Hayter Limited
Hayter has been designing and producing premium quality lawn mowers at its headquarters in Hertfordshire since 1946 – and in 2016 celebrated its 70th year in business. Hayter lawn mowers are used by homeowners and professional contractors all over the UK and with a choice of electric lawn mowers and petrol lawn mowers in a range of sizes, there’s a Hayter lawn mower suitable for most gardens. Although offering a range of different lawn mower types, Hayter is perhaps best known for its rear-roller lawn mower range, which help produce that beautifully British striped lawn effect. Hayter is proud to be part of the Made in Britain campaign and to have continuously held the Royal Warrant for the supply of horticultural equipment to Her Majesty the Queen since 1960.
Company details
Find locations served, office locations and our distributors
- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Agriculture
- Market Focus:
- Nationally (across the country)
- Year Founded:
- 1946
- Employees:
- 101-1000
This company also provides solutions for other industrial applications.
Please, visit the following links for more info:
About Us
Our customers often share photos of their #HayterStripes online. Search for #HayterStripes on Twitter or Facebook. Or why not post your own?!
What lawn mower should I buy?
There are a few simple choices to make. The best lawn mower for you depends on a number of factors: size of lawn, the look you’re after and the complexity of your garden.
Petrol or electric?
If you have a very small garden then an electric lawn mower may be your best choice. As the size of your lawn increases however then the benefits of petrol lawn mowers become more important. You will get a more powerful lawn mower without the need to worry about being close to a socket and without the restriction of a cord.
Rear roller lawn mower or four wheeled?
If you think about the best looking lawns, you will probably visualise beautiful stripes. It is really simple to add stripes to your lawn if you have the right type of mower. The only type of lawn mower to give you stripes is a rear roller lawn mower. These mowers have a roller at the back of the mower instead of wheels. The roller bends the blade slightly in different directions as you go up and down the lawn to create the striped look. If you do not want stripes on your lawn or if you have a lawn which is bumpy then a four wheeled mower would be better for you.
What size lawn mower do I need?
Lawn mower sizes are usually measured shown in centimetres or inches which describes the width of the cut. When a mower cuts a path through long grass the width of the short grass behind the mower is the width of cut. The wider the width of cut, the quicker you will be able to mow your lawn because you will be cutting a larger area each time you pass across the lawn. For smaller lawns, (say for example up to ½ a tennis court) consider a 36cm or 41cm cutting width, for medium size lawns (approx ½ to 1 tennis court) a 48cm cutting width mower would be suitable and for larger lawns (1 ½ + tennis courts) a 56cm mower will help you get the job done in less time.
The other thing to consider in terms of size of mower is the capacity of the grass bag. Smaller lawn mowers will have a smaller grass bag whereas larger mowers will have larger capacity bags which will hold more grass clippings so you have to empty the bag less often.
Where to buy a lawn mower?
The best place to buy a lawn mower is through a specialist garden machinery dealer. They are specialists in selling a range of garden machinery so will be able to advise you about what is the best lawn mower for your specific needs. These lawn mower specialists will usually be service agents so you can take your lawn mower to get its annual service at the same place. Most people don’t buy a lawn mower very often so naturally, the average lawn mower buyer is not a lawn mower expert. Buying through a dealer is a much safer way to buy a lawn mower. You will be talking to an expert who can advise you what is the right product for you.
Why choose Hayter
Makers of the finest mowers
Our motto says it all. Here at Hayter, we constantly strive to produce premium quality lawn care products – as we have since 1946. Used by homeowners and professional contractors all over the UK, Hayter mowers are a pleasure to use and will serve you well for many years.
With a choice of electric and petrol products, there’s a Hayter mower suitable for most households.
Quality Engineering
Modern technology with traditional skills and values
In Hayter, modern technology works alongside traditional skills to deliver the highest quality product. Many of the processes may be computer controlled but this does not replace the skills of the practiced hand and critical eye, which act together to produce products of consistently high quality.
Here at Hayter, quality is a way of life and we constantly strive to maintain and improve the standards upon which our reputation has been gained.
Our Heritage
The name Hayter has been synonymous with British grass cutting for over half a century.
1940's
Born in Bishop’s Stortford on the borders of Essex and Hertfordshire in 1914, Douglas Hayter was educated in the town and on leaving school entered the retail trade. He found life rather dull and before long joined a touring air circus and spent his time servicing aeroplane engines, a job that left him with a lifelong interest in engineering.
In 1937, after serving an apprenticeship in the building trade, the young Douglas Hayter arrived in Spellbrook and built a five roomed bungalow for himself and his wife. In 1938 he started his own building business. He erected workshops and sawmills, manufactured his own plant, and invented a top secret device for the War Office.
World War II changed things and on learning that he was in a reserved occupation, Douglas Hayter decided to concentrate on buildings and repairing farm tractors and machinery.
When the war ended, he added the manufacture of cattle yard equipment to the company’s activities. On discovering that some of his employees had no homes, he decided to build luxury caravans for them from old RAF mobile containers previously used on the Queen Mary.
In 1946, he decided to add some extra factory space at Spellbrook. He borrowed a cutter bar mower from a friend to clear a space for the new building but made slow progress with this work. Soon after, on a visit to the London Science Museum, Douglas Hayter saw a horse-drawn rotary mower that had been invented a hundred years or so earlier. On his return to Spellbrook he added a second hand two-stroke engine to the collection of bits and pieces that he had under his workshop bench. By the next day, the first Hayter rotary lawnmower, complete with a dustbin lid over the rotor, was ready for use.
The new lawnmower worked quite well and before long, an admiring neighbour asked Mr Hayter to make one for him. From this small beginning, demand for the Spellbrook built mower grew, and soon after the Hayter Motor Scythe went into full production in 1947. It was a hand-propelled motor mower with a 24” cut made with whatever engine was available at the time.
Ipswich Town Council was one of the first customers to buy a Motor Scythe.
Further work was done on product developments and a safety stone guard was fitted to the mower deck. When supplies became more readily available towards the end of the 1940s, a four-stroke Villiers horizontal crankshaft engine was used for the already popular Motor Scythe.
1946 saw Hayter incorporated as a limited company.