Browns of Leighton Buzzard

 In 1830, 19 year old George Brown moved 8 miles from Houghton Regis to start a business as a blacksmith in Leighton Buzzard. Nobody knew why George made the move, but his decision led to the foundation of a business that has been an important part of Leighton Buzzard's commercial scene for the last 175 years. In 1841, George purchased the forge he carried out carried out his trade, along with an adjoining building in Leck Street, now known as Lake Street.

In 1850 he was joined by his son William, who was taught the art of manufacturing  edge tools like scythes, chisels, hay knives and forks, an area George has begun to specialise in. By the end of the 19th century, they had installed steam driven machinery, father and son then turned to making farm implements such as ploughs, drills and horse hoes.

It was not long before they were selling their farm implements over a 20 mile radius and the young Brown would often be off to Aylesbury Market at 6am sharp by horse and trap for a 12 hour day. Ernest Brown became the third generation when he joined the firm in 1903. He developed the farm implement business into semi-mass production, selling over the entire southern half of the country. He invented the parallel expanding horse-hoe, which sold in it's thousands, and also expanded the range to include Cambridge rollers, push hoes, grain lifters, hay sweeps and hay stackers.

After the First World War, the company started selling early tractor models, eventually becoming an agent for Austin tractors. In due course, Ernerst was joined in the business by the fourth generation, his three sons, Bernard, Alan and Bob who concentrated on developing the retail side of the business. In 1944, they sold their first self-propelled combine harvester and in 1957, the year Ernerst retired, Massey Harris Ferguson offered them a main distributorship.

The brothers decided to expand the manufacturing side and in 1959 they invented an automatic bale sledge, which sold over 10,000. It was also in the 1950's that they opened branches in Aylesbury, Buckingham and Chesham. The fifth generation, led by Managing Director Chris, Directors Andrew, Richard and Jim, carry on the traditions first adopted by founder George. Jim is responsible for the manufacturing, Richard runs a farm in Winslow, Chris and Andrew are further developing the retail business.

Now in the 21st century, Browns have a new depot at Daventry, an associate company, Chelmsford Grass Machinery, and a new purpose built premises at Leighton Buzzard. The company has expanded it's machinery retailing by distributing many leading makes of agricultural, professional, and domestic grass machinery.

Planned diversification has resulted in offering the same high quality commitment to the supply of horticultural, professional and domestic grass machinery. Today Browns has large retail stores in every branch, and offers a comprehensive range of products and accessories to both the trade and retail customer.

Easter weekend 2008, after much discussion, effort, and behind the scenes work, the fishing tackle section of the Leighton Buzzard store became a reality. With great risk comes great reward, as with the help of the dedicated team of anglers which run this sector of the branch, the success of the tackle shop in it's first year has been phenomenal. The hard work ploughed in by all associated here at Browns has paid off, as we are delighted to now be able to bring our products and services to a wider range of clients through this website.

A couple of years on, and with a few successful events, including the re-launch of the Nash Titan, the shop has expanded bit by bit, and continues to grow week on week with new items coming in with almost every order!

As we strive to supply the highest grade of customer service to all of our visitors, we thank all of those who have helped the shop become the success it is today.