Bean Family History by Willoughby John Bean
[ William Bean and Paslow Hall contd ]
only taught heavy land corn farming, they started off right and bought a herd of forty cows and put the milk on the newly opened railroad at Chipping Ongar for London. But the same year 1860-1 a fever of some sort attacked the cows and in 61 the rain came down. I was of course very young and it may have impressed me more than it ought but the thunder and lightning seemed to be a daily occurance and I remember seeing the haycocks floating down the brook - at any rate cowkeeping was scrapped and sheep were resorted to, hay was sent by road to London, the arable land was farmed in the old style, and after three years our mother was ill and father brought his family back to Mersea for a year ...