Diaries from a Bygone Era

One of the treasures we proudly hold at Campbelltown Library are the Payten Diaries. Penned by James Payten of "Woodbine" homestead in the 1880s, the frail old books give a fascinating glimpse of rural life in Campbelltown which has long disappeared. They cover everything from seeds sown and calves born, to family holidays in Gosford.

The "Woodbine" property, once located off Campbelltown Road near the suburb now named in its honour, was a productive farm with a variety of crops and stock. James Payten was not only a well-known farmer and community leader, but also an all-round cricketer and successful pony breeder. His daughter Rose became a champion tennis player and had a nearby road named after her.

James Payten photographed in the 1880s

The diaries were donated to the library in 1994 by Mrs Dariel Larkins, whose family had retained the diaries for many years. The fragile pages have been microfilmed for public viewing.

Written by Andrew Allen

Source:

Macarthur Advertiser, November 23, 1994

The Black Sheep

The Bray family were a much respected family of Campbelltown during most of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They lived at 'Denfield', a house best known for being built by John Farley, the man who claimed to have seen the ghost of Fred Fisher. The Bray's bought 'Denfield' from Farley in 1841. John Bray Senior was highly respected in the community and served the town as a magistrate, as well as a JP, grazier and farmer. His marriage to his first wife Charlotte produced ten children, including Joshua who played a significant role in the development of the Tweed Valley on the Far North Coast of New South Wales. All the children appear to have lead successful and respected lives, except son John- the black sheep of the family.

Denfield in 1914

John Donalus William Bray was born on March 20 1834, the fourth child of John and Charlotte Bray. He moved into 'Denfield' when he was around six or seven years of age. Two events in the life of John reveal the dubious character he became known for. The first event occurred in 1856 when he was aged 22. John had fallen for a local girl named Sarah Keighran, the daughter of another respected pioneer of the district John Keighran. John had given his consent for Bray and his daughter to marry, however for reasons unclear from the newspaper report from the time, he was later 'denied the presence and hand of the young lady'. This denial seems to have been the trigger for John's subsequent outrageous behavior. In the early hours of October 17, John Bray Junior was accused of riding to St John's Catholic Church in Campbelltown and stealing a large crucifix. He also destroyed the altar. It was also discovered that all the seats had been disturbed and unmarked, except that of Catherine's and her family. They 'were covered with the altar cloths, tied in fantastic forms, which connected the accused with the transaction'.

St John The Evangelist Roman Catholic Church c.1871. This photograph was taken about 15 years after John Bray Junior's early morning visit.


A few weeks earlier John Junior had been removed from his father's house. Tensions between John and his family had become too much. John then moved in with a H. Rose. He left the area later that morning of the visit to the church. Despite having been seen riding from the direction of the reservoir where the crucifix was found, having his presence unaccounted for by Rose during the time of the "disgraceful occurrence" and a large amount of circumstantial evidence, the case was dismissed as Bray was not actually seen in the church.

John celebrated his good fortune by marrying Sarah the following week. They were married by special license by the Reverend Dunmore Lang on October 23 1856. Their marriage produced only one child named Ada May who sadly died in 1868 aged only 2 years and 9 months.

Later that same year John again found himself in strife with the law. Perhaps the loss of his daughter had affected his mental state. The NSW Police Gazette described how a warrant for the arrest of John William Bray had been issued in relation to a charge of the abduction of an under aged girl named Ellen Maroney. John was described as about 35 years of age, 5 feet 10 or 11, sandy hair, large red beard and whiskers, stylish dress and always wares a black top hat. In July that year John was found in Melbourne and charged with abduction. I was unable to locate anything further relating to this case.

John Bray Senior died at 'Denfield' in 1883. Sarah Bray died at Campbelltown in 1884. It's unclear if she remained with John after the abduction of Ellen. John Donalus William Bray died at the Melbourne suburb of Richmond on January 24 1915.

Written by Andrew Allen

Thomas Hammond

One of the most prominent people in the early days of Campbelltown was Thomas Hammond. He was born on 15 July 1792 in Gawsworth, England. Thomas became a London brick maker who, at the age of nineteen, had been transported for seven years. He arrived in Sydney on the General Hewitt in 1814. He received a grant of 100 acres at Campbelltown when his sentence expired and he named this property Clari Montes.

