.
19:29It's not quite a Rolls-Royce,
19:31but this engine has 4.5 horsepower,
19:35roughly the same as a moped,
19:37which is more than enough to propel the mower
19:40and spin the cutting blade 46 times every second.
19:47This is a bit of me there.
19:49I love how it like this.
19:50Would you like to do the next one, Paddy?
19:51Do you know what?
19:53I'd love to.
19:54I'll get out your way.
19:55Oh, that's nice.
19:56He's gone.
19:57Right, Yip.
19:57Shows how it's done, pal.
19:58First of all, we've got two stickers.
20:01This is a Rolls-Royce.
20:02I've got to get it absolutely bang on.
20:06It's not bad for your first attempt.
20:07If you'd like to lift this engine
20:08and put it on the actual case over there.
20:10Right, OK.
20:12What weight is that?
20:14Five, six kilos.
20:16Five?
20:16Maybe more.
20:17It's about 12.
20:18Oh, you've worked here too long.
20:21Your abs are too strong.
20:23That way.
20:23That's like this.
20:26Got that in there, yeah.
20:27Smash him.
20:30Feel a bit like the F1 team here
20:32when it comes in for a pit stop,
20:33but we're doing a little bit more on it.
20:36You say they should be absolutely perfect, then,
20:39cos I've painted up.
20:46Three 30mm tough and steel bolts...
20:50I'll tell you what, I'm enjoying this.
20:52..is all it takes to attach the engine.
20:55That's it.
20:55Just finish off these now.
20:56All these.
20:57It's not quite as quick as a Formula 1 pit stop.
21:02Got it, yeah.
21:03But if I don't get this done within six minutes,
21:06I'll be holding up the whole production line.
21:10Great bit of kit, this.
21:12You know what I love?
21:13That.
21:15No putting it down.
21:16Up in the air.
21:18A little bit of business, my axle.
21:19Yeah.
21:20This axle is where the front wheels will attach later.
21:25You can see why it's only six minutes now.
21:27You work quick.
21:31Done.
21:31Clear.
21:32Yeah, off it goes.
21:33Thanks very much for that, pal.
21:35I'll see you in a little bit.
21:41This factory is so calm and well-organised.
21:46Everything's in its place, just ready to go.
21:49Gorgeous.
21:52All geared up to make mowers fit for our back gardens.
21:56But when it comes to grass for top-level sport,
22:00how do the pros do it?
22:01Cherry, the lucky rascal, is finding out.
22:10I've got some pretty amazing access to a little football ground
22:14you may have heard of.
22:14It is the home of English football.
22:15It is the home of English football.
22:16It is the one and only Wembley Stadium.
22:19Over the decades, this famous ground has witnessed the highs and lows of our national sport.
22:34With some of the greatest players in the history of the game, taking centre stage on its hallowed turf.
22:45In just a few days, 90,000 fans will greet the players as they emerge from the famous Wembley Tunnel.
23:04And the man in charge of making sure it's all pitch perfect for the big match is grounds manager Carl Stanley.
23:32Well, this is kind of amazing.
23:37Carl, so nice to meet you.
23:39Welcome. How are you?
23:40I feel like I've died and I've gone to grass heaven.
23:44Thank you very much.
23:45We're getting it ready for the busiest time of the year.
23:47There are millions of blades of grass out there.
23:50Each one of them has to be perfect yet.
23:52It's so vibrant.
23:54How do you grow this grass?
23:56It's the Wembley pit, actually grown in sand.
23:59Oh, wow.
24:00Why do you grow it in sand?
24:01It's a winter sports pit.
24:02So, in the wintertime, it rains.
24:04We want to be pushing water through it.
24:06What would happen if this was grown just on a soil base?
24:09It would be very much a mud bath.
24:12Yeah.
24:13And is this the grass growing here?
24:14No.
24:15So, this is polyethylene plastic fibres.
24:17Isn't that cheating?
24:18So, the reason we have plastic in here, a very small amount, is that when the grass actually
24:23germinates, a root comes out of it.
24:25And the idea is that that root actually wraps itself around this plastic, which goes down
24:3055 millimetres.
24:31And that's what gives you the stability, which allows us to do multiple games.
