Category: Traditional Trades

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The art of embroidery with Menangle artist Elaine Balla

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2011 Camden Show Embroidery by Elaine Balla

Embroidery artist Elaine Balla created a decorative artwork about the Camden Show in 2011 for its 125th anniversary called ‘The Camden Show. ‘

Elaine entered her embroidery work in the competitive arts and crafts section of the show and won the Champion Exhibit Ribbon.

The art of embroidery has long been popular with local women and has a history that goes back to ancient times.

What is embroidery?

Embroidery is a decorative art or craft in which the artist uses fabric and other materials to apply thread or yarn using a variety of styles and stitches.

The art of embroidery is practised worldwide and can be traced to ancient China. In medieval England, high art was controlled by guilds and used in textiles in church rituals.

Embroidery was used to tell stories and as a form of biography at a time when women had few legal rights and were mostly illiterate. It was an expression of women’s agency.

Embroidery was passed down through generations of women who were the gatekeepers of community storytelling and secrets.

Embroidery artwork ‘The Camden Show’

Elaine spoke to Camden Historical Society president Ian Willis about her artwork, ‘The Camden Show’ and her other embroidery work.

Elaine said, ‘The Camden Show work took a couple of months to complete. ‘

She said, ‘I was under pressure to do the work due to the date of the 2011 Camden Show as the deadline’.

Elaine Balla’s embroidery artwork The Camden Show, which she has donated to the Camden Historical Society (I Willis 2024)

The Camden Show work is an example of crewel embroidery using thicker thread than silk-cotton embroidery threads, with some highlights in silk and gold, e.g., the balloons.

Elaine first drew the artwork on paper and then transferred the design to the linen cloth on which the embroidery was worked.

The artwork tells the story of the Camden Show. The centrepiece is a representation of the show ring with fireworks going off behind the show rotunda.

Cattle are found in the top right-hand corner of the work, proceeding around the ring. The story then moves through the poultry pavilion to the show hall displays, including flowers, jams, cakes, and photographs.

At the bottom of the work are the entry gates. The design then moves onto the ferris wheel and other sideshow stalls, including the Dodgem cars and clowns with moving heads.

The rural exhibitors, including the tractors, other farm equipment, and the show jumping, are in the top left corner of the embroidery work.

Beneath the title are fruit and vegetable displays along with the flowers.

The embroidery is a wonderful representation of a very popular community event.

Embroidery artwork, ‘Family Story’

Another work Elaine entered at the Camden Show in 2010 was ‘Family Story’.

The work tells the story of her family, the farm, the villages of Menangle, and the town of Camden, centred on St John’s Anglican Church and St James Anglican Church.

The centre of the work shows the family farm, the house with the family’s dogs, Tiger, Suzie and Rusty.

Elaine said, ‘The work is a panorama of her life story in Menangle.’

Embroidery artist Elaine Balla with her prize-winning artwork The Family (I Willis 2024)

She finished the work over several months.

‘I completed a couple of hours every night’, she said.

In 2010, Elaine was featured in an article in the Camden press after winning the Most Outstanding Exhibit at the 2010 Camden Show with the embroidery.

The work is 140 centimetres by 55 centimetres and ‘featured over 40 years of memories’. (Camden Advertiser, 2010, ud)

‘I just wanted to have memories of where we have been. Places change. It’s really just a memory of our times,’ she said. (Macarthur Chronicle 2010)

She was ‘delighted, pleased and happy to win the prize.’ (Macarthur Chronicle, 2010)

‘I don’t really go in shows to win’. (Macarthur Chronicle, 2010)

She said, ‘If people do not enter their craftwork into the show, there won’t be a show’. (Camden Advertiser, 2010, ud)

Elaine said that she started embroidery when she was 12 years old and asked her mother if she could do an embroidery. The first work she attempted was an apple, and then she moved on to bigger projects.

Husband Steve proudly admits that Elaine put ‘a lot of effort into her work’.

Elaine and her husband Steve recently moved into Menangle’s Durham Green, downsizing from the family farm. The framed embroidery has brought many happy memories from the farm with her.