The convict ship Genral Hewitt

 

In 1824 Hammond married Ann Byrne, the daughter of an Appin settler. The marriage produced eight children. The family worked hard at Clari Montes, planting grapevines, hops and fruit trees. His family reportedly lived in a 'commodious dwelling' with outhouses. As well as possessing a strong knowledge of farming, Hammond also put his skills in brickwork to advantage. He was granted land on the corner of Cordeaux and Queen Streets, where he built an inn which he named the Kings Arms. It consisted of 12 rooms, a kitchen and stables. He was also awarded a contract to convert Cooper's public house into a courthouse and gaol in November 1826.

The Kings Arms Inn, photographed in 1886 when it was known as The Club Hotel

 

Thomas Hammond also played a significant role in the story of Fisher's Ghost. At George Worrall's trial, Hammond, who knew Fred Fisher, said of Worrall "In July he offered to sell me some boards of Fisher's, which he was authorized to dispose of by a written power, and would show it; but he never did. The boards must be taken away immediately, he added, for fear of an execution be put in, and that Fisher had left because he was afraid of a persecution for forgery." While talking to Worrall, Hammond noticed that he had a pair of trousers on which belonged to Fisher. Cross-examined, Hammond said: "Fisher was a much smaller man than the prisoner, and it was the tight fit of the trousers that lead me to notice them; also the cut- the prisoner being a country farmer."

Thomas Hammond also ran a boarding school known as the Campbelltown Academy or Clari Montes Academy during the 1830s and 40s. The school operated at Clari Montes and was still in existence in December 1844. In promoting his school, Hammond pushed its healthy and retired situation, the extent of the grounds that allowed pupils to exercise and entertain themselves. Fresh fruit and vegetables and dairy produce were in abundance for the pupils to take advantage of. Three teachers were employed, high fees were charged, but the school proved unprofitable.

Thomas was often writing to Sydney newspapers about various causes. In 1835 he was involved in a public stoush with Dr William Kenny over his underpayment for the doctor's services for attending to his family. Kenny's extraordinary advertisement in the Sydney Gazette was meant with equally frank language from Hammond in the following issue. Thomas also regularly wrote to the Government, pushing for the growth and improvement of the town.

We have a physical description of Thomas Hammond provided by local historian J.P. McGuanne in his Centenary of Campbelltown in 1920. "He was tall, this, slimly built; his thinish lips seemed responsive to inward jokes, which he occasionally expressed."

Thomas Hammond lived out his days at Clari Montes (sometimes known as Claremont) where he died in 1876. Despite his convict past, he was described as a "Gentleman" in the burial register. Hammond Place, Campbelltown was named in his honour.

There are not many physical reminders left of Thomas Hammond's days in Campbelltown. The King's Arms on the corner of Cordeaux and Queen Streets has long gone, replaced with today's City Hotel. Clari Montes is also long gone- it's house, orchards and grapevines obliterated by urban development. The property, I believe, was in the vicinity of today's new suburb of Macarthur Heights. Parish maps support this claim. The Thomson family of St Andrews ran a dairy farm on the site in the twentieth century. Even his gravestone appears to have disappeared. Thomas was buried in St Peter's Cemetery. The grave is today unmarked, although a number of sources refer to a marker in the past. He is buried in Section A, Row M, number 2.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

FOWLER, Verlie 1983
A Stroll through St Peter's Churchyard

LISTON, Carol 1988
Campbelltown: The Bicentennial History

HOLMES, Marie 2012
A Scrapbook of History: stories of the Macarthur District

McGuanne, J.P. 1920
A Century of Campbelltown

Cyril Brookes 1938-2007

Cyril Henry Putnam Brookes was born in 1938 to parents Cyril and Mary Brookes. Cyril Snr was born in England and Mary in the United States. They met in the States whilst both were working for the same engineering company. (see blog re Mary Brookes)
After coming to Australia in 1929, the Brookes settled in Sydney and in 1938 had their only child Cyril Jnr, or "little Cyril" as he was known. When Cyril was 11 the family moved to the old gothic sandstone mansion "St Helen's Park". It would be the family home for the next 40 years. Cyril was sent to school at St Ignatius College, Riverview, for 5 years from 1950 to 1955, and then attended Sydney University.
Cyril dated and later married local girl Diana Milliken, and he is remembered by David Milliken, Diana's brother, as "hugely intelligent, and such a lovely man. He was going to Sydney University and ..when he first went out with Diana he would come home with books lent to him by figures like Harry Messel, and the Cadbury Chocolate man Professor Sumner Miller. You look back on it and you realise that he must have been pretty bright then because they recognised it".
Cyril obtained a Bachelor's Degree and a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering with First Class Honours, and in 1962 was awarded a scholarship to St Edmund Hall, Oxford University to complete his Doctorate. His thesis would become legendary amongst some circles.
In 1964, Cyril joined BHP and in the late sixties was asked by BHP management to go the United States and oversee the purchase of a new computing system, a huge responsibility with a budget of over a million dollars. The story goes that towards the end of this journey in the US, the local consultant announced that there was a budget problem - there was too much left over!!! Over the next few days, staying at the Plaza Hotel in New York, cases of champagne were ordered, and the budget problem solved!!
By 1972 Cyril was responsible for BHP's entire computing function, with a staff of over 1000 in six locations across Australia. In 1974, at the age of 36, Cyril became founding professor of Information Studies at the University of New South Wales. A defining moment in his career, he would build up one of the world's largest applied information technology schools.