24:35Oh, I see.
24:36It's almost like scaffolding for the grass.
24:39Very much so, yeah.
24:41Unlike this small sample, the Wembley pitch is created on a massive scale.
24:48At a turf nursery in a top secret location.
24:53Grown for three months, it's 95% real grass, with soil and sand, and 5% plastic.
25:06Every year after a summer of concerts, the old pitch is ripped up with the plastic recycled
25:11into benches.
25:13And the brand new pitch is laid out, using 720 1.2-metre-wide rolls.
25:20It takes just five days to install.
25:25Once you've laid it down, is it happy as Larry?
25:27No, it's not.
25:28It's like growing grass in a giant shoebox.
25:30Oh, right.
25:31So, for six months of the year, the one thing we need is sunlight.
25:33So, we have artificial lighting systems that actually roll out onto the playing surface.
25:38We have undersaw heating pipe, so we can constantly keep the pitch around about 16 degrees throughout
25:43the winter.
25:44That is so bougie.
25:45In the summer, we have to have an irrigation system that we can water the pitch.
25:51The surface is mown every day, and three times on the morning of the FA Cup final.
25:58Carl, how does everyone know where to go?
26:01You see some strings down the playing surface, and that's how we keep the lines really straight.
26:06Why don't you just have a great big ride-on mower?
26:09Well, first of all, it's more weight on the playing surface, which we're trying to keep
26:12away from.
26:13And also, you don't really get the feel of the playing surface.
26:15They could be cutting, they could be looking at what they're doing, and then suddenly
26:18you see an area of, OK, there's an issue there or a problem there.
26:20We can sort that.
26:25It takes a total of 12 miles of walking to cut the Wembley pitch just once, pushing 34-inch-wide
26:34specialist electric mowers with razor-sharp teeth that cut each blade of grass to precisely
26:4123 millimetres.
26:45These mowers are also equipped with large rollers to create those iconic Wembley stripes.
26:52Imagine it's the day of the FA Cup final.
26:54It's a huge day, high pressure.
26:56What's your routine?
26:57First thing is we walk the pitch, look at any issues, concerns, and then we start to
27:01prep the pitch.
27:02So we have to add a little bit of water to the playing surface to put in a little bit
27:05of slickness on the surface.
27:07So when the ball slicks across the surface, it gives it speed, and that's what the players
27:11want.
27:12And then suddenly we're in game mode.
27:14The noise erupts.
27:16You then realise, my God, this job's pretty cool.
27:21That must be the most incredible feeling.
27:23I sit there with my cup of tea and I watch the game.
27:28And then throughout the game, I'll just move around to each corner, watching how the pitch
27:32is performing.
27:33I mean, Karl, to me, it looks completely pristine.
27:37But what about you?
27:38Do you think it's 10 out of 10?
27:40I think there's only one way you've got to find out and that's by you giving it a quick
27:42wrong.
27:43I think it's perfect.
27:45I'll tell the grass to you.
27:46Thanks.
27:47Oh, you jammy so-and-so.
27:48Wembley Stadium.
27:49Do you know what?
27:50Do you know what?
27:51Do you know what?
27:52Do you know what?
27:53Cherry gets all the best gigs.
27:54When I'm watching football at home, I'm watching the football but I should imagine you're sat
28:00looking at the pitch.
28:01What would you say is your best pitch to look at you and go, that's a lovely cut.
28:02I'm a bit of a fan of what they do at the West Ham Stadium.
28:03Olympic Stadium, lovely ground, lovely pitch.
28:06Yep.
28:07Do you know what?
28:08Do you know what?
28:09Cherry gets all the best gigs.
28:11When I'm watching football at home, I'm watching the football but I should imagine you're sat
28:17looking at the pitch.
28:19What would you say is your best pitch to look at you and go, that's a lovely cut.
28:23I'm a bit of a fan of what they do at the West Ham Stadium.
28:27Olympic Stadium, lovely ground, lovely pitch.
28:39On our lawnmower assembly line, Yip is busy bolting engines to the decks.
28:44And at the next station, the lads are adding a plastic chute that will carry the grass cuttings
28:50from the blade to the collection bag.
28:55But next comes the key to getting those stadium quality lawn stripes at home.
