History Oakes Bros. Ltd., a private limited company incorporated in 1945, started trading in 1825 when Thomas Oakes set up in business as a blacksmith in Hungerford, Berkshire. Over the course of time Oakes Bros. became agricultural implement merchants and the business gradually expanded as the demand grew for mechanisation on the farm.     In 1950 the company was appointed Ford tractor main dealers and since then Oakes Bros. have acquired various sites and businesses with the latest acquisitions being Watson & Haig at Andover in 1990,  John Wilder (Agricultural) at Reading and Wallingford in 1996, Sussex Tractors at Horsham in 2004 and William Wheatley (Wickham) Ltd in 2005.        The company currently operates out of three agricultural locations situated at  East Ilsley, Horsham and Micheldever  as well as having a number of garden machinery outlets.