Research by a Bean Resident

If we take a leap backwards into prehistory, in fact to the Eocene period some 50 million years ago when Bean was a tropical rain forest, the structure of the land would seem very strange to us. The top of Bean Hill was at sea level and was part of an estuary stretching from Darenth through to Greenhithe and onto where, in many millions of years, the Thames would flow. It might have looked like this: -


Landscape in the London Clay Period

If we stood where the school playground is now, palm trees would shelter us and maybe we would have to run from the numerous crocodiles. In time the palms and other tropical plants died and rotted, compressing down into what is known as London Clay. After many millions of years tectonic movement caused the land to rise, and Bean Hill was born.

N.P-C

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