29:01The roller, which sits at the back instead of rear wheels.
29:06And is held in place by a roller frame made from 11 separate steel components.
29:13Production of the frame begins away from the assembly line at the laser cutter.
29:19So if we want to put that big stripe on our lawn, we need to hold a roller on the back of the mower.
29:24Do you know, I think when you say about the stripes on the lawn, there's certain things in life that are just heaven.
29:31And a good stripe on a lawn, honestly, is as boring as it sounds.
29:36I could literally sit with a cup of tea just looking at it.
29:39The framework for the roller starts live as a five millimetre thick sheet of steel.
29:48Inside the cutting machine, a five kilowatt laser begins to carve out multiple end brackets.
29:55It looks like a knife through butter.
30:01It is. It works with a near infrared light wave that comes from a laser generation unit in the corner.
30:07It beams down through the unit down to a lens.
30:10Now, to translate Dr Spock here, the laser heats the molecules in the steel to 1,500 degrees Celsius.
30:22Enough to melt and precisely cut the steel.
30:25Here we go. Set your phasers to stone.
30:29It's just mind-blowing. Quite hypnotic, actually.
30:34Looks very effortless, doesn't it? Yeah.
30:39In just over one hour, the laser makes parts for 54 roller frames.
30:48There they are.
30:52When I look at the thickness of that, it amazes me how it cuts through it so effortlessly.
30:58Yeah.
30:59We've got a lovely, lovely, clean cut around here.
31:02Oh, look at that!
31:04Fantastic.
31:05We'll get them all together and take them down to the welding shop.
31:08Perfect. Let's do it.
31:13Three steel bracket plates from the laser cutter, along with eight other components,
31:18are clamped onto a jig, which holds the pieces in place.
31:25Ready to be welded together.
31:29So, Paddy, here's our welder, our robot welder.
31:32Who named her Betty?
31:33Ah, always been known as Betty. Lost in the methods of time.
31:37OK.
31:38A pre-programmed robot goes around and puts everything together and does the full weld.
31:43On Betty's robot arm is a hot torch which belts copper-coated steel wire into the joints of the roller frame.
31:56Permanently welding the 11 pieces together in just three minutes.
32:09You can see that all of these welds have been put neatly into place around all of the rods with the magic hot torch.
32:15Yeah.
32:16Here, here and here.
32:18All nice and bonny and ready for the next stage.
32:20Correct.
32:21Smashing.
32:22See you later, Betty.
32:25Didn't reply to me.
32:31Once Betty's done her thing, the roller frames are sprayed black, with the same kind of polymer powder we use for the decks.
32:39And after being fired in the kebab grill and then cooled, they're ready for the all-important roller.
32:47These are made from glass reinforced plastic.
32:54And why are the little ridges in there?
32:56To give traction.
32:57These rollers are driven by the engine and that drives the machine along.
33:01Love that.
33:02Who's this, by the way?
33:03This is Dave.
33:04Oh, hey, Dave.
33:05We've got a bit of a malfunction with this roller.
33:06Oh, we've come at the wrong time.
33:08Don't worry, Dave.
33:09It's not as though it's on the telly.
33:10You're the man to fix it.
33:13Dave connects the rollers together so they'll spin smoothly.
33:17Which sometimes takes careful adjustment.
33:20Have you sorted that out, Dave?
33:22Sorted.
33:23Good job, ma'am.
33:24So now he's applying grease into those mechanisms.
33:28Here at Dave's station, the roller is even fitted with a gearbox, which will be connected to the engine via a chain.
33:36Once fired up, it'll send power to the roller, propelling the mower forward at various speeds.
33:43It reminds me a little bit like when you go to somewhere like McLaren.
33:47Mm-hmm.
33:48So they're working on F1 car and everything's just calm.
33:52Yeah.
33:53People are getting on with it, clean work areas.
33:55Yeah.
33:56It's great to see.
33:57I'm telling you now, the longer I spend here, the more I want to get back to having a real lawn.
34:08Is that you done, Dave?
34:09It is, mate.
34:10Fantastic.
34:11Dave, F1's loss is lawnmower's gain.
34:14Beautiful.
34:15Back on the main assembly line, Keith has the job of installing the roller and frame onto the underside of the deck.
