Remembering our stories: Drummond family wedding in Armidale

This is the twelfth in my series on New England's built landscape and architecture.

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Over the last eleven columns I have explored New England’s built landscape and architecture. There is more to say. However, last week I was back in the North after a longish break. This caused me to reflect on aspects of the present and its links to our shared past.

History is about stories, those we chose to remember, those we chose to forget and some that are just forgotten with the passage of time. Each story is multifaceted, capable of being told in different ways, meaning different things to different people.

  Shared past: A 1955 Drummond family wedding, this Armidale Federation style house is a rare example of the form expressed in weatherboard.

This is a photo of a Drummond family wedding from 1955. To family members, it is a story in itself, a reminder of our shared past.

Three of the four Drummond girls are at the front. Edna, the oldest, was ill in hospital. David Drummond stands on the steps to the left. His wife Pearl is on the verandah with members of the groom’s family.

At a second level, the photo is something of a period piece, an example of an important ceremonial occasion. While most major Armidale Federation style houses are brick, this house is a rare example of the form expressed in weatherboard.

As with so many of the larger South Hill houses built in the second half of the nineteenth century, the front of the house with its steps and high verandahs faces south, looking out over the back gardens and tennis court to the city beyond. The street entrance in Mann Street is at the back of the house.

As a regional historian, I see part of my role as interesting and involving those living in New England with their own past. We necessarily live in the present, concerned with problems of work, life, careers, family, school and studies.

One side effect is that our past slips away, especially for new people who do not have a direct lineal connection with that past. The stories that link the present and past are forgotten. Local and regional historians try to redress this.

But I also see part of my role as making New England history interesting and accessible to those outside the North who may have no connection with the area. I believe that out stories are relevant to the broader sweep of Australian history and indeed beyond.

There are practical economic reasons for doing this beyond the questions of interest and relevance in the history itself. Our history draws people to the North and could draw more if it were better known.

Not all visitors are interested in history. Some do come just for the history, including the built landscape and architecture. More come for other reasons, but then sample the history while here.

The more stories we have, the better we tell them, the greater the visitor experience. Our history should be seen as it is, a resource to develop and manage to attract and enrich.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 22 November 2017. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017.   

New England's built landscape - Armidale's Brown Street a microcosm of architectural styles

Revival: Built in 1904 for George Baker by George F Nott, architect Ranclaud of Tamworth, Birida is a classic statement of the Queen Anne Revival style.. This is the eleventh in my series on New England's built landscape and architecture.

 Previous post: New England's built landscape - the towns build their identity

Next post. Remembering our stories: Drummond family wedding in Armidale

I said that each of the New England centres had their own style reflecting the period at which they were built.

In Armidale’s case, the old city is predominantly Victorian with a strong admixture of Federation styles. There are also Georgian overlays in things such as the symmetrical rooflines that persisted into the Federation period.

The first vernacular colonial slab and bark buildings clustered around Rusden, Beardy and Dumaresq streets. By the mid 1850s, these were being replaced by a more sophisticated vernacular form with dressed timbers and shingle roofs. Very few if any of these buildings survive.

While brick was available, timber would continue to be an important building material into the twentieth century especially (but not always) in the more modest dwellings. For that reason, a number of architectural styles can be found expressed in timber, including the California Bungalow. style that forms such an important part of the Armidale streetscape.

As wealth increased, the still small merchant and professional class began to build bigger houses on South Hill from Barney to Mann Street. These generally faced north to catch the sun with views over the town.

Workmen’s cottages were also required. By 1870 inns, stores, blacksmiths shops and small factories had developed on the western edge of town including Barnett A Moses substantial tannery. The coming of the railway accelerated this trend. Armidale west of Jessie Street became the working class area.

Armidale’s Brown Street provides a microcosm of all the different styles, one that you can walk or drive using Dr John Ferry’s 2007 book, Brown Street Armidale NSW 2350 as a guide.

The street is book ended by two of Armidale’s most iconic buildings, the railway station in the west, the Armidale School in the east. Opened in 1883, the railway station is an outstanding example of the high Victorian architecture that marked so many railway stations of the period.

The main Armidale School building opened ten years later. Designed by architect Sir John Sulman, it is a Federation Queen Anne style building with both arts and crafts and Victorian elements.

First house: Built in 1863 by builder John Barnes and then sold to Joseph Scholes, Newton Terrace now Marsh House was the first house in Armidale's Brown Street area, laying the basis for the fashionable mansions that would follow.  

