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by Dr. James N. Pendlebury

The Bexley Uniting (formerly Methodist) Church stands on a generous block of land in tree-lined Gladstone Street, surrounded in the main by Home Units and villas where once comfortable homes existed. Its large expanse of lawn reminds one of how things used to be. At night its illuminated front stained glass window draws attention to its presence. This church building is the place of worship for 60 men, women and children under the leadership of Rev Manas Ghosh, a Congregation which is 99 years old.

When this Congregation was commenced by the Rockdale Methodist Church for its ‘Bexley Members’ in 1902 there was no church building of any kind. Use was made of the Bexley Municipal Council Chambers, now Jack and Jill Pre-School, Queen Victoria Street for its Sunday Worship and for Sunday School. Clearly this was a temporary measure. It was soon agreed that a church was required. At the first meeting of the newly formed Bexley Methodist Trust at which Mr. Henry Barringham was elected Secretary and Mr. Swithin Berry, Treasurer, it was reported that an anonymous gift of £100 had been received for the Bexley Church Building Fund. This was followed by several other generous gifts.

Early in 1903, a loan was negotiated to cover the cost of 2 blocks of land with a 66 foot frontage in Gladstone St. almost opposite the Rockdale College, later the Bexley Ladies College, and in June of the same year the Trust, having considered stone, weather-board and brick, agreed to erect a rectangular brick church, 34ft by 24ft with a small pore, centre front. It had a picket fence and double gates. Worship was conducted at 11:00am and 7:00pm and Sunday School was held at 3:00pm. The first Service in the church was held on July 3rd 1904.

In a relatively short time, 1908, the Congregation had developed healthy growing pains and the Trust discussed the merits of extending or widening the church After advice and serious deliberations it was agreed that a new and larger church was required. This led to the extension of the present land by a further two adjacent blocks providing an admirable site with a 132ft frontage and 200 ft depth. A New Church Fund was established immediately but its balance was small in those early years.

Late in 1924, the Congregation elected a committee consisting of “…Rev. H. L. Redman, Superintendent of the Arncliffe / Bexley / West Bexley Circuit, Messrs W. H. Dunsmore, T. A. Johnston, A. H. Frazer, E. Ashley and C. Laverty… empowered to secure plans and estimate of costs of a new church building.” The Minister and Secretary “waited upon Mr. A. Lanyon Clark, Architect for the costings” and the committee and Trust were encouraged to pursue the matter.

Planning The New Church

The year 1925 was a very busy year for the Trust. Nine Meetings were held instead of the usual one to three. Most of the time and energy were spent planning the new church, although normal business did not suffer. Subscription lists were immediately opened and donations solicited. The volunteer collectors, Rev. Herbert Redman, Mr. T.A. Johnston, Mrs. Emma Martin and Mrs. Mary Neale did a splendid job, raising £500 to be added to the £200 already in the Bank. “In addition… 5 persons had each promised £5/5/- per year towards the funds.”

A loan of £500 was obtained from the Bright Bequest Fund and an overdraft of £1,500 was secured at the Commercial Bank. This encouraged the Congregation and Trustees to consider favourably a building cost of about £2,500 and Mr. A. Lanyon Clark was unanimously appointed Architect for the new building. His plans were modeled on the Methodist Church he had recently designed for Macksville, though different in a number of respects; e.g. Bexley has no tower. However, in a report in `The Methodist’ it spoke of Bexley’s diagonal door “which it is proposed some day to extend skywards in the form of a tower.” (3/10/1925). Mr. Clark’s plan was accepted by the Trust, with several modifications. The cross-aisle was removed, for example, and the centre aisle was replaced by 2 side aisles. and the Front Window Tracings were in cement and not wood. These changes increased the quotation of Parkinson Bros, Hurstville, by £32 to £2,569, £50 was allowed in this price for electric lighting! A brick front fence with single and double gates was also included in the quotation. Fred Parkinson, the senior partner, was very active in the Hurstville Methodist Church. However it was his lowest quotation which won him the contract!

The Building Committee, together with the Minister, architect and contractor, decided that “… the new church building should be built on a front line with the old church and 12ft from the fence on the Northern side.”

Work Begins

The two Foundation Stones were laid by Rev. Harold Wheen, President of the New South Wales Conference and Mr. T. A. Johnston, Secretary of the Bexley Trust, on 3rd October 1925. Children were delightfully included. “… three little boys and three little girls were called from the gathering to assist and each child gently tapped the stones declaring them to be well and truly laid.”