34:29It's connected to the engine, and then it's onto Paul, who fixes two wheels onto the axle.
34:44And with those front wheels on, we're ready for the cutting edge part of the assembly.
34:58This is where Paul is putting on the blades.
35:01The sharp end of the factory.
35:03Indeed it is.
35:05Yes, well done.
35:06So this is your cutting blade, and you can see that it's got the cut edge put on the tip there.
35:10It's not very sharp though, is it?
35:11No, but it doesn't need to be.
35:12Only that section of the blade really does all of the work while it's spinning through the grass as you're walking forwards.
35:18Okay.
35:19Do you think this thing is turning at 2,800 RPM, you know, around sort of 180 miles an hour, that tip speed?
35:25And it's the speed of that impact that really does a lot of the work.
35:28Yeah, I don't think any blades of grass are standing up if that's hitting it at 180 like that.
35:33Not really.
35:34You were pretty quick though, Paul.
35:35Oh.
35:36How long does it take you to do that?
35:3730 seconds.
35:38Oh my word.
35:40He's throwing them out there.
35:42There's a new one for you, Paul.
35:43Thank you very much.
35:44Get that flaps on there.
35:45I mean, looking at the inside of that, how do you develop it to cut so well?
35:50We use the same kind of aeronautical software they use to design Formula One wings on cars.
35:56So we will model the shape of the deck, the shape of the blade, the shape of the wings,
36:00to cut that grass and get it up that chute and into the grass bag.
36:06The blade has wings on its edges, which creates suction and pushes her upwards,
36:12lifting freshly mown grass away from the cutting area and into a collection bag at the back of the mower.
36:18Right, well, I've been in here all morning.
36:21I'm not being rude, Richard, but you've not offered me a cup of tea yet.
36:24Sorry about that.
36:25So let's get the kettle on.
36:27Milk, no sugar.
36:29So, while Richard brews up and our mowers travel to the next station on the line,
36:34Ruth's getting to grips with the history of a very different kind of lawn cutting machine.
36:40The hover mower.
36:47You all right there, Ruth?
36:52The very first mechanical lawn mower, invented in 1830, was such a beast that it took two people to operate it.
37:01Ready, Clive?
37:02Yes.
37:03One, two, three, go!
37:05It used a cutting blade on a cylinder powered by a heavy roller and a lot of push and pull.
37:18London Zoo even tried using camels to help, and early steam and petrol mowers introduced in the 1890s also proved cumbersome.
37:27But, fast forward through the decades to the 1960s...
37:36It's all too beautiful!
37:39When the suburbs were expanding with new homeowners, all desperate to create perfectly cut lawns.
37:48And suddenly, a new lightweight mower landed on the scene.
37:53Hello, madam. I've come to demonstrate the revolutionary fly mow lawn mower.
37:58Complete with a free demo.
38:00So, the fly mow is totally revolutionary.
38:03Law mower historian Clive Gravitt has certainly learnt the salesman's patter.
38:09You've got no rollers, no wheels, and it just simply floats on a cushion of air.
38:13It was invented by Carl Dahlem in 1963.
38:17He was inspired by David Cockrell's hovercraft.
38:21The hovercraft had made global headlines with its first successful crossing of the English Channel in 1959.
38:33It could float across water and hover over land using a unique jet propulsion system.
38:40A fly mow, because it's a flying mower.
38:43We've got a petrol engine and you have these vents where air is sucked in.
38:47Yeah.
38:48And an impeller goes round underneath.
38:50An impeller.
38:51Oh, that's what this disc is.
38:52Yes.
38:53And that pushes the air down, creating a cushion of air.
38:56And the blade, obviously, also going round to actually cut the grass.
39:00Apparently, Carl Dahlem experimented with a dustbin lid.
39:04And then you can hover in any direction.
39:06So, no more straight lines, you can...
39:08You can go round, you can even go round in a circle.
39:11It just floats on air.
39:12It is a completely different way of thinking about lawn mowing.
39:16Every man could have his own hovercraft in the garden.
39:19But, despite an initial flurry of excitement, most blokes soldiered on with their traditional heavy roller mowers.
