More than ploughs!

The Ransomes story began in the mid-1700s when Robert Ransome was born, in Norfolk. By his early 20s he had opened an ironmongery store in Norwich and before long he had branched out into the production of cast iron plough shares. These proved to be a successful part of his business and he patented his process of tempering the shares, selling them across East Anglia.

By the end of the 1780s he moved the business to Ipswich in Suffolk, where it flourished – thanks largely to new ideas relating to the production of plough parts and how standardising them meant they would no longer have to be made by a farmer’s local blacksmith.

Ransome registered a patent for the standardisation of plough parts in the early years of the new century and before long numerous outlets were selling the company’s plough parts across the east of England.

Robert Ransome’s son, James, joined his father’s growing business, having established his own foundry, and Ransome & Co. became Ransome & Son. It would later become Ransome & Sons, when Robert’s younger son, Robert Jnr., joined the business. The company had changed its name again, by 1825, to J. &