Cyril Brookes (photo courtesy SMH)

His research work allowed him to move into the corporate world, resulting in the formation of Grapevine Technologies Ltd, and EIS Pathfinder. He also wrote a blog called Cyril on Business Intelligence. In 2003, Cyril was named on The Bulletin's list of top 100 Smartest Australians.
Tragically, Cyril lost his life in 2007, in a tragic accident at home. Whilst standing in the driveway, a load of timber being delivered and unloaded came loose and fell upon him, and he died shortly after.
He had devoted his life to the development of information technology and knowledge management, but was also devoted to his wife, family and his passions. His was a life cut way too short. 

Written by Claire Lynch
Sources
SMH Obituaries "An innovator with flair"
Consensus IT Writers Awards Judges' Profiles 2005
https://cyrilonbi.wordpress.com/  "Cyril's Last Post".

The Way We Were- Part 2

Here are some more then and now photographs of Campbelltown as promised!

Above: Flood at Minto looking from front door of Minto Railway Cottage No.2 along the railway line towards Ingleburn with Victoria Road straight ahead. This was taken in 1961.

Below: The same site in 2017. Note the same tree in the foreground.

Three photographs taken at the intersection of Rose Payten Drive and Pembroke Road

Above: This photograph was taken in about 1960 and shows the charming house "Kialba" owned by Alfred Payten.

Below: A 2017 view of exactly the same spot. The palm trees still stand here, including the one on the extreme left of the photograph.

Above: Camden Road looking west from Hurley Street towards the level crossing and new overbridge on Narellan Road

Below: The same site in 2017. Traffic no longer flows on this part of Camden Road.

Written by Andrew Allen

"Sweet" Memories of the Cordial Factory

"Here was made the finest soft drinks in the land...the sweet sickly smell of syrup and sugar permeating the atmosphere for a hundred yards or so". This was how former Campbelltown resident John Hepher described Hayes Cordial factory- an institution in the town for many generations.

In fact cordial manufacturing has been part of Campbelltown's history since early times. Newling and Walker were operating a cordial factory in Queen Street in 1880. In the 1880s Gilbert Bray and Company operated a cordial factory and later manufacturers included Samuel M. Jenner and Joseph Pickles Seddon. Seddon arrived in Campbelltown in 1895 and took over the business from a Mrs Hurley (another reference has a Mr Druitt as the owner). When the Campbelltown Co-operative Creamery Company opened in 1899, it shared premises with the cordial factory and was also managed by Joseph Seddon. The site for this was in the area bordered by Queen Street, Patrick Street, Railway Street and the railway line.

Joseph Seddon standing in front of the cordial factory with an unknown man in the delivery cart (Photo: Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

In 1924 Gus Hayes worked for Seddon and when Gus died suddenly, his son Reg left school to work there. The factory had been known as Hayes and Seddon and then Hayes and Howell after that. After Reg joined Seddon, he bought Howell out. Joseph Pickles Seddon retired about 1927, living for another ten years in a cottage in nearby Railway Street. Reg Hayes now owned the business and it became Hayes Cordials.

Reg Hayes holding a child near his loaded truck (Photo: Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Reg employed two young lads to help him in the factory: Paul O'Loughlan and David Milliken. Now both aged in their seventies, they recently described what it was like working there:

David: "In those days to make ginger beer and ginger ale, you had to boil the ginger root then get the syrup off. Once the mixture was boiling in the huge copper pots over the fire, we would stir it up and skim the ginger. Burn you to death when you tasted it although it was really good! He used to make special lemonade for the hotels which was a lot stronger then ordinary lemonade. It was in a green shaded bottle, which was how you knew it was pub lemonade and available in shops. You would have to line up the bottles, add a little syrup in each one, then put them in the machine for carbonating. The dry ginger ale was beautiful. The ginger beer was just the best ever. All the cordials were handmade, the lemonades, orange, lemon, passion fruit, it was all made from fruit provided by "Just Fruit" up at Keith Harris at Thornleigh.