39:31So, in the early 1970s, attention was turned to the women of the home.
39:37When Swedish consumer goods company, Electrolux, marketed an all-new, fully electric hover mower in flexible, colourful, lightweight plastic.
39:49Top advertising executive, Rosie Arnold...
39:53Welcome to the 1970s.
39:56..believes the fashionable women of the 70s...
39:59Cheers.
40:00..gave this mower lift-off.
40:02So, what was it about the Flymo that turned it into the brand that we know today?
40:07What they'd identified at that time was a new market of housewives.
40:11In the house, there were so many new gadgets.
40:13There were vacuum cleaners, there were washing machines, there were blenders.
40:17It was all about speed, convenience, that was the way the world was going.
40:21And they identified that women were the major buyers of these things.
40:25Right.
40:26And they thought, why not talk about the garden?
40:28So, how were they doing this then?
40:30I think, you know, one of the first ads here, Jenny, you're not a grass widow again.
40:34And it says, you're not going to tell us your husband still has that old tank of a mower.
40:39So, that's leading straight in to that idea about this big, archaic, masculine machine.
40:45Whereas this is this light thing that even a woman can use.
40:48My eyes are drawn to this one, I have to say.
40:50And that's mostly because I want that dress.
40:54But doesn't she look wonderful?
40:55So little effort, in fact, that when eight arrives, you and your lawn are both looking good.
41:00It's a very odd thing, isn't it?
41:02This is being marketed at women and yet, to our modern ears, as patronising as heck.
41:06And what you have to remember is that it was men doing the advertisement.
41:10So, in these mid-70s adverts, I noticed that the mower itself is blue.
41:15The story goes that they were doing a research group amongst housewives.
41:19And they all got together and asked for it to be changed to the much more fashionable orange.
41:25Because at the time, orange was massively fashionable.
41:28So, we've got the Space Hopper and the Dukes of Hazzard car.
41:32It was an it colour.
41:33Everyone's a winner, baby, that's no lie.
41:37And actually, it was a stroke of marketing genius, because it set it aside from all the other mowers that were out there.
41:44So that, combined with advertising to women, you'd got an absolute killer strategy.
41:49And after 1977, all fly mows were orange.
41:58Marvellous.
41:59Ooh!
42:00I think we have liftoff!
42:04By the end of the 1980s, the orange hover was making up a third of all lawnmower purchases across the UK and Europe.
42:17And it's all thanks to a Swede with a fascination for the hovercraft.
42:23Yeah, it's okay, Ruth.
42:24We can hear you.
42:25Nearly there, pal.
42:26I've been pepped up with a nice brew.
42:44And after nearly three and a half hours, our mowers are rolling along the assembly line.
42:51Where work starts on the upper body.
42:56With the addition of a mechanism to adjust the cutting height of the grass.
43:01But, I'm off in search of a secret.
43:05This is where they keep Cherry Healy's dental records.
43:10The various teeth she puts in and out.
43:15Look at me on these curtains.
43:18Like a Kubrick movie, this.
43:22Never look in there.
43:26The secret I'm looking for is how to mow those perfect stripes.
43:31And for that, I need to head out into the sunshine.
43:35Oh, beautiful.
43:37Now I'm walking on sunshine.
43:40Whoa.
43:41I'm walking on sunshine.
43:43Oh, at last.
43:44This is what we're talking about.
43:46Yeah.
43:49This is one of our test fields, Paddy.
43:51I've been on loads of test tracks.
43:53This is my first test field.
43:55What's the optimal height for good stripage?
43:59Well, for stripes, you actually need a little bit of length left in the grass.
44:03Because it's the bending of the grass that gives you that striped effect.
44:08All them years we've struggled and that's the answer.
44:12Bit longer in length.
44:14According to Richard, for the best stripes, set your blade height to cut the grass at 46 centimetres.
44:22Pull up the handle, then pull the engine start.
44:25Right, okay then.
44:26Right.
44:27A pull cord sparks the engine to life.
44:32Push on there and you'll be away.
44:34Squeezing the handlebar engages the gears in the roller, propelling it forward.
44:40Oh, beautiful.
44:43Look at that.
44:45Feels smooth as silk.
44:50Tripod that.
