JEC Oxfordshire visits JCB @ Uttoxeter - Monday 19th October 2026

This was the FOURTH event in the Oxfordshire Region's programme in October alone !

By the time our Xmas Lunch rolls around on 8th December, the Region will have undertaken a total of 250 events since 2018, with 6,000 attedances. That's an impressive average of 31 events per year and an average of 24 people at each and every event !

This visit to this major UK industrial firm had long been on the list. Ultimately 11 Members braved mixed weather and 2 hours travel to reach the impressive site.

Our attendees were toured around a historical display, some archive materials, the JCB Shop and then the production halls.

JCB (J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited) is a British multinational manufacturer of equipment for construction, agriculture, waste handling, and demolition, founded on October 23, 1945, by the late Joseph Cyril Bamford CBE in a tiny lock-up garage in the Staffordshire market town of Uttoxeter. It was the same day as his son Anthony, now Lord Bamford, was born.

The foundation for the growth that was to follow was the manufacture of a tipping trailer made out of war time scrap which today stands proudly in the showroom of JCB’s World HQ.

1953 proved to be a pivotal year for new products when Mr Bamford invented the Backhoe Loader with the launch of the JCB Mk 1 excavator. It was the first time a single machine had been produced with a hydraulic rear excavator and front mounted shovel. More than 1,000,000 Backhoes have been produced and they are now made on three continents.

It was in 1962 that the JCB Dancing Diggers first took a bow and JCB’s first ever overseas subsidiary in Holland was opened. A year later the JCB 3C Backhoe, an acknowledged design classic, was launched. In 1969 JCB produced 4,500 machines and by now was exporting more than half of them.

In 2004 employees gathered at the World HQ for a commemorative photo to mark the production of the 500,000th machine. It had taken just short of 60 years to reach that milestone. The next half million machines would be produced in the next nine years. It was also the year that JCB took the bold step into engine production with the launch of the Dieselmax engine, manufactured at JCB Power Systems in Derbyshire.

In 2005 JCB opened its factory in Pudong, China and announced news of the biggest ever order in its history, a $140 million deal to supply the US Army with a high-speed backhoe loader for military engineering tasks, a machine known as theHigh Mobility Engineer Excavator (HMEE).

This year also saw JCB set a world record with the JCB Dieselmax streamliner car. Powered by two JCB Dieselmax engines, it reached speeds of 350.092mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in the USA to attain the record of the world’s fastest diesel car, a title it still holds today. Sir Anthony Bamford joined the team on the Salt Flats to celebrate the successful outcome of his idea.

In 2020 a refreshed range of JCB Fastrac 4000 Series tractors was introduced with uprated axles for increased payloads and durability, along with new tyre options and a locking front axle differential for increased traction in the field.

In March 2020, JCB marked the production of the 750,000th Backhoe Loader. In January 2024, the one millionth JCB Backhoe rolled off the production line and a unique 4CX model, decorated in graffiti art by London-based artist and illustrator Dave Smith, was presented to Lord Bamford that now sits in the VIP Reception area.

Today JCB in the UK alone builds c.130 Backhoes each and every day. JCB is a truly global leading player accounting for 75% of the Backhoes sold in India today and no continent lacks a JCB factory (or many).

The trip was rounded off by a cracking lunch made up entirely of products of the 'JCB Farm' - Daylesford Organics. With a few photyographs taken with our Region flag proudly flying outside the VIP Visitor Centre, it was time to enjoy our Jaguars homewards once more.

For sure this was a great and highly memorable event.