The day Anna Maria opened this leather-bound bible at Duckenfield House in Morpeth, dipped her pen into her inkwell and inscribed her name inside the front cover, she may have been in a melancholy mood. It was 13 November 1874, and Anna Maria Van Eales (née Gain) (1843-1887), who was mother to five boys, had […]
In 1863, the people of Morpeth enthusiastically found good uses for their newly finished courthouse. Not only were legal cases heard there, but they also held concerts, public meetings, vaccinations, a fundraising bazaar, voting, and a death inquest – all before the furniture had even been installed. But it was quickly recognised that there was […]
When fisherman Richard Parker acquired a block of bushland near Lake Macquarie, about 1895, there were two tools in his kit that would be essential for clearing the land and building a simple house – his axe, and this pit saw. The house Parker built at 85 Docker Street (now known as Haddon Crescent), Marks […]
This humble table played a simple role in a not-so-simple house, for two not-so humble families. It was used for ironing at Duckenfield Park House, a grand colonial home in Morpeth. Built in 1853-4 by John Eales (1799-1871), said to be the wealthiest man in the colony, the 45 roomed mansion was later occupied from […]
At 6.50pm on a Tuesday evening in May, 1931, Henry Bewes, a track interlocking inspector on the South Maitland Railways was found lying between the lines near the Weston Station signal box, shockingly injured and unconscious. Inside the signal box, these contraptions, with their dials, wires and bells, and the 20 signal levers they operated, […]
Every train station has one. The familiar sign that reminds you to get off the train at your stop, or to stay on, if it’s not. Like all others, this sign from Morpeth train station at Robert Street, Morpeth, is a silent witness of decades of comings and goings. Built in 1889, Morpeth was just […]
Sometime in the 1780s, or even earlier, a furniture maker in England put the finishing touches on this utilitarian chair with its simplified fiddle back. He painted it with shellac and used his hammer to drive in iron tacks to secure the brown leather upholstery and to stamp the letters ‘S’ and ‘L’ (perhaps his […]
How many pieces of wood does it take to build a miniature bridge? How many hours, and how much patience? With its clever system of interconnected triangles and cast-iron joints, this 1:25 exact scale model of one of the three spans of the Morpeth bridge was expertly and painstakingly pieced together by Michael Deguara. A […]
In the 1870s, when Berry schoolgirl Helena Kinneally stitched the buttonholes, fancy borders and darning to create this needlework sampler, she probably didn’t know how useful those skills would later be, when she became the mother of ten children. Helena Kinneally (c. 1868-1904) was born in Victoria about 1868. She was the daughter of William […]
The sinuous silver snake that forms the handle of this claret ewer is poised to strike – but at what? The snake is focussed on the hinged lid of the ewer, which has a hole where perhaps a knob was once attached. Could the missing knob be the snake’s prey, and could it have been […]
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