“Beautiful silver trowels, suitably inscribed, were presented by Rev. H. L. Redman to Rev. Harold Wheen and T. A. Johnston.”

The face bricks selected for the church at the Carlton Brick Yards were found not to be of uniform quality and so bricks at the Austral Brick Co., St. Peters, were inspected and accepted. The contractor declared that, if the St. Peters bricks were used, he was not prepared to pay the extra charge for carting, amounting to £11 and asked that the Trustees bear the expense. He was wasting his breath! The Trust “… left the matter in the hands of the architect, Mr. Clark, promising to see that the Austral Bricks were used and that the contractor paid for the extra carting charges.”

The architect, too, had a minor `run-in’ with the Trust. He asked that “… an expert acoustician be employed at a fee of £5/5/- to test the new church for tonal and sounding purposes.”

After considerable discussion, it was felt that this was a matter for the architect himself to deal with and bear the necessary expense “… as they looked to him, to have erected and handed over to them, as their architect, a church that would be free from echoes or overtones.”

The delays were only slight and the church of simple beauty and intimacy, seating 265 persons, was dedicated on Saturday, 13th February 1926, by the Circuit Supt. Minister, Rev. H. L. Redman, and the ‘most inspiring Dedicatory Sermon’ was preached by Rev. H. E. Andrews, Chairman of 2nd Sydney District. Rev. H. L. Redman was asked to perform the Official Opening “… in recognition of the most valuable services he has rendered in forwarding the new church scheme.”

He was presented with a suitably inscribed silver Souvenir Key, by the Secretary of the Trust, Mr. T. A. Johnston “… in the presence of the largest gathering ever seen in the Circuit.”

The Program for the Official Opening indicated that the new Church “… commanded a lovely view of the historic Botany Bay.”

At the Dedication of the new church a number of memorials were unveiled in “an impressive and inspiring ceremony”; a beautiful polished maple Pulpit, the gift of Mr. & Mrs. T. A. Johnston and Miss. Gladys Johnston in memory of the soldiers who fell in the Great War; a Pulpit Chair given by Mrs. E. W. Laverty MBE in memory of Rev Robert M. Laverty, “an outstanding preacher and great Scholar”, who retired to Bexley and died in 1914; a choice Baptismal Font (now in storage because of weakness), the gift of the Kindergarten School in memory of Alicia Nelson, a 4 year old S.S. pupil who died in 1925 ; two beautiful stained glass windows facing Gladstone Street “The Sower“, in memory of Rev. George Martin (d 1905), a former President of the NSW Conference and Editor of `The Methodist” given by his widow, Emma Martin, who herself was memorialised 5 years later by the centre window and “The Light of the World“, the gift of Mrs. Mary Ann Napper and family in memory of Mr. James Napper (d 1919), a lay preacher, a Trustee, an inaugural Circuit Steward of the Arncliffe-Bexley Circuit and a highly respected Rockdale businessman. The stained glass artist in both cases was Alfred C. Handel who created seven additional windows in this church before his untimely death in 1946. The Congregation has been blessed that in the 75 years since the Dedication of this building and its 75th Anniversary, all its sanctuary windows have been completed, the most recent two by Mr. Philip Handel, Alfred’s son; a gift from Mrs. Ethel Noble, one of the Church Members, now living in an Aged Care Centre.

This Anniversary Service captured people’s imagination, there being 200 in attendance. This number included large representations of the descendants of Rev. Herbert and Mrs. Alice Redman, including their son, Keith, now a retired Baptist Minister living in Queensland; of the Architect, A. Lanyon Clark, including his daughter Kathleen Steele and son, Thomas, now living in Melbourne; of the Napper family, including 6 grandsons and 2 granddaughters. Two lay members of the “Church Building Committee”, Enoch Ashley and Colin Laverty by 3 grandsons and a son and daughter respectively. Colin Laverty , at the time was at Medical School, Sydney University. He later became Medical Superintendent of St George Hospital. After his marriage to Dr Beryl Plummer he set up in private practice at the family home in Oriental Street, Bexley.

