A look back on one of our highlights for 2014

It's that time of the year when the team at NDHAG look back on all of our highlights throughout the year. One of which was the trip to Lithgow in April that we didn't put on the blog. We thought that since it was such a successful field trip it would be remise of us not to report on it! So we have!

On 5 April 2014, members of Nepean District Historical Archaeology Group did a short history tour of Lithgow and surrounds, starting at the Ambermere Rose Inn in Little Hartley.

The Rose Inn is a sandstone building built between 1830 and 1845 by Joseph Collits,

The building was opened as an inn in 1845, to service the travellers on the Western Road during the building of Victoria pass. It was not until 1846 that Joseph Collits named the building Rose Inn.

The building was in constant use as an Inn until 1874 when the railway took over as the preferred method of travel to Bathurst, Lithgow and beyond.

In 1922 the land and buildings were bought by Miss Mawbey who turned it into a guest house and named it Ambermere.

The NDHAG group met in the grounds of the Inn at 10am and were shown around some of the interior rooms in the historic inn by the current owner Fiona Richardson.  The building was bought in 1962 and won an award for its restoration by the then owners. There are photos and mementos of the Inn’s past on the walls and shelves throughout the building which adds to its appeal.

Ambermere Rose Inn

 

On the back road to Lithgow we stopped to look at the monument on the escarpment, built to commemorate the most westerly point Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson reached when crossing the Blue Mountains.

Then on to Lithgow, and the remains of the blast furnace and iron and steel foundry started under the direction of Enoch Hughes in 1875. It was rebuilt by William Sanderson in 1906-7 and served the Lithgow Iron & Steel Industry until 1927.

There are message boards located throughout the site; on or in front of every building, or where a building once stood. These boards explain what was done in that particular area, or which building had been there.

The site is not just a jumble of decaying buildings. There are several brick buildings that enable you to see what they were used for and how they were built. The remaining brickwork is very impressive. Some of the walls are over 4 bricks thick, (40 inches or 1 metre) with arches and circular openings. Brick debris is scattered throughout and a brick bearing the initials WS was also found.  It is assumed that it represents its builder, William Sandford. An unusual occurrence in itself as a builder’s name is not usually displayed on the bricks.



Blast Furnace Park

 

After Leaving the foundry we went to Eskbank house, which is a heritage listed property and museum in Lithgow. The house was built for Thomas Brown in 1842 and has had several owners since. In 1948 it was bought by Eric Bracey and deeded to the Lithgow community. Bracey then spent 18 years amassing a significant collection, including all the furniture displayed in the house.

The house and property was opened as a museum in 1966.  This includes the surrounding buildings, blacksmiths shop, hexagonal garden house and a pottery collection building.



Eskbank House & Museum

The Zig Zag Brewery was our next stop, built by Henry Corbett and first opened in approximately 1888.  It was also known as Terry’s Brewery and the last brew was made there in the late 1950’s.       

In the 60’s and 70’s it was the home of Dale’s soft drinks, and in 1991 a spring water business was started on the site and is still going today.

 

Old photo of Zig Zag Brewery from www.lithgow.com

After leaving the brewery we drove pasts Collits first inn, also known as the Golden Fleece. This was built in 1823 for the trade on the first road down the mountain, which was at Mt York. The Inn is now a private residence.

We continued onto the Comets Inn in Hartley Vale which was built in 1879. The Inn was named after “Comet” brand kerosene, which was obtained from the shale mined in the area. The hotel was one of 12 in a quarter mile area, and there were also dwellings for miners, a school, post office, butcher and a baker. In 1912 the hotel was advertised as a guest house, which it is still today.

Comets Inn as it is today - from www.lithgow-nsw.com

 

After a long and exiting day we all headed back over the mountains and agreed that we will have to do this again.

 

October Field Trip


In October, seven of our members went on a small field trip to the remains of John Jamison’s house in Glenmore Park.  We met outside at 11am and proceeded into the site,  which is now National Park Land.
There is a notice board as you enter the land explaining the area, and has a photo of a drawing of the very impressive house as it was in its heyday.

We had a plan of the area (supplied by Ros) showing the various locations of the house and outbuildings, including the stables, coach house and the billiards room. This made negotiating  and understanding the area much easier.

There is not much remaining of the buildings except some stone walls from the house. The above wall shows what appears to be the floor level in the house.

