Edwin Beard Budding is granted a patent…

Edwin Beard Budding is granted a patent for the invention of the lawn mower on August 31, 1830

An engineer from Stroud, Gloucestershire, Budding had seen a machine in a local cloth mill which used a cutting cylinder (or bladed reel) mounted on a bench to trim cloth to make a smooth finish after weaving.

Realizing that a similar concept would enable the cutting of grass if the mechanism could be mounted in a wheeled frame to make the blades rotate close to the lawn's surface, he had gone into partnership with a local engineer, John Ferrabee, and together they make mowers in a factory at Thrupp near Stroud.

Budding is also the inventor of the first sew-type adjustable spanner, or angle-head wrench, using a screw to replace the wedge that fixed the jaw of a known type of adjustable spanner.