Exhibition at the Campbelltown Arts Centre

Elaine Balla is a member of the Embroiderer’s Guild of NSW, Campbelltown Group, and she was featured in a retrospective was part of the “Ruby” Exhibition of The Embroiderers Guild NSW, Campbelltown Group, at the Campbelltown Arts Centre held between 10-12 February 2023.

The image gallery below is a selection of Elaine Balla’s embroidery work at the ‘Ruby’ Exhibition at the Campbelltown Arts Centre in 2023, with images provided by Joan Kolar.

Elaine exhibited around 50 works in a variety of embroidery styles, representing 60 years of embroidery artwork.

The embroidery artworks included varying styles and pieces, including tablecloths, pictures, cushion covers and more.

The embroidery was done on linen, silk, and Madeira linen in styles including crewel, drawn-thread, pulled-thread, cross-stitch, Goldsworthy, cut-work, and more.

Elaine has exhibited her embroidery elsewhere in Australia and overseas.

The Campbelltown Group of the Embroiler’s Guild in NSW features a triennial exhibition at the Campbelltown Arts Centre.

Macarthur Chronicle 2010 ud

Reference

Elaine Balla, Interview, 4 February 2024.

Joan Kolar, Group Convenor, Embroiderers’ Guild NSW Inc., Campbelltown Group, Email, 5 February 2023.

Joan Kolar, Images from ‘Ruby’ Exhibition at Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2023.

Updated 13 February 2024. Originally posted on 11 February 2024.

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Camden’s carpenters

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A local traditional trade

Carpentry was an essential craft in all communities and has been practised for centuries. In the Camden area, the traditional trade of carpentry as it was practised had a variety of forms.  Traditional trades were part of the process of settler colonialism on the colonial frontier in the Cowpastures.

In pre-settlement times, the first form of bush carpentry was practised by the Aborigines. They stripped bark from trees and used it for shelters that kept them from the natural elements and made weapons.

At the time of European settlement, many on the frontier had no formal trades skills and learnt bush carpentry from watching the Aboriginal people or experimenting themselves. The bush carpenter was a practical make-do pioneer who innovated with naturally occurring products from their local environment. They practised sustainability in a period when it was a necessity for their very survival and relied on their ingenuity, adaptability and wit.

A rudimentary vernacular domestic style architecture typical of frontier settlement constructed from available local materials. The farmhouse Illustrated here is the home of V Kill and his family in the Burragorang Valley in 1917 with some intrepid bushwalkers. The cottage is slab construction with a dirt floor and no electricity. The cottage is surrounded by the vegetable garden which is carefully tended by the family. (Camden Images)

Some of the bush carpenter’s spirit and tradition arrived with the early European settlers and owed some of its origins to the English tradition of green woodworking. This traditional practice dates back to the Middle Ages and is linked with coppicing, a traditional form of woodland management.  The craftsmen led a solitary existence in the woods and made a host of items from unseasoned green timber, including furniture, tools, fencing, kitchenware and other things.

The bush carpenters were amongst the first in the Camden area to erect building structures. Like other rural areas of Australia, the Camden area’s landscape has been defined by the bush carpenter’s huts and sheds. One example was illustrated in Peter Mylrea’s Camden District (2002), the so-called Government Hut erected at the Cowpastures in 1804.

This view of the Government Hut in the Cowpastures at the Nepean River crossing illustrates the rudimentary form of construction on the colonial frontier in 1804. (State Library of NSW SSV1B / Cowp D / 1)

The early settlers who built these basic shelters did so without the manufactured products of the Industrial Revolution. Either through cost or just a make-do attitude, they built rudimentary vernacular buildings that lasted for decades. In later times settlers’ structures were improved with the introduction of galvanised iron after the 1820s.

There were many examples of huts and farm sheds being erected in other parts of the Camden district, remote from major centres, like the Burragorang Valley. Post-and-rail fencing and a host of other structures put a defining character on the rural landscape. There is still evidence of bush carpentry in and around Camden.

The former farm shed c1900-1910 apply renamed the barn is popular with weddings and other activities at the Camden Community Garden. This farm shed illustrates the rudimentary type of construction practiced as a form of bush carpentry in the local area. (I Willis, 2018)

The bush carpenter’s tool kit usually did not have specialised tools and would have included saws, axes, adze, chisels, augers, hammers, wedges, spade, and other items. Their kit was meant to cope with all the contingencies of the rural frontier that were typical of the remote parts of the Camden district.

