The tractor factory at Cranes Farm Road is one of the most important surviving pieces of Basildon's industrial history. It was created by the Ford Motor Company during the rapid expansion of the New Town and began operating in 1964. More than sixty years later tractors are still manufactured on the same site, although the Ford name has long since been replaced by New Holland.
Ford had manufactured tractors at Dagenham since the 1930s, but by the late 1950s the company needed a modern dedicated tractor factory. Basildon was an attractive location because it was a growing New Town with large areas available for industrial development, a substantial potential workforce and good road links through the A127. It was also close enough to Ford's existing operations in Dagenham to make the transfer practical.
Ford already had a presence in Basildon. In 1957 the company opened a radiator factory in Honywood Road on the Nevendon No. 1 Industrial Estate. The much larger tractor project represented a major expansion of Ford's investment in the town.
The new tractor plant was built on approximately 100 acres beside Cranes Farm Road. The factory eventually contained around 1¼ million square feet of working space and became one of the largest industrial developments in Basildon.
Construction took place during the early 1960s. The new complex was designed as an integrated tractor-manufacturing facility where major tractor components could be produced and assembled on the same site. At its height the factory employed thousands of people and became one of the New Town's largest employers.
One feature of the development quickly became a Basildon landmark: the distinctive water tower above the factory. Standing about 125 feet high, with a large rounded tank capable of holding approximately 200,000 gallons, it became known locally as “the onion”.
The tower remains one of the most recognisable features of Basildon's industrial skyline and is a visual reminder of the scale of the original Ford development.
Ford's new tractor plant opened on 29 February 1964, with tractor production beginning during the year. The factory was formally opened on 27 April 1965.
The first new tractor family produced at Basildon was Ford's 6X range. The early models included the Ford 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000. These tractors were designed for agricultural work and were sold in Britain and international markets.
Production expanded rapidly. Within only two years the plant had produced around 100,000 tractors, demonstrating the importance Basildon had acquired within Ford's worldwide agricultural machinery business.
The creation of such a large industrial complex required the acquisition and clearance of older land and buildings. Among the properties affected was the historic Basildon Rectory in Rectory Road.
The rectory had been built in 1859 by the rector, the Rev. John Flowerden Colls. It replaced an even earlier rectory that had stood near Pipps Hill Road. By the 1930s the 1859 building was no longer being used as the rector's principal home and had become a farm after the rector moved to a smaller property called Oliphants.
The old rectory was still standing in the early 1960s. However, its site lay within the enormous area required for Ford's new tractor plant. The building was therefore demolished in 1962 as the land was cleared for the factory development.
The history is slightly more complicated because the rector had already moved from the old 1859 rectory to Oliphants further along Rectory Road. After the move, Oliphants became associated with the parish rectory.
The redevelopment for Ford also affected this part of the area. Historical church research records the loss of the rectory buildings during the 1962 clearance for the tractor plant. The rector and his family subsequently moved to temporary accommodation at Prior Close.
The Ford development did not simply remove one building. Parts of the old road layout were swallowed by the industrial site. The section of Rectory Road around its junction with Church Road, together with the site of the former Holy Cross Church Hall, disappeared beneath the tractor-plant development.
This means that today's factory occupies land that had previously contained houses, roads, farmland and parish buildings. Even Basildon Cricket Club had once played on land off Rectory Road that later became part of the tractor plant.
The factory remained a Ford operation for many years. In the 1980s Ford combined its agricultural business with Sperry New Holland, creating Ford New Holland. In 1989 the Basildon plant celebrated both 25 years of tractor production and the manufacture of its one-millionth tractor.
The factory received a royal visit from Princess Anne during its 25th-anniversary celebrations. Special Silver Jubilee tractors were also produced to mark the milestone.
A major change came in 1991 when Fiat purchased the Ford New Holland agricultural-equipment business. The Ford name gradually disappeared from the tractors, and the operation evolved into the modern New Holland agricultural machinery business.
The Basildon plant survived these ownership changes. Instead of closing when Ford left tractor manufacturing, it remained an important production facility and continued making tractors for customers around the world.
The historic Cranes Farm Road factory is still operating today as a major New Holland tractor manufacturing plant. It forms part of the CNH organisation and remains one of Basildon's most significant manufacturing employers.
The modern factory produces tractors from New Holland's T6 and T7 ranges. These are considerably more sophisticated than the Ford tractors built in Basildon during the 1960s and combine powerful diesel or alternative-fuel engines with advanced transmissions, electronics, computer controls and precision-farming technology.
The Basildon factory manufactures agricultural tractors rather than operating as an ordinary shop or dealership. The tractors produced there are supplied through New Holland's dealer network to farmers and agricultural businesses in Britain and overseas.
Modern T6 and T7 tractors are used for jobs including cultivation, ploughing, planting, mowing, hauling trailers and operating other agricultural machinery. Different models and specifications allow tractors to be configured for different farms and types of work.
Basildon is particularly important as an export factory. The majority of the tractors produced at the plant are sent to international markets, meaning machinery carrying the New Holland name and manufactured in Basildon can be found working on farms around the world.
In July 2024 the factory reached another remarkable milestone when its two-millionth tractor was completed. The machine was a New Holland T7.225 finished in a special commemorative colour scheme.
The milestone coincided with the plant's 60th year of tractor production. Only a relatively small number of tractor factories worldwide have reached production on this scale.
The Basildon site has also become New Holland's Alternative Fuels Centre of Excellence. Research and development work is being carried out around alternative ways of powering agricultural machinery, including tractors using fuels such as methane and compressed natural gas.
This gives the plant a role beyond simply assembling tractors. The site that Ford created in the early 1960s is now involved in developing technology intended to reduce the environmental impact of modern agricultural machinery.
The tractor plant is unusual among Basildon's original large factories because it has survived. Many famous New Town employers disappeared, relocated or had their factories demolished, while the Cranes Farm Road plant has continued producing agricultural machinery since 1964.
Its history also demonstrates how dramatically the northern side of Basildon changed during the creation of the New Town. An older landscape of farmland, Rectory Road, parish buildings and the historic rectory was cleared for one of the largest industrial investments in the town's history.
Today the Ford name may have disappeared from the factory gates, but the original purpose of the site remains remarkably similar: tractors are still being built in Basildon and exported around the world more than six decades after the first Ford machines left the production line.
Present-day factory and production information was checked against New Holland and CNH information in September 2026.