A Place of Peace and Companionship

The peaceful setting depicted here is painted in oils directly onto the east wall of the old Rockley Mill. The artist, Edmund Ernest Edgar (c.1872–1965), completed the mural in October 1932 in readiness for the first meeting of the Rockley Branch of Toc H, a Christian social organisation and movement.

Although the first Toc H branch was established in Australia in 1926, its origins are found in the depths and horror of WWI. In the Belgian village of Poperinge, a staging point for troops moving to and from the battlefields, a refuge was established. This refuge, Talbot House, provided accommodation, somewhere to read, write letters, and generally relax. Talbot House came to be known as TH and Toc H – derived from the radio signallers phonetic alphabet of the time.

Similarly to many other members of Toc H, Edgar was a veteran of WWI. In 1932, Rockley Mill’s owner, W.H. Stevens, provided the first floor of the mill as rooms for a local Toc H branch. Starting with only five members, the old flour mill at Rockley was the perfect place to host a local branch as it had not been working for many years.

The Rockley Branch, following the Toc H guiding principles of inclusivity and unselfish service, welcomed non-veterans as members while organising working bees and community dances.

Edgar was also a photographer and memorialised a visit by the Portland Toc H branch to Rockley with a set of photographs of Rockley for presentation to the Portland members. Although Edgar left the Rockley district in 1938, the mural’s continued existence on the mill’s walls is a lasting memorial to his skills as an artist and to the role of the mill in strengthening Rockley’s community spirit.