The formal trade of carpentry and joinery has a long history going back centuries centred on the guilds. Guilds appeared in England in the Middle Ages, and according to the website London Lives 1690-1800, their purpose was to

 defend the interests of the trade, regulate the quality of workmanship and the training of new members, and provide support and welfare for their members.

https://www.londonlives.org/static/Guilds.jsp

In London, they were established by charter and regulated by the City authorities. Guilds in London had considerable political power and were one of the largest charitable institutions in the City. Carpenters were organised in the Carpenter’s Company, one of 12 powerful London guilds. Guilds were a mixture of apprentices, journeymen and master craftsmen, with no women.

In the colony of New South Wales, carpenters were formally trained artisans have examples of their work in colonial mansions of the grand estates and the many local towns and villages across the Camden district. These artisans used milled timber and other manufactured products of the Industrial Revolution that were readily available and that their clients could afford.

Camden’s carpenters were a mixture of journeymen and master craftsmen, who had served their apprenticeship in Camden and elsewhere. John Wrigley’s Historic Buildings of Camden (1983) lists 38 carpenters/builders who worked in Camden between the 1840s and 1980s.

The pre-WW2 tradesmen used hand tools and traditional construction methods, which is evident in any of the town’s older buildings and cottages. Take particular notice when you walk around central Camden of the fine quality of artistry that has stood the test of time from some of these traditional tradesmen.

The hand tools used by the Camden carpenter changed little in centuries of development and refinement. The tool kit of the mid-1800s would have included hammers, chisels, planes, irons, clamps, saws, mallet, pincers, augers and a host of other tools. It would be very recognisable by a 21st-century tradesman. Master carpenter, Fred Lawton’s tool kit, is on display at the Camden museum (TDR 19/12/11)

A display of hand tools at the Camden Museum. This display illustrates the range of tools that made up the carpenter’s toolkit for his job. Shown here is a range of saws, hammers, augers, planes, adze, and other tools. (2021 KHolmquist)

Hand tools were utilitarian, and some had decorated handles and stocks, particularly those from Germany and British makers. By the early 19th century, many hand tools were being manufactured in centres like Sheffield, UK, and these would have appeared in the Camden area. Carpenters traditionally supplied their own tools and would mark on their hand tools to clearly identify them. Many of the hand tools became highly specialised, especially for use by cabinet-makers, joiners and wood-turning. 

The Camden carpenters listed in the 1904 New South Wales Post Office Directory were JP Bensley, John Franklin, Joseph Packenham and Thomas Thornton, while at Camden Park, there was Harry ‘Herb’ English.  According to Herb’s nephew Len English, Herb English was one of a number of generations of the English family who were carpenters in the early years of the 20th century in the Camden area. It was a family tradition for the sons to be apprenticed in the trade to their father and work at Camden Park.  This practice followed the training principles of English carpentry guilds under a system of patrimony.

Camden carpenter Herbert English working at Camden Park in the 1920s. This image illustrates the use of hand tools here showing the use of the chisel, mallet, handsaw and square. English is cutting a rebate with the chisel after marking the cut out with his square. He would have supplied his own tools and kept them sharpened at the end of the working day. (Camden Images)

Len English’s grandfather, William John English,e was apprenticed to his father, James, and worked at Camden Park between the 1890s and 1930s. William lived in Luker Street, Elderslie, where he built his house and had his workshop, where Len recalls playing as a lad. William’s son, Jack Edward English, was apprenticed to his father (William) in the family tradition, also worked at Camden Park and later in Camden and Elderslie during the 1930s and 1940s. During this period, Jack and his brother, Sidney, both worked with local Camden builders Mark Jenson and Mel Peat (TDR19/12/11).

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Living history in southern Queensland

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Out and about in southern Queensland

The CHN blogger was out and about in southern Queensland recently and investigated some of the local aspects of living history.

The CHN blogger was drawn to southern Queensland by the Australian Historical Association Conference held at Toowoomba in early July. The conference was stimulating and challenging and the hosts provided a great venue at the Empire Theatre complex.

