The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
The faces behind the evolution of Austin tractors
We all know the names of the famous tractor marques today – but few know that family car manufacturer Herbert Austin was an early pioneer of the much-loved farm workhorse
Many older farmers will remember the name Austin.
It may have been a family car of that make – maybe a neighbouring farmer had a four-wheel drive Gypsy.
Perhaps an Austin lorry delivered a load of feed or a tradesman arrived with an Austin pick-up or an Austin van arrived with a service engineer to carry out repairs. They may have even had a combine harvester with an Austin Newage engine fitted.
However, few would have experienced Austin’s very own tractor.
Austin launched its tractor a century ago as the world was coming to terms with a new peace after the horrors of the First World War.
At this period Austin was one of the UK’S largest vehicle manufacturers having seen its business increase greatly due to government wartime contracts.
It was founded by Herbert Austin who was born at Little Missenden in Buckinghamshire in 1866 as the son of a farm bailiff.
In his early years while working in Australia he helped improve sheep shearing machines for the Wolseley concern, so agriculture was very much in his veins. Later he started up his motor works at Longbridge on the outskirts of Birmingham where he built a succession of successful cars.
After the war he was left with an enlarged factory and a workforce with little work on the books. So, he devised a one-model plan of a 20hp car, a 20hp aeroplane and a 20hp tractor.
It was not just his agricultural background that stood him in good stead for his tractor project – during the war his firm was involved with the importation and marketing of several US makes including The Culti-tractor, the Interstate, Denning Killen-strait and Bates Steel Mule tractors.
His involvement with tractors brought him into contact with the Ministry of Munitions tractors built by Henry Ford.
Although his overall one-model plan did not transpire, the tractor did with the Model R.
It was very similar to the Ford MOM tractor, later called the Fordson F.
The Fordson was rated at 22hp with a weight of 23 cwt (hundredweight), while the Austin boasted 25hp and a weight of 26cwt.
The Austin however, had a magneto ignition as opposed to Ford’s trembler coil system, and Austin used a bevel and spur transmission against Fordson’s worm type.
The performance of both tractors was similar, but it was the key element of price which had the biggest impact. Fordsons were slightly cheaper and as time went on the difference in price grew. By 1922 the Austin, at £300, was twice the price of the Fordson.
The highly competitive market and the financial constraints of Austin meant something had to give, so tractor production shifted to Austin’s facility in France in the early 1920s.
This allowed more room at Longbridge to build a new small car which was to save Austin from severe financial problems. Lower production costs and closer access to a larger European market helped Austin tractors to continue in production.
French-built Austins arrived on this side of the Channel and the French wine industry saw vineyard versions of Austin tractors built.
Over the subsequent years further models and larger Austin tractors were produced but sales into the UK went into decline. One key element of Austin production in France was the introduction of diesel-engined tractors in the early 1930s.
In 1940 the French factory at Liancourt was taken over by the invading German occupiers. One of the factory’s leading shareholders was a Yugoslavian Jew called Robert Rothschild. He managed to sell his shares before moving to Vichy, France, where unfortunately he was traced by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz where he died in 1944.
Liancourt picked up after the war to repair Austins but in the post-war era the Austin tractor story came to an end by 1950.
Herbert Austin was knighted in 1917 and was a Member of Parliament from 1918 to 1924. He died in 1941 aged 74.
In 1940 the French factory Liancourt was taken over by the invading German occupiers