44:51Might want to get rid of that off the lawn.
44:53Occupational hazard.
44:55Shall I go back up the other way and get the stripe going?
44:57You can indeed.
44:58Yeah.
44:59We're all going on a summer holiday.
45:04No more working for a week or two.
45:07Oh, now we're motoring.
45:09I am here for this.
45:12Oh, what a treat.
45:17The mower weighs 47 kilograms, which pushes down on the roller, creating the stripes.
45:26Oh my God.
45:29I've got two bad lines.
45:31At least it's consistent.
45:32And I'm getting the two different colours.
45:34You are.
45:35When the grass is bent away from you, you get a lot of light reflecting back from the blades.
45:40That looks like a light green stripe.
45:42When the grass is bent towards you, you're looking down the ends of the tips of the blades of grass.
45:45That gives you the dark stripe.
45:47I honestly thought it was how low you put your mower.
45:50Not at all.
45:51No, the lower you go, the worse the stripe you'll get.
45:54Oh, I think that's a bit better, Paddy.
46:05Well, I could happily spend the day here on me own testing lawn mowers.
46:11If you're looking for someone, I'm your mum.
46:14You're more than welcome.
46:16Oh, it's so satisfying.
46:29Hey, don't walk on the stripes, mate.
46:31Straight across me handiwork.
46:34Oh, sacrilege.
46:37All right.
46:41Shall we head back inside?
46:42You can, Richard.
46:43I'm just going to have another five minutes here looking at me stripes.
46:45Go on, pal.
46:46I won't be long.
46:47Fair enough.
46:48Mmm.
46:51Gorgeous.
46:55Surely you can't beat this, Gerry.
47:00Well, actually, I think I can.
47:02With a day trip to sunny Cambridge.
47:07This is so beautiful.
47:10The historic buildings.
47:11The punting.
47:12But look at that perfect, gorgeous lawn stretching all the way down to the river.
47:18But I'm not here for a lesson in how to look after your lawn.
47:21I'm actually here for a lesson in how to not mow your lawn.
47:26They've had a finely manicured lawn here behind the King's College Chapel for over 250 years.
47:33But now a large section of it has been transformed.
47:43Wow.
47:51All under the watchful eye of botanist Dr. Cicely Marshall.
47:56Hi, Cicely.
47:57Hi, Sherry.
47:58Welcome to our Wellflower Meadow.
47:59Why did you decide to dig up half of the lawn of this iconic setting and grow a meadow?
48:11It's been a fine lawn since 1772.
48:13And in 2019, we wondered if we could make more of the area for nature.
48:17We've lost 97% of our species-rich grasslands in this country, mainly through intensified agriculture.
48:24We also wanted to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions.
48:27We also thought it would be beautiful.
48:29It is absolutely stunning.
48:33What plants can I see here?
48:35Well, we've got our species that are typical of hay meadow.
48:38So things like the carrot, the oxide daisy, the field scabious.
48:42Beautiful, those purple ones.
48:43Yeah.
48:44Stunning.
48:45The slightly pinkier as the greater knapweed.
48:47I mean, the difference is so stark.
48:49Here you've got this explosion of flowers and then you've got almost nothing else except grass on here.
48:56The meadow was created by scattering a mix of local East Anglian wildflower seeds and then letting nature do its thing.
49:09Incredibly, 51 of the 84 plant species here today flew in on the wind or were dormant under the grass all along.
49:19Tending to this huge variety of plants is gardener Charlotte Waters.
49:26I mean, this is so stunningly beautiful.
49:30How is it that when I've tried to grow wildflowers at home, nothing's happened?
49:35So I think your key is the yellow rattle.
49:38And you need yellow rattle to help establish the flowers because the yellow rattle helps break down the grass growth.
49:44The yellow rattle competes with the root of the grass to stunt the growth of the grass, which means the flowers can then thrive.
49:52So it's thanks to this little plant that we have all of this and all this diversity.
49:56Yeah.
49:58What are your favourite things growing in the meadow?
50:00So it has to be a bee orchid because they're so rare and when they arrive, it's just everyone gets excited.
50:05It's like the gossip around the college that there's a bee orchid in the meadow.
50:11It may look gorgeous, but have these wildflowers really provided more food and shelter for wildlife?