Toowoomba

The Toowoomba area provided a number of  examples of living history starting with the Cobb & Co Museum complex. Apart from the displays there is training in traditional trades for the more than curious and there are a number of special days during the year. The blogger was there during the school holidays and there was a motza of stuff for the littlies to do – all hands on. The kids seemed to be having lots of fun, followed around their Mums and Dads. The coffee was not bad either.

Toowoomba Cobb&Co Museum Windmills 2019
These windmills are outside the Cobb & Co Museum in Toowoomba. The museum has one of the best collections of carriages and horse transport in the country. (IWillis 2019)

 

The generous conference hosts organised some activities for conference goers. I tagged along on a town tour one evening led by the president of the local historical society – very informative. ‘Town by night’ was a great way to see the sights of the city centre from a new perspective.

Toowoomb Empire Theatre 2019 IW
Toowoomba’s Empire Theatre is one of Australia’s best examples of an art-deco style theatre in a regional area. (IWillis 2019)

 

The Toowoomba Visitor Information Centre publishes a number of self-guided walking tours around historic precincts of the town area. This history nut would particularly recommend the Empire Theatre complex, the railway station, Masonic temple, court house–police station–post office precinct, and Harris House.

Harris House

One property that particularly took the fancy of this blogger was the Federation Queen Anne style Harris House. The cottages was bequeathed to the National Trust of Australia (Queensland) in 2017. The 1912 Edwardian villa residence demonstrates the development of Toowoomba in the early 20th century and the place wealthy members of the local society within it.

Toowoomba Harris House 2109
Harris House is an Edwardian Queen-Anne style villa town residence that was owned by some of Toowoomba’s wealthy social elite. (I Willis, 2019)

 

The single storey red brick dwelling has a Marseilles tiled roof and wide verandahs with bay windows. The concrete ornamentation contrasts with the face red brick and the hipped-roof has decorative finials and ridge capping. The house is in a visually prominent position on a corner block and is described by the Queensland Heritage Register as ‘a grand, Federation-era suburban villa residence’. It is quite an asset to the area.

The Woolshed

After the conference this nerdy blogger found himself at The Woolshed at Jondaryan. Originally built in 1859 the woolshed is one of the largest in Australia and today is an example of an extensive living history attraction. The European history of the woolshed illustrates the frontier story of the settler society of southern Queensland and the Darling Downs.

Toowoomba Jondaryan Woolshed 2019
The Jondaryan Woolshed complex is a good example of an extensive living history attraction. The woolshed was one of the largest in Australia and was an important part of story of 1890s shearers strikes and the conflict with pastoralists. (I Willis 2019)

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A taste of ink and type in a country printery

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The CHN blogger enjoyed an informative and interesting visit to a small museum as part of History Week 2018 conducted by the History Council of New South Wales.

The museum in question was the Penrith Museum of Printing located in the Penrith Showground.

Penrith Museum of Printing signage (2)lowres

 

The museum has a collection of fully operational letterpress printing presses and equipment from the 1860s to the 1970s. It is part of the living history movement that is so popular with tourists in North America, Europe and increasingly Australia.

The printing equipment includes linotype machines, flat-bed printing presses of various types and platen presses. There is also a substantial collection of hand-set type.

During the History Week visit the operation of the different presses was explained by retired tradesmen who had been printers and compositors. They kick started the presses and linotype machines and demonstrated their capabilities.

Penrith Museum of Printing Linotype Machine 2018
Here a museum volunteer and former operator demonstrates  and explains the operation of a linotype machine at the Penrith Museum of Printing.  This is a hot metal typesetting system that casts blocks of metal type for individual uses. The machine creates lines of type for the compositor to set-up a page for printing a newspaper. Hot lead was used to create the letters and was heated to over 500 degrees C. These machines were used across the world to set print for  newspapers, magazines and posters  for large metropolitan dailies to small local country newspapers up to the 1980s.  This machine is belt driven and in the late 19th or early 20th century a printery would have had a steam engine and boiler to drive the equipment. (I Willis, 2018)

 

The museum is setup like a 1940s printing shop and the visitor  gets the experience of the noise of the press and linotype machines and the smell of the ink. It is the authentic real deal.

Linotype machines were introduced to replace hand-compositing of pages for printing. Hand setting was very slow. What would take a compositor hours to set in a page would take minutes with a linotype machine.