In the company of a large gathering and in the presence of God the members of the Bexley Uniting Church, on 11 February 2001, celebrated the 75th Anniversary of the Dedication of the 1926 church building, conscious of the heritage which is theirs, thankful for those who laboured in the Lord in days past, praising God for what has gone before and trusting Him for what lies ahead.

This article was first published in the April 2001 edition of our magazine.

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by James Kane

An eminent English historian said that the most essential pieces of equipment for historians are a notebook and pencil and a stout pair of walking boots. Certainly this district has history in plenty for those prepared to go and look for it.

There has long been a useful human compulsion to celebrate the erection of public buildings by the setting of a ceremonial stone, sometimes at the commencement of building, sometimes on completion. This practice seems to be in a regrettable decline, but all is not lost. Australia has an abundance of politicians and many of them take pleasure in opening buildings of all kinds and in permitting their name to be included on a suitable commemorative plaque.

The position of a commemorative stone, the material from which it was made, the lettering and carving techniques employed and, finally, the information contained in the inscription itself, are all of use to the alert historian.

Be careful, however, in making assumptions based on too hasty a look at the evidence, Stones from original buildings were often incorporated in later ones without the fact being acknowledged. I draw your attention to the Anglican Church in Rockdale which has an embarrassing number of foundation stones bearing different dates.

At one time I took a class of high school boys on a series of walks in the area around the school. They faithfully recorded every plaque on local government amenities — parks, gardens, public toilets, library, senior citizens’ centres, etc. It was a demanding task, as each plaque bore the name of every alderman and a number of council officers.

Back in the classroom the boys compared lists and were able to draw up a list of probable dates of council elections. They noted the durability of some aldermen and the short tenure of others. They noted a period when the council was run by an administrator and took note of the fact that very few aldermen returned after the administrator stepped down. What happened, of course, was the suspension of the council by the state government and the failure of many aldermen to renominate because they were helping the police with their enquiries. These boys extracted a surprising amount of information from these plaques, enjoyed themselves enormously and, I believe, gained a great deal educationally.

Sometimes, when looking isn’t enough, you may find that in carefully recording the inscription you have saved it for posterity. Eighteen months ago I took a group of adults on an historic stroll around the St George Hospital area. They were interested in seeing a 19th century stone laid by a Mrs Holt (from a family of great local historical importance), they were stirred by the foundation stone of a Greek Church marking the alliance between Greece and Australia in World War II, they were charmed by a foundation stone, dated 1888, naming the Kogarah “Centennial” Congregational Church. All of these buildings have come down in the cause of development and the stones are ……!

Sometimes a stone has some feature that takes the eye at once. Other features become interesting if you have a bit of special knowledge. If you glance at the list of inscriptions you will understand this point.

1. KING’S GROVE
BAPTIST CHAPEL
A.D. 1875

Stone 1 is reputedly the only existing example of the original spelling of ‘Kingsgrove”.

2. THIS STONE WAS LAID
BY THE PRESIDENT
BRO. J.H.S. MULHOLLAND
27th FEB. 1915.

The second stone is part of the Hurstville and District United Friendly Societies Pharmacy. This organisation merits a talk of its own, so we merely note the use of “Brother” as a form of address among members of friendly societies.

3. THIS FOUNDATION STONE WAS SET BY
THE MOST REVEREND H.W.K. MOWLL, D.D.
ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY AND
PRIMATE OF AUSTRALIA AND TASMANIA
ON 23rd AUGUST 1952.

Stone 3, in Carlton, has what seems to us a quaint usage — “Australia and Tasmania”.

4. THIS SCHOOL OF ST MARY STAR OF THE SEA
ERECTED AS A MEMORIAL TO ALL WHO DIED
FROM THIS PARISH IN TWO WORLD WARS
AND TO THE PIONEERS OF THE PARISH
WAS SOLEMNLY BLESSED AND OPENED BY
HIS EMINENCE
NORMAN THOMAS CARDINAL GILROY
ON SUNDAY AUG 16th, 1959
FATHER T.V. DUNLEA

Stone 4 contains the names of 2 distinguished clerics. Norman Gilroy, an altar boy in the Hurstville parish, served in the R.A.N. at Anzac Cove and became Australia’s first native-born cardinal.

5. THIS STONE AS LAID BY
THE HON. T.J. LEY M.L.A.
MINISTER FOR JUSTICE
BEXLEY SCHOOL OF ARTS
15th NOV. 1924.

Stone 5 gives a new meaning to the word “Honourable”. T.J. Ley, local member and minister for Justice died in a hospital for the criminally insane, having been convicted of murder.

