Hello ODK members,

This series of posts discusses the Pope Wimbledon range of manual push mowers, released in mid 1949, and
staying in continuous production (with little change) for over three decades.

Context:
Australia has a long, varied and interesting history of manual sidewheel mower manufacture. The great Aussie brands
of Clyde, and Crowe, and Presto, and Rexmow, and the like all deserve recording and recognition.

In the early 20th Century it was American machines that dominated the Australian market. The British Qualcast changed
all that with their setting up shop here in 1931. It's probably that single event that encouraged a new dynasty
of Australian manufacturers. The American stranglehold ended.

Post WWII saw two new Aussie kids arrive on the block. Both were large companies and both started their respective
mower operations in the same year - 1949. They were Ogden and Pope. For the whole
of the 1950s the TOP THREE players were Ogden, Pope and Qualcast.

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Models:
The Wimbledons were offered in one size: 14 inch. They were offered in two variants: the 5 blade
and the 7 blade. Apart from that, they were identical.

The colour scheme and decals changed over the life of the machine. The original colour was
a rich baked enamel custard-yellow. At some point in the 1960s (I think) the colour changed to
a silver-gold. Decals changed at least three times.

The Pope Wimbledon was followed by two other models based on the Wimbledon: the electric Centre Court and the
petrol motor Power Mower.

[Linked Image]

Conclusion
For completeness, I would like to point out that Wimbledons were not revolutionary, but they were
refined and they defined what a modern sidewheel should be. In the next section I will discuss two patents
that represent refinement of the sidewheel design.