The printing museum is also a site for the demonstration  of the traditional trades of the printer and compositor.

The printing museum give a real demonstration of how the local newspapers of the Macarthur region were produced before the current era of off-set printing. The processes for printing the local paper were labour-intensive despite the introduction of these pieces of equipment.

Penrith Museum of Printing Albion Hand Press 2018
This is a demonstration of the hand-operated Albion Press by a volunteer and former printer at the Penrith Museum of Printing. The museum website states ‘This beautiful old Albion Press was manufactured in London in 1860 is a magnificent example of 19th Century printing press design and craftsmanship’.  The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences states that ‘Albion printing presses continued to be manufactured, in a range of sizes, right up until the 1930s. They were used for commercial book-printing until the middle of the nineteenth century and after that mainly for jobbing work and by private presses.  The arrival of small hand printing presses enabled the publication of newspapers in country regions.’  (I Willis)

 

This type of equipment had a profound influence on the production of local newspapers across the world.

It is interesting how much of the terminology used in computer word processing derives from the smell and noise of the print shop and the lives of the printers and compositors.

The Macarthur region newspaper printeries

The Sidmans in the early 20th century introduced the latest equipment at the principal printery located in the building that houses the Camden News office and printery at 145 Argyle Street Camden.

Camden News Linotype printing machine 1930 CN
This image shows the Camden News printery in the 1920s at the rear of the building and office occupied by the newspaper at 145 Argyle Street, Camden. From the left are N Bean, printer, Charles Sidman, linotype operator. The Penrith Museum of Printing states that this is likely to be a Payne’s Wharfedale Cylinder Printing Machine and sheets of newsprint were hand fed into the press by the operator. (Camden News, 22 October 1980)

 

The Richardsons had the latest equipment at their headquarters and printery at 315 Queen Street Campbelltown for the Macarthur Advertiser and other newspapers.

History of Penrith Museum of Printing

The Penrith Museum of Printing website outlines the short history of the museum. It states:

The story of the Museum  begins with Alan Connell, the founder of the museum who had a desire back in 1987 to develop a “working museum” of letterpress printing machinery and equipment.

As the story goes, many years had to pass before Alan’s dream was able to be fully realised via a Commonwealth Government Federation Fund Grant. The Penrith Museum of Printing was officially opened on the 2 June, 2001 by Ms Jackie Kelly, M.P. for Lindsay, the then Minister for Sport and Tourism.

A large proportion of the machinery and equipment on display  originally started its working life in the Nepean Times Newspaper in Penrith, NSW Australia, while many other items have been donated by present and or past printing establishments.

To experience the smell and noise of the local newspaper printery a visit is a must to the Penrith Museum of Printing.

Penrith Museum of Printing Tour group 2017
Tour group enjoy their visit to the Penrith Museum of Printing. Visitors are watching a demonstration and explanation of the equipment by museum volunteers who were former compositors and printers. (PMoP)

 

For contact details go to the website of the Penrith Museum of Printing.

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Living History at Belgenny

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The CHN blogger was out and about recently and attended an informative and interesting talk at Belgenny Farm in  the Home Farm meeting hall. The presentation was delivered by Peter Watson from the Howell Living History Farm in Lambertville, New Jersey, USA.

Camden Belgenny Farm 2018 sign
The signage at the entrance to the Belgenny Farm complex at Camden NSW. The farm community hall was the location of an informative talk by Mr Peter Watson from the Howell Living History Farm in New Jersey. (I Willis, 2018)

 

Mr Watson, an advocate of the living history movement, was the guest of the chairman of the Belgenny Farm Trust Dr Cameron Archer. Mr Watson was on a speaking tour and had attended a living history conference while in Australia.

 Peter Watson and Howell Living History Farm

Peter Watson presented an interesting and far ranging talk about Howell Living History Farm in New Jersey and its programs. He was responsible for setting up the Howell Living History Farm.

Camden Belgenny Farm 2018May2 Peter Watson2 Talk
Mr Peter Watson giving an interesting and information talk in the community hall at the Home Farm at the Belgenny Farm Complex on the experience for visitors to the Howell Living History Farm in New Jersey. (I Willis, 2018)

 

Mr Watson said, ‘He initially worked in the US Peace Corps in West Africa and gained an interest in the living history movement through teaching farming methods.’

