A symbolic aeroplane and the bold letters āPROGRESSā keep no secret that William Claude Johnston, who published this booklet, had a clear message to communicate. It was 1935, and the 50th anniversary of his familyās footwear business coincided with the centenary of the proclamation of West and East Maitland. It was a golden opportunity to […]
Sometime in 1934 or after, a librarian at Maitland Girlsā High School picked up a rubber stamp with the institutionās name on it, dabbed it on an inkpad, and stamped the first inside page of this booklet. It had recently been printed by West Maitland printer T. Dimmock for St Peterās Anglican Church, of East […]
In the 2004 book Time gentlemen, please!: Maitlandās Hotels Past & Present, a redrawn copy of this old undated plan of West Maitland was published, with an estimate that it was drawn around, or at least represents, the year 1858. But what evidence places it in the 1850s? For the Wonnarua people, the area depicted […]
How do you face bank robbers, sex-offenders, drug traffickers, and murderers every day at work? Tasked with confining and rehabilitating some of the toughest criminals Australia has ever seen, the guards of Maitland Gaol needed to maintain their self-defence skills throughout the prisonās 150 years of operation (1848-1998). In a shooting range along the perimeter […]
āPotterās clay sticks to the fingersā, replied Alice Fieldsend when asked why her family stayed with the craft. The alchemy of pottery, from clay to mould and kiln was with her from childhood as she watched her father, James Silcock, work the potterās wheel. Alice married Frederick Fieldsend and together they established the F.J. Fieldsend […]
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