The owners of the award-winning Calcott Hall Farm may now be firmly entrenched in Brentwood, but it was the Scotsman Robert McTurk, who drove his family, staff and livestock 430 miles south to sow the seeds for future generations, who made it all possible.
It marked a new era of prosperity for the new Essex branch of the family, members of whom have migrated to many parts of the world from their original home in Ayrshire.
While their location may have changed in 1890, farming has been the family's occupation since records began.
It was in 1974 that Robert's great-grandson, Andrew, proved that he had inherited an ability to build success upon a vision, when he decided to open the first farm shop in Brentwood.
Back then it sold spuds, sweetcorn and pick-your-own-strawberries, while today it offers more than 30 fruits and vegetables all grown on site.
The McTurks are also part of the recent movement towards supplying locally sourced produce. Hundreds of products they sell are taken from other independent farmers and producers around East Anglia.
Much has changed over the past 38 years since Andrew took the reins.
But his great-grandfather took perhaps an even more momentous step 84 years before this when the family left home and switched from arable to dairy farming.
In the 1880s, the prospects for British crop farmers were bleak thanks to the importation of wheat from Canada.
Yet the meat and milk markets of London were thriving and there was great need for more stock in East Anglia to serve the capital's demand.
At that time Calcott Hall, Weald Country Park and much of South Weald belonged to the Tower family, and it was their advertisement offering land to farmers under tenancy that encouraged the McTurks to make the move.
"The Tower estate advertised for farmers and so the McTurks did just that, sight unseen," said 62-year-old Andrew.
"They travelled on the train and it was not only the family that came down, they brought the cows, chickens, sheep and the farm workers on the train with them.
"It would have taken two to three days to get down here and they left Brentwood station and would have had to walk four and a half miles to Frieze Hall Farm where they started out.
"When they got there, they had to cut down the brambles just to get in, it was in such a neglected state."
For more than 60 years the family made a success of their land as mixed dairy farmers.
In the 1950s, crippled by death duties after losing two sons in the First World War, the Tower family were forced to sell off their estate, which was being farmed by several tenants.
At the time, the McTurks were tenants at Frieze Hall Farm plus two other sites, all of which they bought at auction for around £77 per acre (up to 600 acres).
Essex County Council snapped up Weald Country Park but John Widdowson, who was already at Calcott Hall Farm, was unable to purchase the land he called home.
Andrew said: "It was one of the only farms that had a reserve because it was one of the closest to Brentwood and even back then they realised the potential to build houses."
The £11,000 reserve was prohibitive and so John continued under tenancy until his retirement in 1971, when Andrew's father David McTurk took over.
David carried on the mixed livestock business for three years, before handing it to father-of-four Andrew and his wife Janet, 62, who took over Calcott and turned to crops.
Andrew said: "After I left college in 1968, I worked on a vegetable farm in Romford that had a farm shop and that is where I saw that this could work.
"The immediate demand was there and people said 'can you now grow other crops for us?' and so that was the trigger for us to open the farm shop."
Andrew described the first few months as "hand to mouth" – they had no staff until the following year and Mr Widdowson, who was still living in the farmhouse, offered to act as shopkeeper when customers drove in to buy vegetables.
The profits began to grow, as did more crops and in 1978 the McTurks bought the freehold (in the region of £700 per acre).
A few years later they moved the farm shop from the old pig sty into the 4,000 sq ft barn, where it remains today.
It was back in 1975 that Andrew created the ethos of selling non-competitive produce from other farms – apples from Chelmsford and eggs from Frieze Hall – which remains the backbone of Calcott today.
Andrew's sons, Peter, 38, and Stuart, 32, now run the farm alongside their parents and the staff.
The changes keep coming at Calcott, notably the introduction of a butcher in 2009 and the move to a self-service shop.
Next year, the Brentwood Brewing Company could move into the farm, which will grow the hops for brewing the beer on site.
With three Essex Food and Drink Awards in the trophy cabinet and the prospect of glory at the National Farmers' Retail and Markets Association awards next year, the future looks bright.
Father-of-three Peter, who says he would not be surprised to see his children working for the business in the future, said: "We are fortunately in the position to make Calcott even more of a destination.
"We have a lot of customers who have been coming to us for 35 years, we have developed the business by continually evolving and bringing in different and new things that people want and we shall continue to do that.
"We feel that local produce and locally made products is key for the whole environment.
"I am not saying we do not sell products from different parts of the country or in fact the world, but always source locally if we can, we look for products very locally.
"Particularly with the recession at the moment it's good to keep as much money in the region as possible."