6. THIS STONE WAS SOLEMNLY BLESSED BY HIS EMINENCE
NORMAN THOMAS CARDINAL GILROY, ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY
ON SUNDAY 18th APRIL 1948

Stone 6 tells a lie. Cardinal Gilroy was called to Rome and the stone was blessed by Bishop Eris O’Brien.

Briefly, looking at foundation stones is fun; like many other activities, doing it is more fruitful than talking about it.

This article was first published in the November 1990 edition of our magazine.

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by F and B Lenane

Our Mum, Dora Victoria Lenane, was born in June on 7th April 1919, making her 94 years young. Dora’s many friends knew her by name, but her very large family always knew her simply as Mum or Nana.

Neither name reflects the amazing energy and joy of life that Mum brought to all around her. I can’t tell you the number of people who would always ask what she was taking! I can tell you today that her simple secret was, she loved life, and she loved people. In fact Mum was selfless. It was never about her, and only ever about whom she was with at the time — family, friends, members of the bowls club, the historical society, and the local gym, to mention a few.

Mum grew up in the St George area in a blended family of 10 children. She was particularly close to her brothers Basil, Clem, and Allan. Her own mother was the centre of her world and they were more than mother & daughter, they were great friends. Our grandmother Ann was the glue that bound her family together, and as time has passed, that is how our Mum has become to her extended family. She did a great job in this role and we have all benefited from the love & support she has always given us.

Mum left school early and went to work at Clooney’s clothing factory as a seamstress. She met her lifelong friends, Jean Conden, and Jean Healey about that time. They both became our Aunty Jean’s, for the rest of their lives.

Mum was also a scout mistress when her younger brothers were in the cubs & scouts. In the war years she was in the VAD helping the nurses. Unlike the girls of her time, Mum learned to drive and was still doing so until last year. Mum loved driving! She always made regular trips to and from Drummoyne, Rockdale, Turramurra, Turrella, & Castle Hill to visit us all.

Mum met and married our father Vince, a young man from Goulburn, who had been in the army during the war. They shared a great love of ball-room dancing. Sadly Vince passed away when Patricia was only 11 months old. Mum was left to raise two children in difficult times. She gained strength & support from many different avenues – in particular from her brothers. They were great role models and helped enormously with house repairs, painting, or car repairs. Our Uncle Allan spent a huge amount of time with us all.

He visited several times a week, particularly on a Saturday at lunch time, to make sure we were up to date with world championship wrestling, and taught us all the moves too. He also took us all away on camping trips, and has been at every significant event in our lives.

Mum went back to work when Patricia was 3 years old, first in clothing manufacturing, and later as an office Manager at Green Cabs. She stayed in this position for many years, and the directors & staff treated her like family. I think they admired this woman who was raising two children by herself, and driving from Annandale to Rushcutters Bay every day. When we were older and not in need of babysitting, Mum even decided to drive cabs on the weekend when the company were short staffed. She even worked at our shop, helping out for many years.

Mum took herself off to night school to learn woodwork, in order to be able to do more repair work around the house. It was nothing to come home from the beach, to find her on the roof of the house at Annandale, doing a bit of patchwork to the iron roof! You might also find all the furniture re-arranged whilst you were out, without anyone helping her.

Mum was a member of the Leichardt Bowling Club and was playing (although not frequently) until the end of last year. She also joined the historical society at Rockdale, and was an active member until recently.

Mum joined Five Dock Leisure Centre a couple of years ago, as part of a government initiative “living longer —livings stronger”, and was featured in the local paper as the cover girl – for this endeavour.

Her very proud achievement was being a volunteer at the Sydney Olympics, where she had the role of driving dignitaries around to different venues — she was 81 years old at that time!!

Mum had a continued association with the 2nd – 3rd Field Regiment that our Dad served in. She went to great lengths to keep the Anzac Day March tradition alive. When very few members of the Regiment remained, Mum started enlisting her grandchildren, and then marching with them, so the Regiment would still be acknowledged.

Mum is best known to her friends as the chief organiser of “theatre parties”. She loved bringing people from her different groups together, at least twice a year, to watch the latest musicals to hit Sydney Ticketek will miss the 40 people she would book for.

