by Reverend Daniel Forshaw AlmondSuperintendent Minister A Historical SurveyThe first settlement in the immediate neighbourhood of Moorefields* was by Hannah Laycock whose 500-acre Kings Grove Farm was granted on 11 August 1804. Eight years later she received a further 120 acres adjoining to the north and her sons, William and Samuel, 100 acres each (Percy …
Lydham Hall’s New Shed
For the first time in decades, Lydham Hall Historic House Museum has a new outbuilding. The original residents in the late 1800s and early 20th century had use of a set of sandstone buildings: a kitchen, stables, and servants’ quarters. The arrival of the railway and tramway accelerated the pace of development in the surrounding …
Governor Macquarie’s Visit to Kingsgrove and Canterbury
by Brian Madden Lachlan Macquarie arrived in Sydney on 31 December 1809 to succeed William Bligh as Governor, after the Rum Rebellion. During the next 12 years, he made a number of extensive tours through NSW and Van Diemen’s Land (renamed Tasmania in 1856). He kept a journal during his tours, and in 1956, it …
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George Preddey
by Margaret Callister, Jean Preddey, Ron Rathbone George Preddey was born in Bath, England in 1807. He arrived in Sydney aboard the convict transport “Prince Regent” on 27 September 1827, having been sentenced to seven years transportation at the Shrewsbury Assizes on 25 March 1826 for housebreaking (in Britain, Assize courts were replaced by Crown …
The Fire Station at Bexley, NSW
by A. & F. Day A sparsely settled area with much bushland frequently runs a risk of fire in summer time, so in September 1900 (the year of Bexley’s birth as a separate Municipality), the provisions of the Fire Brigades Act (1884) were extended to Bexley. Three years later (10 August 1903), Rockdale Council’s Alderman …