Louisa Fisher

An amazing photograph came to light last week. The library was sent a remarkable image of  Louisa Fisher- the sister of our famous ghost Fred Fisher. This is the first time the library has seen a photo of one of Fred Fisher's immediate family. I wonder did she look like her brother Fred? The only description we have of Fred Fisher is through convict records. They describe him as having average height with a fair complexion and brown hair. Not much detail there.

Louisa Ellen Fisher was Frederick's younger sister. The photograph is in the possession of a direct descendant of Fred and Louisa's brother Samuel. Samuel Fisher's son Samuel migrated to Australia to find out about Frederick's estate. There were concerns of fraudulent activities. Young Samuel remained in Sydney and married there in 1849.

Thank you to the descendant John Wise for sharing Louisa's photo with the library. John's link to her and Fred was proven with a DNA match.

Louisa Fisher is photographed above. Date is unknown. (photograph courtesy of John Wise)

Written by Andrew Allen

The Collins family stores and Ingleburn

The Collins family arrived in Ingleburn in 1884, having come from Gunning. William John Collins Snr had established a brickworks in Gunning which supplied bricks used in connection with the railway in that district. He, his wife Honora and their five children then moved to Ingleburn where William set up a general store in the small village of Ingleburn. This wattle and daub building was on the southern side of the Oxford and Ingleburn Road intersection.

William Snr also continued to use his brickmaking skills supplying handmade bricks for local building projects. He was active in having a school opened in Ingleburn, starting a church, and providing the mail service from his home. He was one of the founding Aldermen of Ingleburn’s Municipal Council in 1896.

The early W.J. Collins General Store c1880 (Photo courtesy CAHS)

William Snr and his wife Honora’s (known as Nora) sixth child, a son, was born in Ingleburn, and was named Thanet. This name was derived from the place in Kent where William John Snr was born – the Isle of Thanet.

The J.W. Collins Store was on the corner of Oxford Road and Ingleburn Road, right near Ingleburn Railway Station. It sold everything, including explosives for which William had obtained a permit in 1888.

After their father died suddenly in 1919, the store was taken over by William John Jnr and his brother Thanet and became W.& T. Collins Store. In 1922 they called for tenders to build a new brick store. This would be situated on the northern side of Oxford Road opposite the old location. Groceries, paint, produce, hardware, haberdashery were among items sold. Eventually a milk bar and petrol and oil service were added. Train commuters were catered to with the store being open as early as 6am and closing as late as 7.30pm. 

W.&T. Collins Store c1930 (Photo Courtesy CAHS)

When William Jnr died in 1936 the store was continued by Thanet, and became known as T. Collins Railway Store. Thanet remained a storekeeper into the 1960s, but had retired by the time of his death in 1972. The Collins family had served the Ingleburn community for close to 90 years. 

Written by Claire Lynch

Sources: Trove, Grist Mills Vol.1, No.4, "More than bricks and mortar" - Andrew Allen

The Lamplighter

Every day at dusk you would see him. He would walk around the quiet streets of Campbelltown carrying his small ladder and kerosene can with its long narrow spout. It was a routine that he loved and that he had perfected through years of practice. As he approached each lamp post he would take the lamp out and clean the globe and then fill the lamp with kerosene and light it. A ritual from another time in a slower paced and less complicated world.

Edwin James Bamford, known as Ted,  was born in 1865 in Picton. He was the son of Edwin Bamford and and Elizabeth Reeves. The family came to Campbelltown when Ted was only 3 or 4 months old. Ted secured his first job aged only 13 when he began constructional work on Sydney's first water supply. His main duty was to supply horses to the surveyors, moving them between Campbelltown and Fairfield where they were stationed.

He began his lamplighting in 1902. Although there were not many lights in town, it still required some travelling by foot. There was a light outside the town hall, one on the corner of Allman Street, one on Dumaresq Street, one near the corner of Lithgow Street, one near the park and one on the corner of Broughton Street. They never showed much light according to local Frances Meredith.

As a boy, Fred Seers assisted him with the lamplighting for threepence a week. Fred grew up to be one of the town's much loved characters himself.

Lamplighting was not the only job that Ted was skilled at. Perhaps his greatest joy in life was as Verger for St Peter's Church. He followed in his father's footsteps with this. He would clean the church, ring the bell, chase pigeons and undertake rounds of the graveyard. He reputedly knew the inscription of every tombstone in St Peters. Later he worked in the tiny library in a small building at the back of the town hall. He was the librarian there and he also looked after two billiard tables in the small building. There was a fireplace and he kept the logs on the fire in winter. He later moved to the new Soldiers Memorial School of Arts on the corner of Queen and Lithgow Streets and worked as the librarian.

Ted had a keen interest in botany. He was able to give the botanical name of every tree, pine and shrub that you could find in Campbelltown!

He carried out his work as lamplighter up until the time that electricity was installed in Campbelltown in early 1924. No more would this gentle old character wander the streets lighting up the town. 

Ted married Frances Holland at St Peters, Campbelltown and they had three children. The untimely death of his daughter Fanny had a profound effect on him and was believed to have contributed to his death not long after. He had suffered from asthma throughout his life. Edwin Bamford died in 1936 and was buried in the cemetery at St Peters that he dutifully cared for. 

Can you help with finding a photograph of Edwin Bamford for us?

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Campbelltown News 24 July 1936

A Stroll Through St Peter's Churchyard, Campbelltown NSW by Marie Holmes

Frances Meredith oral history interview 1977 (Held at Campbelltown Library)