Once-troublesome sloping grounds surrounding a Nottinghamshire stately home have proved no match for Toro’s Groundsmaster 3280-D rotary mower.

Standing on a natural hill three miles west of Nottingham city centre, Wollaton Hall is set in 500 acres of spectacular gardens and parkland. But these undulating grounds around the recently restored Elizabethan mansion were proving an uphill struggle for Wollaton’s old cylinder mower and so the City Council’s Andrew Crofts – the person responsible for the estate’s grounds team – decided to replace it with a rotary.

Andrew and his team pitted a Toro Groundsmaster 3280-D against a range of rotary mower makes during a demo. “We chose the Toro as it came out on top after putting them all through their paces,” he recalls. “It’s the first piece of Toro kit we’ve owned in a very long time, but we felt it was the best machine available on the market.”

Equipped with a powerful 27kW/36hp engine, the Groundsmaster 3280-D provides the high productivity and ground-following performance required by extensive sites like Wollaton. The mower now maintains around 20 per cent of the estate, working mainly on its verges. “The Groundsmaster’s been mowing non-stop since its arrival and is performing really well, particularly on the undulations,” Andrew adds. “We’re very pleased.”