How a small Yorkshire village is known across the world for its connection to David Brown tractors

Generations of people – 4,000 at its peak – created these legendary reliable vehicles and there are still many people who recall the business with fondness. Some are still involved with the David Brown Tractor Club which has a base in Meltham in the company’s former factory.

Roger Brereton, who hails from the over the tops in Saddleworth, says the magic of David Brown still has a hold on people who remember the company with fondness.

“There is a real mix of people in the group, from those who used to work for the company to those like me who remember the tractors from their childhood," he said.

"People are always coming to us with stuff they have found in their attics and asking us if we would like to put it on show. There is a real enthusiasm.

“We get people from around the world coming to the centre. We have a group from Scandinavia due over soon and we had some from Austria, Canada and the United States.”

The club has long been in existence but recently moved from another site in Meltham to the current site where around 20 tractors are on show, together with information such as Queen’s award for exports and brochures.

In 1977, the 500,000th tractor was built and it featured in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. It was auctioned for charity recently resurfaced when it appeared at Runnymede as the Queen’s funeral cortege passed by.

The company was run by David Brown and began as a joint project with Harry Ferguson. Mr Brown later broke the partnership and went alone. It became one of the biggest British tractor manufactures in the post war period.

The company broke new ground which others were only to follow later, but being a pioneering company ultimately led to its downfall.

He took over the Lancashire firm of Harrison, McGregor & Guest Ltd, who produced the Albion brand of agricultural machinery to complement the tractor product line. After the takeover the company's badge was modified to incorporate the white rose of Yorkshire and the red rose of Lancashire.

The Tractors firm had 10 subsidiaries around the world. But a recession saw tractor sales slump, and after braving the storm and with the debt of a brand new building and production line to finance, it was inevitable that the company was put up for sale, bought by Tenneco who also owned the US tractor firm J.I. Case.

All hope to see the factory prosper was dashed when it was announced that survival was a competition between Huddersfield and the International Harvester tractor plant in Doncaster, with the odds stacked in the latter's favour, especially with access to the motorway network. The Meltham factory ended production and a respected British name was erased.

The club is holding an open day on Sunday from 10am to 3pm at its headquarters at Unit J2 on the Meltham Mills Industrial Estate in Knowle Lane, Meltham, HD9 4DS. Email [email protected].