50:18To find out, I'm joining a group of volunteers who monitor how the biodiversity differs between the meadow and the lawn.
50:26I mean, on the mowed lawn, I can see there's not much action happening, but the minute you step into the wild meadow, just a couple of sweeps with my net.
50:37Oh, yeah. Mother Nature's having a party. Look at that. It's absolutely teeming with life.
50:43Hello, Jiminy Cricket.
50:44As well as using nets to capture and release sun lovers like grasshoppers and butterflies, UV light insect traps are set up overnight to monitor nocturnal critters.
51:00Oh, fun. Look at this.
51:03This is a dune bug, which is a type of chaffer beetle.
51:06Oh, look. What's that?
51:07That is a heart and club.
51:08Heart and club.
51:09We've got a caddisfly, a moth, a beetle and a mayfly.
51:14So that's four different insect orders, which really shows the sort of diversity that we're getting.
51:20And we have a rather wonderful beast here.
51:23Look at this. Look at that.
51:26Oh, my goodness me.
51:28It's an elephant hawk moth.
51:29That's a moth.
51:30I had no idea they came multicolored.
51:33It looks like something from a tropical country.
51:35This is absolutely beautiful.
51:38We've got 2,500 species of moths in Britain.
51:41The flat lawn gives them nowhere to hide.
51:44But that lovely, rough, sort of three-dimensional architecture of the meadow makes a big difference.
51:50They make really good food for bats as well.
51:51What, he does?
51:53Yeah.
51:54No, don't say that.
51:56You didn't mean it.
51:57So is it working?
51:58Is the wildflower meadow attracting more diverse plant and animal species?
52:02Absolutely it is.
52:03The 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.
52:17And no mowing has also reduced carbon emissions.
52:24What can we do at home to create something like this?
52:27Well, a simple thing you can do is just to stop mowing your lawn and see what you've got.
52:31And you might find your lawn is more species-rich than you think it is.
52:34So more diverse flowers, more diverse animals, a happier ecosystem.
52:43If letting our lawns grow wild means attracting more beauties like this, I say, let it grow.
52:50Yep, that does look nice, Cherry.
52:58But some lawn mowers are absolute beauties too.
53:08Drop a mower!
53:09Drop a mower!
53:19Having fun?
53:20Yes!
53:21Oh well.
53:22Inside time.
53:23Oh.
53:25Party pooper.
53:27Thoroughly enjoyed that.
53:29Frankie de Tori.
53:30Don't worry.
53:38Luckily, Richard does have some classic power tools inside.
53:42Ah.
53:44Look at that.
53:46Proper.
53:48To lure me back in.
53:50Wow.
53:52This is like being in a toy shop.
53:54Oh.
53:56On the assembly line, we're ready to finish the fittings on the top of the lawn mower deck.
54:06Here we are.
54:07Alright, buddy.
54:08This is Merrick.
54:09We're just going to put on some of the last parts of the assembly now.
54:11Yep.
54:12So we've got a top cover to go on.
54:13We've got one here for you.
54:14Yep.
54:15Stand aside, Merrick.
54:16I'm going in.
54:18You just lower that cover over the top.
54:21That's it.
54:22That's it.
54:24The black plastic cover provides a nice finish around that all-important height adjustment lever.
54:35Oh.
54:37We like that.
54:40A little cap on the top of that lever.
54:47More, more, more.
54:48More?
54:49More.
54:50How's that?
54:51Yeah.
54:52And you check if...
54:53Don't move, please.
54:55Ah.
54:56Pretty solid, that.
54:57I'll just give it one more.
54:59Yeah.
55:00Feels good.
55:01So next stage is handlebars.
55:03If you'd like to pass these over to Merrick and he'll get them fitted up.
55:08Yeah.
55:09Merrick, you're back on, pal.
55:11Okay.
55:12Good luck.
55:15Merrick installs the steel handlebars which can fold away for storage.
55:21And now we've nearly finished, look who's turned up.
55:24Woo!
55:26All the hard work is done and Cherry's here to steal the glory.
55:30Ah, here we are.
55:36Ta-da!
55:38Look at this.
55:39Isn't it beautiful?
55:40So shiny and you.