The development of Brown Street began when early Armidale builder John Barnes built a house on spec in 1863 and then sold it to successful Armidale businessman Joseph Scholes who named it Newton Terrace. The house survives today as Marsh House.

From this point, development extended along the street. From the railway station to Jessie Street the houses generally began as workmen’s cottages. From Jessie Street you find the more substantial residences that with their counterparts in Mann and Barney Streets form one of Armidale’s most significant architectural precincts.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 15 November 2017. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017.  

Don's Maps - a useful site for those interested in palaeolithic archaeology (and bushwalking)

Chatting to Don Hitchcock at drinks in Armidale last Saturday, I discovered that he had a website, Don's Maps, providing resources for the study of palaeolithic European, Russian and Australian archaeology. It also includes some of John's tramping adventures. He is a dedicated bushwalker. The photo shows Don on a European field trip.

Back home, I had a chance to browse. It's a very useful and interesting site that I have added to my must-read list. Do have an explore. Navigation is quite easy. You can also use his photos with appropriate recognition.

New England's built landscape - the towns build their identity

Grand designs: Opened December 1904, Armidale's Richardson's is perhaps the grandest example of the old department stores that form part of the urban streetscape in many New England towns. This is the tenth in my series on New England's built landscape and architecture.

 Previous post: New England's built landscape - building order in the bush

Next post: New England's built landscape - Armidale's Brown Street a microcosm of architectural styles

Each town in New England has its own history reflected in that town’s built landscape.

Tamworth, for example, began as two villages, one a private Australian Agricultural Company town, the second a government settlement. That slowed urban growth, as did the locking up of land in the big pastoral runs which impeded farming on the rich Liverpool Plains. It wasn’t until the Great Northern Railway reached Tamworth in 1878 that growth really accelerated.

While Armidale lacked Tamworth’s rich agricultural hinterland, it also faced fewer constraints to growth. Its role as an administrative and then educational centre provided a base for growth that can be seen in the city’s buildings and especially the largely Victorian period old city that forms the core of the heritage area. Armidale has very fine Federation buildings, but the Victorian feel remains.

Inverell is different again. Its main building period was later, the first two decades of the twentieth century.

"Inverell also suffered more than any other Northern town from a fire problem."

Inverell also suffered more than any other Northern town from a fire problem. The town was largely built of wood, while the water supply was inadequate. There were major fires in the central business district in 1900, 1901, 1902, 1913, 1914 and 1916.

The great Otho Street fire that broke out on 22 April 1902 destroyed 23 shops and businesses in 15 buildings. The Byron Street fire of 1914 destroyed 11 businesses in four buildings.

Inverell was booming because of mining and the growth of closer settlement. People rebuilt on larger scale in brick. The now prized central Inverell streetscape with its solidly constructed, ornamented, two story buildings dates from this time.

The first buildings in these little settlements were inns and stores with a smattering of official buildings. With time, professionals were attracted, along with other workers. A hierarchy of buildings emerged as wealth accumulated.

Snapshot of the past: Built in the 1880s, the former Trim & Co store is Armidale's oldest surviving retail store building

John Trim came to Armidale in 1838 as a convict assigned to Crown Land Commissioner Macdonald. Granted a ticket of leave, he returned to Armidale around 1846 and built a store near a ford over Dumaresq Creek. In 1856, he added a bridge to attract traffic.

With increasing wealth, he opened a second store on the old Great Northern Road in the 1880s. This survives today minus its original verandahs as Armidale’s oldest commercial building. When John Trim died in 1892, the former convict was an alderman, a former mayor and left an estate valued at £12, 000.

John Trim was not the only merchant to achieve success. In most Northern towns, the old department stores are some of the most significant surviving buildings.

Perhaps the most iconic example is Armidale’s Richardson building. Opened in December 1904, Richardson’s was Armidale’s dominant department store for almost 100 years. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 8 November 2017. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017.  

New England's built landscape - building order in the bush

Vision: John James Galloway, the surveyor who created the core street patterns for many inland New England towns.This is the ninth in my series on New England's built landscape and architecture.

Previous post: Designs with success in mind - grand designs of New England

Next post. New England's built landscape - the towns build their identity

The golden age of New England homestead construction that began in the 1800s and extended to the outbreak of the First World War also saw expansion in town building.

Like the homesteads, the first town buildings were roughly constructed from timber slabs with bark roofs near main tracks and water supplies. Those little centres were straggly places.

