Some of you who've been reading this awhile may remember me mentioning Joyce.
For those who don't recall, Joyce grew up in our little valley and remembers our place as it looked back when it looked nice. I emailed her shortly after we made an offer on our house, after finding her email address in an online piece talking about the local history of the area.
Anyway, Joyce is particularly wonderful, and is also a great local historian. She's sent me a couple of photos.
The first is her brother, Len, circa 1955, at their place, in a photo I just love. Doesn't he look happy?
Our house would be one of the two little white blobs on the right in the background there, although I can't quite work out which but most probably the one on the far right.
What strikes me most is how cleared that hill was then. It's not now. This is a picture taken yesterday of Lucinda climbing that hill in the background, although it doesn't do the regrowth justice because it really only shows a few trees and some lantana, but perhaps you can just believe me and appreciate the photo anyway because it's cute and she insisted on dragging those sticks all the way to the top while complaining how heavy they were and looking like Jon Bon Jovi (the house behind her is our neighbour's place).
Now, this is a photo that shows some fairly surly looking children, and - drumroll - Little House. Back when Little House was a school and situated further up the road from where she sits now on our block. This photo is circa 1905.
Some of the descendants of these kids still live on our road. In fact, the caption with their names reads remarkably similar to the local Street Directory as many of the roads around here are named after local families.
So, there you go. Some more local history and some great old photos to boot.
How wonderful to have photos and history about your property available. I love that old houses have stories from their past uses and owners and lives lived in them.
ReplyDeleteI laughed at the photo of all the school kids...yes, well, umm... they don't look particularly happy (unless of course this photo was taken with a chisel and stone like fred flinstone time). Great to have some history to your place and I'm sure you'll find a way of framing some of this history for your inside your house/s. Actually Lucinda looks a bit like bam bam with her wooden sticks and hair up like that. Have you checked into the State Library to see if they have photos of Laidley and the surrounding area. Regards Kathy
ReplyDeleteGreat photos. Love that most of the little girls are wearing aprons/tunics to keep their dresses clean! Cheers, Robyn.
ReplyDeleteOh how nice to have Joyce in your lives. The photos are amazing, especially of the school, you must copy and frame it for the little house xx.
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