County Commercial Cars

County Commercial Cars were one of six companies in Britain who, in the 1950s, were specialist four-wheel drive companies. County Commercial Cars was the largest and most successful of the group.

• In 1929 the Tapp brothers had set up the company to build vehicles which were based on the Ford chassis.

• In 1948 they began tractor conversions and produced a tracklayer based on the Fordson E27N. They supplied fifty of these machines to the Ministry of Agriculture. This machine was known as the County Full Track.

• In the 1954 the first four-wheel drive conversion was achieved with the County Four-Drive which was based on the Fordson New Major.

• County went on to produce a range of unconventional tractors including the Sea Horse which was an amphibious version of the County Super-4. It earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records when it was driven across the English Channel from France to England.

• Nearly all of County's tractors were based on Ford tractors and were popular in the United Kingdom and abroad.

• The production in four-wheel drive tractors increased causing a reduction of tracklayer conversions for the County Co. with production ceasing in 1965.

Sources of Information

From 1890 to the Present Day Farm Tractors by Michael Williams published in 2005 by Silverdale Books ISBN 978-1-84509-251-1