British Northrop Ltd was an Engineering firm based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. They were loom and weaving machinery manufactures, who merged with Chaseside engineering in 1959. British Northrop started in 1902. The loom business was in decline in the UK by 1950's and they had considerable factory and foundry capacity, which lead to the merger as Chaseside was financially stretched following development of their new hydraulic loaders. The tractor was built on a Ford 5000 skid unit. The prototype was built in 1964.