Basildon Blues: How Ford turbo-charged tractor production

IN the first of a two-part series, we take a look at New Holland's state-of-the-art tractor manufacturing facility in Basildon, Essex.

Located on a 40ha site, the statistics of the factory are quite staggering with a 1,000 strong workforce and over 1.6 million tractors along with 3.1 million engines produced. The dawn of 2024 marks a significant milestone for the factory as it celebrates its 60th year in operation.

Some 50 years ago, the majority of tractors working in Ireland were of UK origin. The UK was a stronghold of tractor production with players such as David Brown, Massey Ferguson, Leyland, County, Muir Hill, International, Roadless, and of course Ford churning out tractors for both domestic and export markets.

Marques such as Fiat, John Deere, Zetor, or Fendt were viewed as somewhat exotic tractors!

In fact, at one stage, Ford tractors accounted for 1% of the UK’s export income. Most of the aforementioned tractor companies have fallen by the wayside, while others have been consumed by global co-operations.

Ford – now New Holland under the CNH group – along with JCB are now the last two surviving tractor manufactures in the UK.

While the Basildon story starts in 1964, the Ford tractor story begins in Dagenham in 1917 (and two years later in Ford’s Cork marina plant). With a boom in car sales in the 50s and 60s, the agricultural division was split from Dagenham and a new dedicated tractor manufacturing plant began construction on the greenfield site in Basildon in 1962.

Only two years later, the first tractor rolled off the production line of Ford’s agricultural global headquarters. The Ford 6X 3000, 4000, and 5000 tractors were the first range produced at Basildon and were upgraded to the 6Y range in 1968. However, the pinnacle of this run of tractors was the introduction of the 95hp Ford 7000 in 1971, claiming the title as Britain’s first turbocharged tractor.

Basildon pulled a trump card again a few years later with the ‘Q-Cab’ or bubble cab of the 600 series tractors. Manufacturing the Ford 2600-7600, the ‘Q-Cab’ offered excellent operator comfort with dramatically reduced noise and vibration levels – and even had a heater!

The year 1982 saw the release of the 10 series with the range punching above the 100hp mark for the first time for Basildon, along with its first six-cylinder tractor, the 8210.

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