‘The 130 acre farm was gifted to the community in 1974 by a state politician with the aim of showing how farming used to be done in New Jersey.

Mr Watson said, ‘We took about 10 years to get going and deal with the planning process, which was tenuous for the government authorities who own the farm. Politics is not good or evil but just develops systems that do good for people. New Jersey state government have purchased development rights per acre from land developers.’

Howell Living History Farm is located within a one hour of around 15 million and the far has 65,000 visitors per year and 10,000 school children.

The experience

Mr Watson said, ‘The main aim at the farm is the visitor experience. The farm represents New Jersey farming between 1890 and 1910 – a moment in time.’

Mr Watson says, ‘We do not want to allow history to get in the way of an education experience for the visitor. The farm visitors are attracted by nostalgia which is an important value for them.

Camden Belgenny Farm 2018May2 Peter Watson Talk
An interesting presentation was given by Peter Watson on 2 May 2018 at in the community hall at the Belgenny Farm complex outlining some of the activities and experiences for the visitor to the farm in New Jersey, USA. (I Willis, 2018)

 

Most historic farms are museums, according to Mr Watson and he said, ‘At Howell Farm visitors become involved in activities.’

The farm uses original equipment using traditional methods and interpretation with living history.

The living history movement is concerned with authenticity and Mr Watson said, ‘Living history is a reservoir of ideas in adaptive research using comparative farming methods between decades.

Mr Watson illustrated his talk with a number of slides of the farm and its activities. He stressed to the relieved audience that the farm activities used replica equipment, not historic artefacts.

Howell Farm ScreenShot 2018 blacksmithing
Screenshot of the Howell Living History Farm website in New Jersey USA. The farm attempts to provide an opportunity for the preservation of the traditional trades. Here blacksmithing is being demonstrated with a forge. (2018)

 

Howell Living History Farm offers a strong education program for schools.

‘This is a different experience for school groups and we do not want to do up all the old buildings. Different farm buildings show a comparative history  – 1790, 1800, 1850,’ Mr Watson said.

Stressing how the farm lives up the principles of the living history movement Mr Watson said, ‘The farm is a learning, education and entertainment facility using traditional farming methods that provide an authentic and ‘real’ experience. The farm seeks to preserve the traditional methods which have cultural value.’

 

Literature prepared for the Howell Living History Farm education program states that:

Howell Farm’s educational programs engage students in the real, season activities of a working farm where hands-on learning experiences provide the answers to essential questions posed by the New Jersey and Pennsylvania State Standards of Social Studies, Language Arts, Science and the Next Generation Science Standards. The farm’s classic, mixed crop and livestock operations accurately portray the era of pre-tractor systems, creating a unique and inspiring learning environment where history, technology, science converge…and where past and present meet.

 

‘The farm is a guided experience and there are interpreters for visitors. Story telling at the farm is done in the 1st-person.’

Farm activities

‘The farm has a cooking programme for the farm crops it grows, which is popular with organic producers and supporters of organic farm products. Crops grown using traditional methods include oats, corn and wheat.’

Howell Farm ScreenShot 2018 farm produce
Screenshot of the Howell Living History Farm website in New Jersey USA. This is  some of the produce sold in the Howell Farm shop to visitors. All produce sold in the farm shop is grown and processed on the farm. (2018)

 

‘The farm sells some its produce and it includes honey, corn meal, maple syrup, used horse shoes, wool, flour.

‘We sell surplus produce at a local market. Activities include apple peeling. There is a sewing guild every Tuesday and the women make costumes.’

‘The farm has an ice house which makes natural ice during winter. Mr Watson made the point that ice making in the US was a multi-million dollar industry in the 1900s.

 

The promotional information for the farm’s seasonal calendar program states:

Howell Farm’s calendar reflects the cycles of a fully functioning working farm in Pleasant Valley, New Jersey during the years 1890-1910. Programs enable visitors to see real farming operations up close, speak with farmers and interpreters, and in many instances lend a hand. Factors such as weather, soil conditions and animal needs can impact operations at any time, resulting in program changes that reflect realities faced by farmers then and now.