One of the things Mum would like this day to be, is a celebration of a life well lived. She was a party person who loved getting together with her family, listening to music, and dancing, and we feel sure that she is now dancing with our Dad in Heaven. Rest in Peace Mum — we will love you forever.

This article was first published in the June 2013 edition of our magazine.

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by B.J. Madden

Within what is now the Bexley Golf Course was a slaughter-house operated by C J Stone. The slaughter-house was adjacent to the creek which flows through the eastern end of the golf course, and blood from the slaughtered cattle ran into the creek. Blood was also buried in trenches in a paddock near Moore Street. There were holding yards adjacent to the slaughter-house. The wine bar was on Stoney Creek Road and at the western end was Jauncey’s Dairy. The land for the slaughter yard was leased from Smithsons.

The Stone family have been connected with butchers shops in the district since 1868. This was when the original Dick Stone commenced serving meat in the Rockdale-Bexley area. Many other shops were opened. Great-great-great-grandsons of the original Dick Stone still work in butchers shops in the district.

It is not clear when C J Stone, who was a son of the original Dick Stone, and other sons, commenced to slaughter on the site at Bexley, but it may have been in the late 1890’s. The first listing of a slaughter yard at this spot in Sands Sydney and Suburban Directory was in 1898, with James Smithson’s name. 1899 and 1900 Directories are the same, but 1901 lists Keep and Stone.

An article in the Town and Country Journal of 24 November states that, when the Bexley Municipality was created in 1900, Stone and Keep were the lessees (and J Smithson, owner) of one of the two operating slaughter-houses in the municipality, and that there were two others not being used at the time.

Operations ended about 1920. The 1920 Sands Directory lists Charles J Stone, but 1921 Directory lists a Metropolitan Meat Co. Ltd. Depot. This was when all private slaughter-houses within 60 miles of Sydney had to close and all slaughtering had to be carried out at abattoirs, originally by the Metropolitan Meat Co. at Auburn, and later at Homebush.

Butcher’s wagons transported meat from the Bexley slaughter-house to local butchers, as well as to Stones’ shops.

Cattle, sheep and pigs were all driven through Kingsgrove to the slaughter-yards from the saleyards at Homebush and other places, and old residents tell of the noise as the mobs of cattle were driven through Belmore and down Kingsgrove Road at night. Because the sales were usually held on Mondays and Thursdays, it would be Monday and Thursday nights that the cattle were driven through.

About 1928, while the Tempe-East Hills railway line was under construction, Bill Setten Stone opened a butcher shop in Kingsgrove Road near the railway station, next door to the present Grove Inn. At the time, the only other building in the vicinity was the weatherboard estate agency. Deliveries were by horse- drawn carts, and the horses were stabled at the back. Bill liked to find an excuse to give children a ride on a horse or in a cart. Mr Stone continued the business until he sold out in the mid 1970’s.

This article was first published in the May 1981 edition of our magazine.

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by R W Rathbone

David Hannam was born in the village of Holton in Somerset on 23rd June 1805, the eldest child and only son of Reuben Hannam and his wife, Elizabeth Hews.

Reuben Hannam was convicted of ‘larceny in a dwelling house” at the Taunton Assizes on 31st March, 1810 and sentence to death, a sentence which, on appeal, was commuted to transportation for life.

He arrived in Sydney on 20th September, 1811 aboard the convict transport “Admiral Gambier”. A brick and tile maker by trade, he was immediately put to work in the Government Brickworks then working at top pressure to meet the demands of the building boom created by the extensive programme of Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

He so impressed the Principal Superintendent of Convicts, Isaac Nichols and the Assistant Chaplain, William Cowper, with his industry that they supported his petition to Macquarie, in August, 1813, that he be allowed to bring to New South Wales, his wife and two children, still living in England in extremely straitened circumstances.

Macquarie, in turn, wrote to Under-Secretary Goulburn asking him to recommend to Earl Bathurst that they be put on the first available convict ship.

Elizabeth Hannam and her two children, David aged nearly ten and Charlotte aged seven, arrived in Sydney On the “Northampton” on 19th June, 1815.

Just before their reunion, on 9th June, 1815, Reuben Hannam was given a conditional pardon and in August the same year was promoted to be Overseer of the Government Brickworks at Brickfield Hill. He is credited with making the first sandstock bricks in Australia from a mixture of lime, ash and sand.

