The Padfields in Essex can be traced back 100 years or more. The story has to start way back in the early 1800s when times were very prosperous for the farming community. Most of the land in West Essex was owned by big London city people with money made from brewing and railways etc..
The big estates in this area – Copt Hall, Blake Hall, Forest Hall, Suttons, Gaynes Park and Hill Hall – the farmers rented the farms from the landowners, while the hunting, shooting and fishing were reserved for the landowners.
The price of grain in the early 1800s was kept high by the import tax, but as the years progressed the laws were amended and in 1846 they were repealed by Robert Peel. The price of wheat crashed and the farmers, after having years of prosperity, could not cope and many went broke leaving the tormented farms vacant.
This is when the dairy farmers came from Scotland and the West Country to fill the vacant farms. The railways were now set up and milk was needed in London. The dairy farmers in London could not provide enough fresh milk for the growing population. The new railways allowed fresh milk to be transported to London from this part of Essex every day.
My grandfather came with six boys and one girl to Bridge Farm, Loughton, from Street in Somerset, the cows and the family were on rail. Our farm was right next to Chigwell Lane Station (now Debden). The milk train left Ongar at eight o’clock every morning stopping at all the stations to pick up the churns.
Our Bridge Farm milk, with others, had to catch that train. Stories were told of horses and milk carts galloping along Chigwell Lane to catch this train, always hoping that it would be a little late. The Scottish farmers were the Gemmils, Kerrs, Torrances, McShanes and the West Country Padfields and Rowes, all now in farms that had been vacated by the previous farmers. The story is that the Padfields could farm any farm they liked rent-free for one year and then take up a proper tenancy.
Even the Gemmills brought their cows from Scotland, along with the family of ten sons and four daughters. Generally, the big estates have gradually been broken up, farms sold by successive generations. Capel Cure remains at Blake Hall and Chisenhale Marsh at Gaynes Park.