Marshall, Sons and Co: Tractors
Note: This is a sub-section of Marshall, Sons and Co.
1909 Marshalls exhibited a four-cylinder, 60 brake horse-power, internal combustion engine-driven tractor[1]
1909 Exhibited a new oil tractor, mounted on springs, at the Smithfield Show.[2]
1914 Agricultural and General Engineering for Home and Abroad. Specialities: "Marshall's Oil Tractors" and Jackson's Patent Tea Machinery. Employees 5000. [3]
Marshall, Sons and Co had taken a Lanz tractor and then produced their own version. It was called the Model E and had a single-cylinder two-stroke, diesel engine and featured three forward and one reverse gear,
In the mid 1930s a more economical version was produced to compete with the Fordson tractor.
The Model E was modified shortly before World War II and became the Model M.
In 1945 the Model M was modified and renamed Marshall Series I. Two years later Series II was produced and finally a series III.
1947 Marshall, Sons and Co merged with John Fowler and Co Ltd; the 2 companies had major interests in diesel tractors[4]. Crawler tractor were produced as Marshall-Fowler[5]
1948 The Marshall-Fowler V.F was produced at Leeds
By 1952 Thomas W. Ward were sole UK concessionaires for the tractors produced by the group[6]
1954 The M tractor could not keep up with the competition and Marshalls decided to develop a new tractor; instead of starting completely at the beginning they decided to purchase an engine off the shelf and build their own tractor around it. The result was the model MP6 which was first introduced in 1954. It had a six-cylinder, water cooled, Leyland diesel engine.
The tractor would have been more suited to the United States market. It was too large and expensive for the British farmer and 197 were produced in total with all but ten being exported.
1973 Closure of the Marshall-Fowler works at Leeds making crawler tractors; the work would be moved to other plants in the Thomas W. Ward group[7]. Marshalls concentrated on their crawler production
1975 Wards decided to close the Marshall-Fowler operations at Gainsborough and Leeds[8]
1975 British Leyland acquired the Marshall-Fowler tractor factory at Gainsborough; the factory would be used to expand the Aveling-Barford business making earth moving and road construction equipment. The Marshall-Fowler range of tractors would be rationalised[9] Formation of Aveling Marshall
1979 The crawler tractor interests were sold to a local farmer, Charles Nickerson[10]. Company closed
1981 Marshalls bought the BMC Leyland Tractors business. The machines were re-badged and the colour changed. Production ceased in 1991.