Even though there is not  a lot left, there are still sandstone blocks  and bricks scattered in locations on the site where they were originally used.

 Also there was a brown snake, which quickly became bored and disappeared into the bush.

After leaving the site we went to the John Jamison’s Catholic Cemetery, in a different area of Glenmore Park.

                         

 

 

A lot of the headstones had been pushed over and broken, but were still readable.  Most  of the graves were the workers and their families, who worked for the Jamison's. 

It was an interesting and informative day for those of us who had been or had not been to either location before.

 

 

Latest Lapstone update

Welcome to our latest Lapstone update

Several members of NDHAG returned to the site at Lapstone for another look, and to clear and measure the exact size of the building.

After several hours work the footing was cleared and could be measured, this included the location of the door.

Several other artefacts were uncovered in the process of clearing the footings including what appears to be a child’s broken pink tea cup.

These can be seen at the workshop, along with the other finds which includes a broken Champion Vinegar bottle, and broken soft drink bottles.

 We are still are assuming that this structure was the same size as the pointsman’s hut in the following picture.

It is nearly October and the railway buildings expert will have a look at the site, we should then have an answer to what this building was

Lapstone Investigation

Last year 2013, Nepean District Historical Archaeology Group (NDHAG) was asked by Members of the Nepean Historical Society to investigate the footings of what looked like a small shed at Lapstone, near the old Zig Zag railway. This was also the route of the Western Highway, before the building of the M4 caused it to be closed to traffic, and know a walking track.

The original request was to see if the footings had been a hut built by Leo Buring, and called the “Fort”. This building was known to be located somewhere above his vineyards, however the reason that he had built it, or its exact location is unknown.

NDHAG did a walk to the site with members of the Nepean Historical Society to see if we could find anything to prove whether it was the Fort or something else.

The location of the remains seems to cancel it out as Leo Burings fort, as it appears to be too far away from his vineyards.

After clearing the area around the footings it was discovered it measured 10ft by 7ft. (3.048m x 2.1336m), the footings were approximately 4’’ wide; (10.16cm). The rough concrete footings still had bolts sticking out from the top, which would imply that timber walls or timber plates would have been bolted on.

There was a doorway on the northern side which would have faced the old Zig Zag railway.  In the interior of the building, in the South East corner, there is a hole approximately 2ft x 1ft (60cm x 30cm) dug into the ground to a depth of 18” (45cm). This had once been lined with plaster/render, as some still remains.
 Several small pieces of tin were found in the bottom of the hole which could also have been lining. Some members thought this might have been a cool hole to store food, like an old style esky.
There were several other theories put forward.

The Archaeology group, after much searching through old records etc, thought that the structure was a pointsmen’s hut for the Zig Zag railway, as the size 10ft x 7ft appeared to fit the information that we had found.

Several railway experts were asked to return with NDHAG which they were kind enough to do.

They said that a pointsman hut was the same size as this, and if it was used by a pointsman, the hut would be provided as shelter but the lever would have been outside.

This does not mean that it was used as a pointsman hut, though it could have been used for storage or something else.

An expert on railway buildings will be available in October and we will ask his opinion of this building.

OPEN DAY

 Last Saturday the 17th May was our first stand alone open day since we moved from North street to this new address. Our other open days here, were held in conjunction with the art society open days, so we really had no idea if people were coming to see us, or we got the overflow from the art society.

We placed adds in some of the local papers in the week leading up to the event, and even had a interview with a reporter from the Press who came to the workshop, and took some photos, one of which was in the paper.

The first visitors arrived at approximately 9:50am, and there was a steady stream until we closed the doors after the last had left just after 4pm. At some stages the rooms were packed with people looking at the exhibits in the main room and the bricks in the brick room. All in all, we think about 130/140 people attended.

The most pleasing thing was that we has a wide range of ages, from teenagers to seniors, all interested in what we do and what we had on show. We had people whose parents or Grandparents had lived on Castlereagh Road and were able to give us some information about the area we did not have.

We did not keep a record of how many people there were, but we did ask most of them where they had heard about the open day,  most said that it was from the ads in the papers, mostly the Press and the Gazette.  There were several that were walking past, saw our signs and just decided to come in.

There was some confusion about the address saying the (old council chamber) so we will have to be more specific with our ads next time.

None of us had time for lunch or any breaks, but we all enjoyed sharing our passion with the local community, all in all it was a very successful day.