55:41Oh.
55:42And I can spin it round like a lazy Susan.
55:45Do you have any chance that Richard put it and look first, Cherry?
55:48That's all right, though.
55:49Brilliant, that.
55:50This is your final mower, Paddy and Cherry.
55:52Ready to go.
55:53Oh, beautiful.
55:54Glorious.
55:55That's a piece of kit, that is.
56:02And now we've got a shiny finished mower, I think I'll go and put me feet up and let Cherry give Gavin a hand boxing up.
56:11We'll put this under the handlebars.
56:13There we go.
56:14Put that down.
56:15She looks great.
56:16That is one big box.
56:17That is one big box.
56:18And it's ready to go in.
56:20Okay, here we go.
56:21You've got to line it up perfectly.
56:23Come on, Cherry.
56:24She's heavy.
56:25Come on.
56:26Use your muscles.
56:27There you go.
56:28And she's in.
56:29All right.
56:32Lift her up.
56:33That's it.
56:34Don't drop it.
56:35Don't drop it.
56:37Down she goes.
56:38Perfect.
56:39Woo!
56:41Nice one, Cherry.
56:42Right, let's get these boxes over to dispatch.
56:47We've got a delivery to fulfil.
56:50You all right, Richard?
56:51Hey, Paddy.
56:52Hey, Cherry.
56:53I'm going to go over there and start boxing these.
56:55Oh, hey, up.
56:56That's it.
56:57Down.
56:58How many mowers on a lorry like this?
56:59So, with the one that Paddy's been building, we get 96 in a lorry.
57:01Beautiful stuff.
57:02Let's wrap her up.
57:03We get up to four lorries a day going out of this side.
57:04Yeah.
57:05And on they go, onto the lorry ready to dispatch.
57:06Not sure the wrapping on that's very good.
57:07Who did that one?
57:08Couldn't possibly say.
57:09Oh!
57:10Good job, you did so good.
57:12Beautiful.
57:13Hey, Richard.
57:14Thank you so much for showing us around today.
57:15Thank you so much for showing us around today.
57:16So, with the one that Paddy's been building, we get 96 in a lorry.
57:18Beautiful stuff.
57:19Let's wrap her up.
57:20We get up to four lorries a day going out of this side.
57:21And on they go, onto the lorry ready to dispatch.
57:24Not sure the wrapping on that's very good.
57:29Who did that one?
57:30Couldn't possibly say.
57:31Oh!
57:32Good job.
57:33You did so good.
57:35It looks great.
57:36Beautiful.
57:37Hey, Richard.
57:38Thank you so much for showing us around today, pal.
57:39Been a pleasure, Paddy.
57:40It's fully loaded.
57:41Get the doors down.
57:43Off it goes.
57:44Just four hours and 20 minutes after the start of production,
57:56our mowers are leaving the factory.
58:00From Hertfordshire, they head out all over the UK and Ireland,
58:05ready to make neighbours green with envy over perfectly mown grass.
58:12But as far as I'm concerned, there's only one way
58:15to properly christen a freshly mown lawn.
58:18Yeah?
58:19Yes!
58:22Hey!
58:24I tell you what.
58:26I've not got real grass at home, but after spending the day here,
58:29I'm very tempted to get it put back in.
58:31Enjoy.
58:32Get him on!
58:38Come on, Ely.
58:39Hey!
58:42Tell you what's kicking off over on BBC Three now.
58:49A brand new episode of RuPaul's Drag Race UK versus the world.
58:53And from glamazons to gut health, Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall serves
58:57the fibre factor.
58:59Listen on sounds.
59:00Here next, Silent Witness.
59:03Come on, I'm ready to go.
59:05Hey!
59:06Hey!
59:07Vas, who are you?
59:08PNG, thank you!
59:09Bye!
59:10Woo!
59:11Woo!
59:12Woo!
59:13Woo!
59:14Woo!
59:15Woo!
59:16Woo!
59:17Woo!
59:18Woo!
59:19Woo!
59:20Woo!
59:21Woo!
59:22Woo!
59:23Woo!
59:26Woo!
59:27Woo!
59:28Woo!
59:29Woo!
59:30Woo!
59:31Woo! Woo!
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