AFTERSALES BROCHURE

In 1830, 19-year-old George Brown moved 8 miles from Houghton Regis to start a business as a blacksmith in Leighton Buzzard. Nobody knew why George made the move, but his decision led to the foundation of a business that has been an important part of Leighton Buzzard’s commercial scene for the last 192 years. In 1841 George purchased the forge in which he carried out his trade, along with an adjoining building in Leck Street, now known as Lake Street.

In 1850 he was joined by his son William who was taught the art of manufacturing edge tools like scythes, chisels, hay knives and forks, an area George had begun to specialise in. By the end of the 19th century, they had installed steam driven machinery, father and son then turned to making farm implements such as ploughs, drills and horse hoes. It was not long before they were selling their farm implements over a 20-mile radius and the young Brown often would be off to Aylesbury Market at 6.00am sharp by horse and trap for a 12-hour day. Ernest Brown became the third generation when he joined the firm in 1903. He developed the farm implement business into semi-mass production, selling over the entire southern half of the country. He invented the parallel expanding horse-hoe, which sold in its thousands, he also expanded the range to include Cambridge rollers, push hoes, grain lifters, hay weeps and hay stackers.

After the first world war, the company started selling early tractor models, eventually becoming an agent for Austin Tractors. In due course Ernest was joined in the business by the fourth generation, his three sons Bernard, Alan and Bob who concentrated on developing the retail side of the business. In 1944 they sold their first self-propelled combine harvester and in 1957, the year Ernest retired, Massey Harris Ferguson offered them a main distributorship.