Hainault's First Farmer cont.

Carts owned by Hainault Farm frequently stopped outside the Laurie Arms in Romford for refreshments. In 1878, Thomas Keene attracted the attention of the cart drivers by reading from a newspaper. At the same time, Henry and William Packer extracted coal from the back of the carts and threw it into a nearby garden. The three labourers might have evaded immediate consequences for what the Chelmsford Chronicle labelled as a 'DARING ROBBERY,' but Edmund Martin observed their actions and reported the incident to the police. Constable Wood arrested the individuals involved. They denied any wrongdoing, but when the hidden coal was found, they were taken into custody and faced charges.

The Patent Office acknowledged several of John Alison's inventions:

7th July, 1837 | John Alison, of Hainault Forest, in the county of Essex, Gentleman.

Improvements in preparing vegetable substances for feeding animals, and in apparatus for that purpose.

21st April 1859 | 1003. John Alison, of Hainault Forest, Essex, Gentleman, for an invention for-"An improved instrument for extirpating thistles, docks and other deep-rooted weeds." Letters Patent sealed.

25th February 1867   No. 516. Alison, John.-"Improvements in steam boilers." This Provisional Specification describes a boiler of an upright and cylindrical form ; the fire-box is an inner concentric cylinder contracted at the top into a flue which passes up and out through the top of the boiler, and the smokebox may contain a superheater. There are water tubes within the fire box ; they pass downwards from the crown thereof and are bent round so as to pass out through the vertical cylinder which forms its sides. The upper part of the boiler is connected with the lower part and with the fire box, and its flue with flanges and bolts and nuts, so that the parts may be readily separated.