Edwin Beard Budding, an engineer from Stroud, England, is credited with inventing the lawnmower.
(It was a push mower, inspired by a machine he saw in a local cloth mill which used a cutting cylinder (or bladed reel) mounted on a bench to trim give wollen cloth a smooth finish. The mower was designed primarily to cut the grass on sports grounds and in extensive gardens, as a superior alternative to the scythe. He was granted the British patent on August 31, 1830.
And thus the stripey English lawn was invented.)