There was a big bottle washer that used caustic soda, which you didn't play with too much. It was a good machine. Sometimes the bottles were too dirty and you would have to get there with a brush and clean the bottles by hand. That was another bad job. I must have spent hours and hours cleaning the bottles with a brush."

Paul: "I commenced helping Reg before I started school. I was the bottle washer helper. His washing machine was the old style full length machine which was on a belt and you put the dirty bottles on at the front. It would go around the cycle, take off the labels and clean the bottles. Every now and then the exit end would get clogged up with labels and Reg, not being a small man, required someone of smaller structure to get in and clean it out, and I was the key for that. I enjoyed it very much and at the end of the day there was always a bottle of lemonade or creaming soda to take home to mum."

The building was far from glamorous. It was originally just a slab timber building that was later extended by Reg Hayes with corrugated iron. The original wooden building had beautiful old timber stairs and undressed sapling roof-ceiling rafters. It had sandstone flagstones on the floor. These flagstones were reputed to be the original ones used on the Campbelltown Railway Station which was built in 1858.

The cordial factory not long before its demolition. The road is Short Street and the site now a car park. (Photo: Bagley Collection, Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Progress eventually caught up with the building and the business in 1970. Reg Hayes sold the business to Jim Goldfinch who set up in the industrial area. The property was purchased by Campbelltown Council for a car park near the Railway Station. The site today is the tar car park between Short and Hurley Streets.

Update

I've been contacted by the Coogan family in relation to the information contained in the caption below the bottom photograph. The demolished building in the foreground was the home of Col Coogan. Its address was 21 Short Street and was on the corner of Short and Patrick Street. The large building next to it was not the cordial factory but a shed belonging to Col Coogan. The cordial factory is the building with the pointed roof behind it.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Campbelltown-Ingleburn News, September 8 1970

Interviews with David Milliken and Paul O'Loughlan held at Local Studies, H.J. Daley Library and available on the library website

LISTON, Carol 1988
Campbelltown: The Bicentennial History

Campbelltown News, November 26 1937

Trainer of Champions.

Thomas Payten, or Tom as he was known, was a highly skilful horse trainer, especially of two year olds. Born at Menangle to Irish parents Martin Payten and Mary Connors on April 5th 1855, he was the second of twelve children. He was brought up on his fathers farm, and at the age of 19, he joined Michael Fennelly, trainer for James White of Kirkham Stud, Camden. James White built the lavish Newmarket Stables at Randwick, and by 1881 Tom Payten was foreman there. In 1881, Tom also married Jean Renwick.
When Michael Fennelly died in 1887, James White appointed Tom as his trainer. The Town and Country Journal described Tom as "most trustworthy and a very capable man with a horse".
In 1877, James White had purchased the brown colt "Chester" who, the following year in 1878, would win the AJC Champagne Stakes, AJC Sires Produce Stakes, VRC Mares Produce Stakes, VRC Derby and the VRC Melbourne Cup. "Chester" would sire many Stakes winners for White, including "Dreadnought" and "Abercorn", for Tom Payten to train.

Abercorn, trained by Tom Payten. (Photo - www.sporthorse-data.com)

In 1890, James White sold most of his racehorses, and Tom Payten formed a syndicate to purchase the Kirkham yearlings. He also purchased the Newmarket stables. Tom would go on to become the first Australian to train winners of 200 feature races. Despite his success the venture folded in about 1896. Tom purchased a property at Canowindra for bloodstock breeding, and would continue to breed and race successfully. He sold Newmarket to William Inglis and Son in 1918, and built new stables in Botany Road, Randwick.
On November 5th 1920, Tom died at his home in Randwick, and his third son Bayly William Renwick Payten inherited the Botany Road stables. Bayly continued in his father's footsteps as a horse trainer, and was leading Sydney trainer for most of the 1940s.

Tom Payten  (Photo - Racing Victoria)

Tom Payten was described as having a neat dark beard, with a tall, slightly stooped figure that hardly changed over the years. He was a devout Catholic and a generous subscriber to church charities. Tom was also "brimful of a dry humour" and a great practical joker. He was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2006.

Written by Claire Lynch

Sources
Australian Dictionary of Biography
Australian Stud Book (www.studbook.org.au)
Wikipedia
Racing Victoria (www.rv.racing.com)
Trove