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The David Brown Tractor club
was formed by Mr. Martin George in the Spring of 1995. He
wanted a focus for David Brown enthusiasts to get
together, to source parts, and to give and receive
information, the clubs' initial meeting and all quarterly
meetings since have taken place at Durker Roads Hotel,
Meltham, Huddersfield, which was Mr. David Brown's home
up until the early 1970's.
The David Brown Company was founded in 1860 and initially made wooden gears for use in the textile mills of Huddersfield where the company was and still is based. They later progressed to producing steel gears and by the 1930's were the largest producers of gears in the Commonwealth. Today, 'David Brown Textron' (Textron, an American company purchased David Brown Group Plc in 1998) produce gears, gearboxes, pumps transmissions and all manner of engineering from their factories in Britain and all over the world. The David Brown Company became involved in tractor manufacture in 1936 when Mr. David Brown (Grandson of the founder) was approached to produce gears for a tractor he was developing, a deal was struck and the David Brown Company manufactured FERGUSON Brown Tractors between 1936 and 1939. The tractors where a success but Mr. David Brown felt that they could be improved with small design changes, however Harry Ferguson would fear, went off to persuade Henry Ford to manufacture his tractors, and so David Brown was free to begin manufacturing his own tractors. The David Brown VAK 1 was launched at the 139 Royal Show its elegant styling and sleek lines were very popular, and it proved to be an immediate success. |
At about this time war was
looming and David Brown was offered a redundant textile
factory 6 miles from Huddersfield at Meltham Mills, he
felt that soon all available manufacturing space would be
required for the war effort. He purchased the Meltham Mills factory for tractor production but war came quickly and soon it was in production day and night making munitions and aircraft parts. When peacetime resumed the plant produced the highly successful range of David Brown through until 1988. In 1972 David Brown sold the Tractor Company to the American Tenneco Corporation who also owned J.I Case Tractors and the two makes were affiliated to each other. In 1986 Tenneco purchased International Harvester Tractors and Case IH was born. 1988 was a sad year for David Brown enthusiasts as it was announced that the Meltham factory was to close, and so a history of building tractors since 1939 came to an end. David Brown tractors are still popular the world over and this is one of the reasons for the David Brown Tractor Clubs' success. Our membership is over 1000 and members come from all over the globe.
Our quarterly magazine 'Tractor News' brings features and articles on restorations, machines still in use, and technical articles from experts who worked within the company. We also actively seek out new sources of parts, supply decal sets and instruction books and a full range of merchandise and memorabilia, boiler-suits, key-rings, posters, mugs, T-shirts, in fact anything the enthusiast may want. We aim to be the best.
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