Welcome to George Browns machinery and equipment specialists for garden and groundcare.

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 191 years.

In 1841 George purchased the forge he 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 had begun to specialise. 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 hoe’s.

It was not long before they were selling their farm implements over a 20 mile radius and the young Brown often would be off to Aylesbury Market at 6.00am 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, he expanded the range to include Cambridge rollers, push hoes, grain lifters, hay weeps 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 Ernest 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 Ernest 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 1950s that they opened branches in Aylesbury, Buckingham and Chesham. The fifth generation, led by managing director Christopher, directors Andrew, Richard and Jim, carry on the traditions first adopted by the founder George. Jim is responsible for the manufacturing , Richard runs a farm in Winslow, Chris and Andrew have further developed the the retail business.

A sixth generation have now taken on the mantle with Steve and Jack Brown taking the company forward.

Now in the 21st century Browns have a new depots at Daventry and Chelmsford also a purpose built premises at Leighton Buzzard. The company has expanded their machinery retailing by distributing many leading makes of Agricultural, Professional and Domestic Grass Machinery.
Planned diversification has resulted in offering the same high 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.

George Browns meets the highest service standards in the Kubota Dealer Service Excellence Awards programme with five golds and one silver for its six branches across Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Essex and Northamptonshire.