Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies >
Link engineers of Orwell Works, Ipswich, were a major British agricultural machinery maker. The company was registered in 1884. The 1888 catalogue included portable, traction, semi-portable, fixed, horizontal and vertical engines and boilers, portable pumping engines, steam-powered presses, centrifugal pumps, winding engines and gear, locomotive, Cornish, Lancashire and vertical boilers, mills, circular saw benches and log frames. In 1903 the company developed a prototype tractor with a 20 HP engine and a three-ratio gearbox and by 1905 employed 2,000 people. During WW1 they had built aeroplanes and in WW2 they manufactured parts for the De Havilland Mosquito. In 1936, the MG2 tractor, a miniature crawler machine which was aimed at market gardeners, was introduced. It was produced for about thirty years. In 1989, the agricultural implement business was sold, leaving Ransomes as a manufacturer of lawn mowers with the Westwood and Mountfield mower brands. In the late 1990s the company accepted a take-over bid from Textron Inc, USA, thus ending their independent existence in early 1998. (Source: Grace's Guide - the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in the UK.) This picture was taken at the Fritton Plant Nursery >
Link where a number of old farm implements are on display.