 

The farm has run a number of fundraising ventures and one of the more successful has been the maize.

Mr Watson said, ‘The farm maize crop has been cut into a dinosaur maze of four acres and used as a fundraiser, raising $35,000 which has been used for farm restoration work.’

‘The farm is a listed historic site with a number of restored buildings, which satisfy US heritage authorities to allow application for government grants,’ said Peter Watson.

Howell Farm ScreenShot 2018 activities
Screenshot of the Howell Living History Farm website in New Jersey USA. This view of the webpage shows some of the historic farm buildings that are typical of the New Jersey area around 1900. The farm aims to provide the visitor with an authentic farm experience that has now disappeared from the US countryside and farming landscape.  (2018)

 

‘Traditional farm fences in New Jersey were snake-rail fences which have been constructed using ‘hands-on’ public workshops.’

Mr Watson stressed, ‘The farm is an experience and we are sensitive about where food comes from. Animal rights are a problem and you have to be honest about farming practices.’

 

Learn more

Scott Magelssen, Living History Museums, Undoing History Through Performance. Lanham, Maryland, USA: Scarecrow Press, 2007.

Howell Living History Farm  70 Woodens Ln, Lambertville, NJ 08530, USA

The Howell Living History Farm, also known as the Joseph Phillips Farm, is a 130 acres farm that is a living open-air museum near Titusville, in Hopewell Township, Mercer County, New Jersey. Wikipedia   Area: 53 ha. Operated by the Mercer County Park Commission.

 

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The Bennett wagon, a piece of transport history

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Camden Museum acquires the Percival wagon

One of the more oversized items in the collection of the Camden Museum is an item that few of the current members are aware of or would know the history. The Percival wagon was located next to Macaria for several decades, the former headquarters of Camden Council.

In 2012 a group of schoolboys got the opportunity to pull it to bits and put it back together again. They did a lot of work but were unable to finish the project. The wagon has been fully restored and conserved and is now located at the Wollondilly Heritage Centre in a new blacksmith’s display.

Camden Percival Wagon_0003
The historic Camden (Percival) wagon is probably a Bennett construction and was placed in the forecourt area next to Macaria by the Camden Historical Society in 1977. Where it stayed for several decades until 2012. (Camden Historical Society)

Bennetts Wagon Works at St Marys

The Percival wagon is likely to have been built at the Bennetts Wagon Works at St Marys, which started in 1858 and eventually closed down in 1958. The Western Plains Cultural Centre at Dubbo states:

Bennett coach and Wagon works were operated by brothers James and George T. Bennett. Their tabletop wagons became famous throughout Australia; they were capable of carrying from 10 to 20 tonnes, and were regarded as the best heavy transport wagons to be bought. They were used in both rural and urban areas.

The Bennett wagon works at St Marys employed around 25 men at the end of the 19th century, with its wagons selling for between £150 to £250. The wagons were usually painted green and red or red and blue, and some had nicknames, like ‘The Maxina’ (in South Creek Park now), ‘King of the Road’, and ‘The Pioneer’.

st-marys-bennett-wagon-works-1910-penrithcitylibrary-e1499829672934.jpg
George T. Bennett’s Wagon Works, St Marys. The photograph, taken in 1910, shows George Bennett’s wheelwright and blacksmith’s workshop in Queen Street, St Marys, which was built in about 1875. The business was on the western side of Queen Street, a short distance north of King Street. George’s brother James joined him in the business, but James built his own workshop closer to the highway after a disagreement. George closed his business in 1920. (Penrith City Library)

The Penrith City Regional Library states the Bennett wagons were used by teamsters to haul silver from the Burragorang Valley. In 1904 there were 15 teams of horses and bullocks plying the road between Yerranderie and Camden railhead from the silver field from around 1900 to 1925.

The silver ore was initially forwarded to Germany for smelting, and after the First World War, it went to Port Pirie in South Australia and then Newcastle. The story of the teamsters who worked out the Burragorang is celebrated in a monument outside Macaria in John Street, which was installed in 1977 by the Camden Historical Society.

