Shrewsbury in Shropshire has a record of being a town full of pride and dignity, and rightly so. It won the Champion Britain in Bloom award in 2014 and takes a very positive stance towards maintaining amenities and parks for the benefit of the local community and visitors. The largest park, The Quarry, which receives over a million visitors every year consists of 29 acres of grassed area for walkers, pursuits and play areas, to name just a few of the popular activities.

Since 2007, for the large expanses of grass which includes The Quarry and all the school fields, Shrewsbury Town Council had been running a 12ft cut Major mower that has shown excellent service and reliability. But in 2015, Kevin and his team decided that after eight years of service it was time to upgrade their mowing capacity.

“We looked at several of the leading brands of wide-area mower and kept coming back to the simplicity and reliability of the Major mower,” added Kevin. “It had given us so much good service without breakdown issues that in comparing with other products that were more complicated, we decided to stay with the Major because it was tried, tested and trusted.”

So Shrewsbury Town Council decided on a Major Swift 18ft (5.5m) cut mower, using a gear-driven eight rotor and heavy-duty blade design similar in style to their previous 12ft mower. They took delivery in Spring 2015 and it has been used extensively throughout this last season. For transport work the mower folds hydraulically to just 6ft 6inches and is fitted with all the necessary lighting for roadwork applications.

“The wider Major mower has been performing very well,” commented Kevin. “Because it’s wider, we get over the ground a lot quicker, it’s a very simple, solid, robust machine that leaves a very good cut, regardless of conditions. Maintenance is just a few grease nipples and the heavy-duty design means that it can take a fair bit of punishment on the rough undulating park areas. This last year, it cut the entire season with just one set of blades, which is testament indeed to the machine’s durability.” he concluded.