Biography

John Fowler & Co were an engineering company based in Leeds, which produced traction engines as well as agricultural and railway equipment.

John Fowler was an engineer and inventor, born in Wiltshire in 1826, who worked on the mechanisation of agriculture and is credited with the invention of steam-driven ploughing engines.

In 1850 John Fowler started experimenting with the application of steam power on agricultural machinery and by 1860 he had entered into an agreement with Kitson and Hewitson of Hunslet, Leeds, for the manufacture of his steam ploughs. Fowler's Steam Plough Works were built on neighbouring land at Hunslet and employed around 100 men at the time. By 1863 John Fowler & Co had been established and its work force had increased to 400.

After John Fowler’s death in 1864, following a hunting accident, the company was taken over by John’s brother Robert and his business partner Robert W. Eddison, who formed John Fowler & Co., (Leeds) Ltd in 1886.

During the 1870s and 1880s the company grew and started to export machinery to Germany, Brazil and America. Robert Fowler died in 1888, leaving his partner Robert Eddison in charge of the company, until his death in 1900.

During the Second World War, Fowler made Churchill tanks, a heavy infantry tank best known for its heavy armour and ability to climb steep slopes. It was one of the heaviest Allied tanks of the war and became the basis of many future specialist vehicles. At the end of the war The Ministry of Supply, who now owned the company, sold it to Rotary Hoes and two years later it was acquired by Marshall, Sons and Co., Ltd, who proceeded to sell the petrol and diesel industrial engine part of the business to the Associated British Engineering company. Marshall-Fowler Ltd continued manufacturing tractors and rail locomotives until the company ceased to trade in 1974.

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