Collection 0003 Westbrooke Mower

The Westbrooke Mower seems to have been a joint venture between W. E. Colebrooke & Company Ltd. and William West. Letters Patent for the combined mower and car were issued in March 1936 when their address was the Company’s Works in Camber Road, Rye, Sussex.
A copy of a Dealer’s Licence, under the Farm Machinery (Control of Manufacture and Supply Order, 1943, dated 20th September 1944, allowed W. West “to carry on the business of a dealer in farm machinery at the premises known as West’s Engineering Works, Camber Road, Rye, Sussex.
Our mower, APM 25, was first registered on 21st June, 1937, and owned by a Mr. Herbert Catt who lived at New Bentley, East Guldeford, and subsequently at Salts Farm. Later it was owned by Kenneth R Hickman, who lived at addresses in Rye and Winchelsea up to the last time the road tax licence was renewed in January 1972.
In 1986, Mr. Harry Edwards, Editor of the Morris Register, on looking at a photo of our vehicle, said that the radiator was from a Morris Commercial C-type vehicle, while the petrol tank was from a Morris Bullnose and that the car, frame and engine numbers indicated that it dated to around June 1926. Its unladen weight is 18 cwt.
We do not know exactly how many mower conversions were made by Westbrooke, one estimate is about 36. We have copy letters from seven owners in Kent and East Sussex dated 1935, 1938 and 1939, who said how happy they were with the mower’s performance.