Ransomes Jacobsen has received two special awards recognising its long-term contribution to the turf care maintenance industry.

The Ipswich-based company was honoured at the Heritage Awards, held to mark the 25th anniversary of Service Dealer magazine and presented during the 2013 IOG SALTEX Show at Royal Windsor Racecourse.

Ransomes Jacobsen won the Edwin Budding Award for Manufacturing ? named after the man credited with inventing the lawnmower ? in recognition of its 181-year history of manufacturing turfcare equipment in the UK.

The company, part of the US-based Textron group, also picked up the Professional Turfcare Machinery award for its Ransomes Mastiff model.

Another winner at the event, receiving the award for Cylinder Mowers, was the Suffolk Punch model produced by Qualcast, now part of the German group Bosch, which includes factory in Stowmarket.

Ransomes Jacobsen’s awards were collected by David Withers, formerly managing director at the Ipswich firm and now president of Jacobsen, its immediate parent company.

Chris Biddle, the founding editor of Service Dealer, who organised the awards, said: “When we set out to identify the Heritage Awards we asked our readers to nominate their suggestions in a number of categories which included Professional Turf Machinery.

“We received a large and varied response, from which we chose the top five to form a short-list of which the Ransomes Mastiff was one of the five. These were then voted upon online and, I have to say, the Mastiff was a clear winner.

“In recognition of their extraordinary 181 history of manufacturing turfcare equipment in the UK, there could only be one winner of the Edwin Budding Award and it was pleasure to present the award to David Withers.”