At Armidale, the biggest Northern settlement outside the lower Hunter in 1851, horse races were held in the dusty main street, while stringybark huts dotted the landscape. It was a rough and ready male dominated place. Order needed to be imposed.

To the Government in Sydney, order was necessary to allow proper registration of land title and collection of revenue from land sales. The Government was also concerned about the development of private as opposed to official townships. Surveyors were appointed to undertake the necessary mapping.

Born in Leith, Scotland, in 1818, John James Galloway came to Australia with his family in 1837. In 1847 he was appointed surveyor for New England and Gwydir and setting about his task of imposing order. In so doing, he created the basic grid structure that would underpin the later streetscape in inland New England.

Sometimes he had to compromise. When he surveyed Armidale in 1848, Galloway had to deal with existing buildings. The grid was meant to run north-south, east west, but Galloway was forced to shift this slightly to accommodate those building, giving Armidale streets in the old city that slight skew that exists today.

The area covered by the grid pattern that would become the Armidale municipality and then city was limited in size to a bit over 3.2 square miles, 2,060 acres, on the old measurement. It remained this way until 1961 when the city boundaries were finally extended.

You can see the effects today if you look at a map. The old city grid is clearly evident, set within the more varied surround of later developments.

A government desire for order was not the only force at work. In social terms, the male oriented frontier society was progressively replaced by families who (and especially the women) demanded an ordered society and increasing comfort. Shops, schools and churches were needed, while those who could afford it began to demand bigger, more ornate dwellings.

The result was a period of town construction that gave us much of the built landscape that we value today. To a degree, the pattern of that built landscape is all about money, as well as time, materials and changing fashion and technology..

In my next column, I will look further at the evolution of that built landscape.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 1 November 2017. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017.  

Designs with success in mind - grand designs of New England

Langford, Walcha: Completed in 1904 and designed by Maitland architect J W Scobie for grazier William Fletcher, the 22-room Langford with its five-storey tower is an assertion of prosperity and success.This is the eighth in my series on New England's built landscape and architecture. 

Previous post: New England's built landscape - a new wave of mansions begins

Next post. New England's built landscape - building order in the bush

The new homestead construction across the North that began in the 1880s accelerated into the 1890s and the early part of the twentieth century. This was also a period of substantial building activity within the towns. Many of the buildings now so prized by local communities date from this period.

The 1880s saw the construction of Stonehenge near Glen Innes(1887), St Aubins at Scone (18817-90), Saumarez(1888 stage one) and Booloominbah (1899) at Armidale.

Homesteads constructed during the 1890s include Moonby House near Tamworth, Clerness, Torryburn and Abington near Bundarra. In the 1900s construction included Langford at Walcha, Inverell’s Blair Athol, Gostwck near Uralla, Belltrees at Scone, Waterloo, Palmerston at Armidale and King’s Plain’s Castle near Glen Innes.

There were many more, including more modest if still substantial constructions such as The Croft (c1886-90) near Armidale.

We are now firmly in the age of the architect.. Today we forget just how important Maitland was as the North’s first big town. By 1861, its population had reached 8,922. It would be 1870 before Newcastle equalled Maitland in population.

The majority of private clients wishing to use architects chose from either Sydney or Maitland.

In building Booloominbah, the grandest of the new homes, Frederick White chose Sydney based John Horbury Hunt as his architect.. In building Saumarez, his nephew Frederick chose Maitland’s John Wiltshire Pender. J W Pender was also chosen by the Hunter Valley Whites to design Belltrees.

Arguably the most prominent Northern architect in the colonial era, J W Pender was born in Scotland in 1833 and trained as an architect at the Royal Academy in Inverness. In 1863 he established his architectural practice at Maitland, building a big practice whose clients extended as far north as Armidale.

Pender was not the only influential Maitland architect. Another was the prize winning architect J W Scobie who was commissioned by William Fletcher to design a mansion suitable for his growing wealth and success.

Completed in 1904, Langford is a rather spectacular grand two story building constructed of locally produced red brick, featuring 22 rooms and a five story central tower that overlooks the circular entrance driveway and extensive surrounding gardens.

The majority of the bigger homesteads were built of brick, although Stonehenge south of Glen Innes is a rare example of concrete construction. The architectural styles adopted generally reflected prevailing fashions across the three decades that marked the height of the building period.

I will look at those changing styles next week and also introduce you to the changing patterns of urban architecture. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 25 October 2017. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017.