Hayter – a brief history
Hayter lawnmowers are known for their familiar heritage British Racing Green livery and classic design and loved for their reliability and quality. They have a veritable army of fans for whom the motto ‘Once a Hayer, Always a Hayter’ is something of a badge of honour amongst aficionados.
A Rich History
Hayter, the brand was created by inventor and all round builder and engineer Douglas Hayter. He was born in 1914 in Bishop’s Stortford on the border of Essex and Hertfordshire and grew up to become a aeronautical service engineer for an air circus then a builder’s apprentice finally building creating his own building and engineering business in Spellbrook, a hamlet between Harlow and Bishop’s Stortford.
To this end he built his own workshops and sawmills to create a successful business, did some ‘top secret’ designing and engineering for the War Office, repaired farm machinery and manufactured cattle yard equipment.
He built homes (luxury caravans) for his workers out of old RAF containers and seemed to be perpetually inventing and innovating, always looking for ideas and using all his experience to improve the standard of living for his family and employees.
Douglas Hayter
After borrowing a cutter bar mower to clear space for a new building and finding it rather laborious, followed by a visit to the Science museum in London where he saw an old horse drawn rotary mower he became interested in creating a domestic mowing machine and made one for himself.
When a neighbour saw this innovative machine in action he asked for one too, and this eventually led to the start of the Hayter business, becoming a limited company in 1946 and the first ‘Hayter Motor Scythe’, a hand-propelled. 24 inch cutting width motor mower, which started full production in 1947.
Hayter continues to be a top selling brand, and a byword for quality, and continues to design and build many of its products in Spellbrook where it started. Here at MowDirect we are exceptionally proud of our long standing and successful relationship with this forward thinking and yet traditional, British company.
The Hayter Harrier – Consistent Top Seller