Over the next few years the family prospered and on 17th August,119, Reuben was given a grant of 100 acres of land at Airds (now Campbelltown). On 28th October 1821, he was granted a free and unconditional pardon and two years later became an Honorary Constable in the District of Campbelltown.

On 21st November, 1825, he was granted a further 100 acres of land on the banks of Wolli Creek near Cook’s River.

At the time of the 1828 Census, Reuben Hannam was living in Bathurst Street, Sydney and later became a substantial landowner in the city. For a number of years he was the licensee of an inn in Castlereagh Street, “The Sign of the Red Cow”.

On 15th November, 1825, Reuben Hannan had also obtained a grant of 60 acres of land adjacent to his Cook’s River property, for his son, David (which was not confirmed until August, 1833).

At St. Peter’s Church, Campbelltown on 17th March 1828, David, now 23 married Mary Masterton aged 17, the first white child born in the district of Airds.

Mary Masterton’s parents were of Protestant Irish stock and had arrived in the Colony in 1800 and 1803 respectively. With his new bride and her twelve year old brother, John, David Hannam set up house on his 60 acre grant, farming and raising pigs, poultry and cattle.

The 1828 Census also revealed that he was being assisted by three assignees, John Atson, James Curtis and James Rede.

In this peaceful rural setting, David and Mary Hannam raised a family of 12 children, 8 girls and 4 boys, the last of whom was born on 6th April, 1857. They ere named Reuben Junior, John, Elizabeth, Mary, Phillis, David Junior, James Australia, Charlotte, Sarah Jane, Catherine, Lydia and Louisa Ruth.

No doubt concerned at the lack of educational facilities for his own family, David Hannam, in 1858, gave half an acre of land from his father’s grant at the junction of today’s Hirst and Edward Streets to the Church of England for the erection of a church-school which, opened early in 1861.

It consisted of a single room 22′ long by 14′ wide built partly of stone and partly of slabs with a galvanised iron roof and an “asphalte” floor to combat the white ants. The first teacher was Mr Charles Kellett who depended entirely for his salary on the fees he collected from his pupils.

The first religious service in the building was held on 24th February 1861 with Rev. A H Bull M.A. incumbent of St. Peter’s Cook’s River, presiding. Some time after 1875 this structure was demolished and replaced by picturesque “Old St. David’s Church” which was sold to Rockdale Council in 1972.

David Hannam became a very prominent figure in the Arncliffe District leading many deputations to the Government for improved roads and educational facilities. He was a personal friend of local politician, John Lucas, whose campaign committees he often headed in the St. George section of the Canterbury Electorate. He was a prime mover in the incorporation of the district into the Municipality of West Botany in January 1871.

He died aged 67 on 5th September, 1872, and was buried in St. Paul’s Anglican Churchyard at Kogarah.

Mary Hannam continued to live on the property until 1878 when large portion of it was resumed for the construction of the Illawarra Railway Line. The remainder was subdivided in 1880 as the Wincanton Estate to give the Municipality Firth, Queen, Belmore, Done, Eden, Charles and Wickham Streets. In 1872, Mary Hannam had sold the site of the original West Botany Council Chambers fronting Rocky Point Road to the Council for 20 pounds.

Her son, David Junior, served for two years, 1872-73, as an alderman of the Council and in April, 1879 was appointed the Council’s first Inspector of Nuisances at a salary of pounds 10.0.0 per annum plus half the fines he collected.

Mary Hannam died at Beaconsfield Street, Bexley aged 82 on 10th August 1894.

David Senior’s sister, Charlotte, married builder, pastoralist and politician., Edward Flood, the illegitimate son of an Irish convict who rose to be one of the wealthiest and most influential men in the Colony. After bearing him 9 children he deserted her for Jane Oatley with whom he lived for years and by whom he fathered another three children, leaving his wife to die in poverty in Newtown on 5th May, 1879.

It is often assumed that the name Arncliffe became associated with the area because the Hannams had originated in that tiny Yorkshire village. The Hannams were, in fact, West Country folk from around the village of Wincanton in Somerset. According to Mrs Mary Hannam who was interviewed by a correspondent of the St. George’s Advocate in 1893, the name was given to the district by Newtown surveyor, William Meadows Brownrigg, a, close personal friend of the Hannams’ neighbour, Alexander Brodie Spark.

This article was first published in the May 1981 edition of our magazine.

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