page_title: Banner Lane
section_title: Tractor production
hierarchical_section_title: Banner Lane / Tractor production
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Ein Ferguson TE-F aus dem Jahr 1954.
context_page_description: Banner Lane was the site of a wartime shadow factory in Coventry, England, run by Standard Motor Company and dedicated to making Bristol Hercules aero engines. The war-surplus plant was taken over by Standard in 1946 to make Ferguson tractors and it was made Standard's registered office. After the 1959 sale of Standard's part-ownership of the tractor partnership to Massey Ferguson, it became Massey Ferguson's base for tractor-building operations until production ceased in 2002 and the site was redeveloped for housing.
context_section_description: After the war the shadow factory was no longer required by Bristol. However, discussions between Standard and Harry Ferguson in 1945 to build Ferguson tractors in the UK resulted in Standard signing a 10-year lease for the Banner Lane plant costing £36,000 per annum. The intention was to build up to 500 tractors per day for which Standard would receive a fee for each one produced, and from mid-1946 until the end of 1947 over 20,800 new tractors had been built. At the height of production over 6,000 people were employed, and in 10 years more than 500,000 Ferguson TE tractors had been produced at Banner Lane.
  Disagreements between Standard and Ferguson culminated in Standard breaking all connections with both Ferguson and tractor production in the summer of 1959. By this time Harry Ferguson Ltd had formed a merger with Massey Harris to become Massey-Harris-Ferguson, later shortened to Massey Ferguson. All Standard's tractor assets were sold to Massey Ferguson as of 31 August 1959 and Banner Lane entered the sole ownership of Massey Ferguson.
  By 2000, the plant covered 1.8 million ft² (170,000 m²) and tractor output was in excess of 70,000 per annum, the majority for export; however, increasing numbers of Massey Ferguson tractors were being built elsewhere, most notably at Beauvais in France. In order to rationalise production it was decided that either Beauvais or Banner Lane would be shut down, but pressure from the French Government and workers made Beauvais the more difficult of the two to close, sealing Banner Lane's fate. Production came to an end on Christmas Eve 2002 when the last tractor, number 3,307,996 was completed.
caption: Ferguson TE tractor
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