Fordson was the brand name of a range of tractors manufactured by Henry Ford, the multi-talented American motor tycoon. Apart from being a successful businessman, Henry Ford was also an inventor and his first Fordson tractor was put into mass production in 1917. By 1925, he had made over half a million of them, used not only in the USA and Canada but in Britain as well. As a result of the US recession of the 1920s and 1930s, Ford moved production to the Irish Republic in 1929 before moving again to Dagenham in the UK, which was to become the home of the Ford Motor Company for decades afterwards. The Fordson marque was subsequently replaced by the Ford name but UK Ford tractors continued in manufacture until the company was sold off to Fiat in 1991.