I thought I was researching an Essex manor house. Instead, I stumbled across one of Britain’s forgotten social experiments – the labour colony movement. In the early twentieth century, organisations such as the Church Army established rural training farms, where unemployed young men learnt agriculture before emigrating to Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

One of those farms was at Hempstead Hall in north-west Essex. By the time of the 1911 census, teenage boys were living there, learning to milk cows, repair harnesses and work the land. Within weeks, many were sailing to the other side of the world. Read more here: