About Us

Proud of Our History

Our history strengthens your future

1888 was where it all started for us. A young Jinks Howkins from Lilbourne auctioned his first beast, sheep, calves, and pigs at Rugby Cattle Market on Monday 3rd September 1888.

He then joined forces with Arthur Mason to auction farm stock under the business name Howkins & Sons.

The Harrison side of the business, separate to Jinks Howkins and Howkins & Sons, first began in 1861 when Nixon Toone started out as an auctioneer selling farm stock. Six years later, Joshua Harrison joined the firm and it changed its name to Nixon Toone & Harrison.

Joshua Harrison’s son James, (remembered by many as Jim Harrison) then joined the business in 1926.

For many years Howkins & Sons, and Nixon Toone & Harrison were competitors. Both frequently advertising their services and lots on the front of the Rugby Advertiser.

On the 1st June 1970, after breaking away from Nixon Toone, James Harrison & Sons merged with Howkins & Sons, to form what we know today as Howkins & Harrison LLP.

With our reputation amongst the rural community in the Rugby area, we were able to organically grow our business to meet the needs of our clients. And this is how we have grown ever since.

We now have 7 regional offices in the Midlands, an office in London and Henley in Arden. Although we have stepped away from directly auctioning farm stock, we continue the proud tradition of auctioning farm machinery and crops, property and land – even adding a virtual auction site to our offer. We’ve successfully built a great estate agency business, regarded as one of the top performing estate agencies in all seven of our locations, as well as a commercial property team and a team of planning and development specialists. The business is thriving and we remain passionate about the continued growth.

A former partner, Anthony Harrison, who retired in 2006, was the great-grandson of Joshua Harrison. He was the fourth generation of Harrisons to work for the firm.

We are immensely proud of our roots, heritage and the business we are today.

It’s our heritage, grounding, knowledge, local appreciation, and experience, that means we can help and advise so many residential, commercial and rural clients every year.

We’re not just auctioneers and we’re not just estate agents. To find out for yourself how we can help you, do get in touch.

Supporting our Local Communities

We are very proud of the locations we work in, and we want to be able to help support our local communities.

Over the years, we have sponsored hundreds of events; local fetes, school events, fundraising initiatives and so much more.

We also sponsor local sporting teams and venues and our Howkins & Harrison For Schools Programme gives funds back to the community schools where the properties we sell are based.

For Schools programme

Starting in October 2017, we are launched an initiative called ‘For Schools’ as a partnership programme with Sponne School in Towcester, which has now grown and supports many schools across the region.

The basic premise of the programme is that anyone linked to a school within our programme, who sells a property with our estate agency side of our business, will secure a direct payment of £500, from us to the school on completion of the sale.

The programme aims to provide vital additional funding to local schools, enabling us to fund our commitment to our local community.