Wagon finds a home at Camden

The historical society’s wagon was among the last in the Macarthur area. It was around 70 years old when the society purchased it from Sydney Percival of Appin in 1977 using a public fundraising appeal organised by society president Owen Blattman and Dick Nixon for $200. Once the society secured the funds and purchased the wagon, it was restored by retired Camden carpenter Ern Howlett and painted red and blue.

Deidre Percival D’Arcy says:

 My father, Norman Dyson Percival, owned the wagon and the property Northampton Dale. He first offered the wagon to Campbellltown & Airds Historical Society where Norman”s brother, Sydney Rawson Percival, was a member. He assisted in the move to Camden Historical Society. 

Northampton Dale

The original owner of the society’s wagon was Sydney’s father, Norm Percival, who died in 1942 with the wagon passing to his son. Norm lived on the Northampton Dale property, part of William Broughton 1000 acre grant of Lachlan Vale.

John Percival purchased Northampton Dale when Broughton’s grant was subdivided in 1856 and named it after his home in England. The Percival property was used for horse breeding, beef cattle and later as a dairy farm. During the First World War, the farm was a popular venue with local people for playing tennis. (Anne-Maree Whitaker, Appin, the Story of a Macquarie Town)

Campbelltown Percival Wagon_0001

Typical of Bennett wagons, the society’s Percival wagon was used to cart wheat at Junee in 1913, while around 1900, it had previously been used to cart chaff from Campbelltown Railway Station to the Cataract Dam construction site.

Wagon at Appin

The wagon was also used to cart coal in Wollongong and around the Percival Appin farm of ‘Northampton Dale’ and the Appin district. The Percival wagon had been restored by the Percivals in 1905 and was fitted with new front wheels and plied for business around with Appin area. The signage along the side of the wagon was ‘EN Percival, Appin’.

The Percival wagon was placed adjacent to Macaria in John Street in 1977 and, by 1992, was a little the worse for wear. A team of society members took to the task with gusto and contributed over 200 hours to the restoration, with Camden Council contributing $600 to the total cost of $1200.

Another decade passed, and the weather and the elements again took their toll on the wagon. Repainting was needed in 2001.

Camden HS Teamsters Wagon
The Percival wagon in Argyle Street Camden was driven by Mr Biffin before being located next to Macaria in John Street in 1977 (Camden Museum)

Restoration by Macarthur Anglican School students

In 2012 the Dean of Students at Macarthur Anglican School, Tim Cartwright, suggested that the wagon become a restoration project for the school boys. Cartwright, who had retrained as a teacher, had been a master carpenter in Europe before coming to Australia. The wagon was taken out to the school later that year, and the students completed some work.

Tim Cartwright stated in 2018

When the School took possession of the Wagon, the entire sub structure was affected by white-ant and dry rot. This became evident when the front wheels folded under themselves unable to steer or take their own weight.

A small team of enthusiastic Year 7 and Year 9 boys with no practical carpentry experience gathered every Friday afternoon and sometimes through School holidays, with the intention of renovating and replacing all parts of the Wagon to bring it to a point where it could be used rather than just as a display.

Over the four year period the boys learnt essential Carpentry skills often producing work that demanded great attention to detail and a skill level that would be demanding even for modern practice.

The boys included Adam Ebeling, Jack Jansen, Richard Cartwright, Henry Cartwright
Tom Oliver, Daniel Pearce.

The boys took great pride in their work and were always concerned to replicate original parts instead of compromising on easier or more convenient solutions. This project has been rich in learning in many aspects and I am thrilled to have led the boys on this pathway of preserving our local heritage and introducing them to skills they will be able to revisit in years to come.

 

Restoration and conservation by The Oaks Historical Society

Volunteers at The Oaks Historical Society have completed the wagon’s latest restoration.

The Oaks Cover Newsletter 2019 Wagon Restoration
Camden HS Wagon SoS Cover
Camden Museum, Teamsters’ Wagon, Statement of Significance, Item No 1995.423.

Read more about Bennett Wagons

Bennett Family and Business

The Bennett Wagon Enclosure, St Marys NSW

The Bennett Wagon On The Move – St Marys NSW Spring Festival 2013 (YouTube)

The 10 tonne Bennett wagon ‘All The Go’ at Marlie Stud.

Originally posted on 9 May 2023. Updated 24 July 2020