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Church of St. Mary & St. Gregory, Frithelstock Devon stands next to the ruins of the earlier 13c Augustinian priory of St Gregory founded c1220 for the repose of his soul by Sir Roger de Beauchamp (or Sir Robert de Bello Campo ) and endowed for a small community of Augustinian Canons. In c 1229 he donated a large part of it to Hartland Abbey in North Devon (These are the only substantial remains of a monastic house in Devon) Bishop Walter de Stapledon who was born at Annery, the great house near Monkleigh, increased the endowments and is considered a co-founder with Sir Robert.
The church building that followed was probably built for the families of the Priory retainers and the inhabitants of the village which grew up nearby.
The village name derives from the Anglo-Saxon Frithulac's Stocc.
The church was enlarged in the 15c and restored c1870.
Built of coursed rubble, it comprises a chancel, nave, west tower south aisle , south chapel / vestry and south porch.
The north wall survives from the 13c lit with early 14c windows
The chancel was rebuilt in the early 14c when the south aisle was added.
The four stage tower with studded door dated 1676 & topped with 18c pinnacles, was rebuilt in 15c . It has 6 medieval bells , one dedicated to the Archangels Michael and Gabriel.
The porch followed in the late 15c - it has a reset 12c stoup and 1741 sundial with the message "Umbra Sumus" - " we are shadows".- www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/T9jfV1tU68 Its 18c panelled door has a 14c sanctuary knocker.
The 1086 Domesday Survey lists Frelelestoch as one of the 79 Devonshire holdings of Robert, Count of Mortain half-brother of William the Conqueror. His tenant was Robert FitzIvo.
At the 16c dissolution of the monasteries, the prior relinquished possession of the priory and its demesne lands on 27 August 1536. and these passed through the hands of John Wynslade, Sir George Carew of Mohuns Ottery, and Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle being later owned by Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford, (son of the 1st prime minister), whose wife was Margaret Rolle, 15th Baroness Clinton 1781, daughter and sole heiress of Samuel Rolle 1719 of nearby Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe. The lands later descended to Margaret Rolle's heirs, the Barons Clinton.
Henry Stevens 1748 of the wealthy and influential family of Little Torrington, lived at Smythacott in the parish. He married Christiana Maria Rolle 1780 a sister of Henry Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle.1759 of Stevenstone. Their inscribed ledger stone survives in the floor of the south aisle
The 16c plank and studded priest' s door in the south wall is set in a chamfered pointed arch
The interior 15c waggon roofs have moulded ribs and floral-carved bosses. three early 14c bays to the west, between the nave and south aisle, have crocketed canopies over image niches, www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/X2223120dp and foliate-carved capitals including Green Man and vine trail. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/Z69Ci0Es30
The plasterwork Royal Arms of Charles ll on the north nave wall, framed by Corinthian columns are by John Abbot of Culleigh and dated 1677 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/A10wDt5r9Q
The late 15c / early 16c bench ends and fronts in choir and south east chapel; are carved with tracery patterns, foliate ribs, heraldry, which include the arms of Hartland Abbey (owner of the Priory) and crowned double-rose of Henry VII, Instruments of the Passion, crown of thorns figures including man with liripipe; There is also the figure of a hart which recalls our connection with Hartland Abbey and the two heads of ecclesiastics facing each other with their tongues out. This is said to be an allusion to a dispute between the Bishop of Exeter and the Prior of Frithelstock in the Middle Ages. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/vde86J2L9x
The late 17c Jacobean pulpit may have been brought here from another church. - it has reeded pilasters framing blind arches with egg and dart carving to architraves, reset on late 19c base. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/2rs1VDYJvN
The 13c quatrefoil-shaped font with cabled herringbone decoration to stem; reset on late 19c base. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/42K74LcDZF
The late 18c west screen to the tower has 3 pointed-arched doorways and panelled doors. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/16C1T2Q4G9
2025 UPDATE - FUNDRAISING IS ONGOING FOR REPAIRS TO THE TOWER (ABOUT £300,.000 IS NEEDED)
Roger A Smith CCL www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5350535
ODC: Eccentric
I'm not sure why this image popped into my head when I read the challenge but it did and here you go...probably the best looking self portrait you'll see of me throughout this project. :)
I had one of those days where every little thing was getting on my nerves and my patience was very thin so I figured I needed something to give me a good laugh.
I use to get hours of entertainment when I was kid doing this.
FGR: Okeh
An unexpected visitor to Frodsham .... class 31 and old retainer 31106 heads west with 3Q04, the 13.55 Crewe - Longsight Network Rail Test train earlier this evening, 11th July 2013.
Thought I was back in the 70s for a minute......
The model who was in these braces was great, just think of what is was like for her to have this orthopedic appliance applied to her body. First she had to move her ankles to the inside of the brace so I could get the ankle straps on her sandals buckled up. She sat patiently while I buckled each of the 32 straps to her legs and body. I then CAREFULLY stood her up and listened for the drop locks to engage. The knees locked first followed by the hips. She had a pair of crutches to steady herself but was very worried she would fall over. Then I had to readjust some of the straps to tighten them down properly. The whole process took about 25 minutes. As you can see the pictures came out well and after about an hour of me picking her up by the braces turning her around and taking shots from every angle she was freed from her brace prison. Upon unbuckling the straps, sandals and removing the braces I expected her legs to be completely marked with "strap marks" from all the hardware she was wearing, marks similar to a girls feet after wearing high heeled sandals all day. Much to my surprise she had barely a mark on her and light marks at that. She said that she was very comfortable while wearing them and the fact that they did not leave a pattern tells me that this brace fits very well. Brand new genuine orthopedic leather. These braces were sold, you missed out. Made to measure recreational leg braces or other leather and metal restraint or fetish items, contact me at my1970junk@msn.com and put "braces" in the tag line. Also check out Flickr group "Leg Brace Desires" I just started it for recreational bracers
Taken in the New Otani Hotel's Garden in Tokyo.
The garden of the New Otani Hotel in Tokyo stands on the property that was once the primary yashiki (estate) of the great Sengoku period feudal lord, Katō Kiyomasa (1562-1611). Kiyomasa was a trusted retainer and general of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the warlord who unified Japan in the wake of Oda Nobunaga’s assassination in 1582. Kiyomasa rose to fame during the battle of Shizugatake and soon found himself at the vanguard of many of Hideyoshi’s campaigns, including the invasion of Korea in 1592, in which Kiyomasa’s reputation as a master tactician, fierce fighter, castle builder and as a cruel man grew. To this day, the mere mention of Kiyomasa’s name in Korea is sure to bring a frown. Although loyal to the Toyotomi, if there was one thing that Kiyomasa hated more than Christianity and poor martial spirit among the samurai, it was Ishida Mitsunari, leader of the Western coalition of daimyo that opposed the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu. It was this hatred of Mitsunari that drove Kiyomasa into the Tokugawa camp where he played a pivotal role in the Kyushu theater of the Sekigahara campaign in 1600. As a result of his service, Kiyomasa was rewarded by becoming one of the elite daimyo who were allowed to build his Edo estate near the shogun’s castle in the upscale area that became known as Kioi-cho, named after the elite Kii Tokugawa, Owari Tokugawa and Ii daimyo families that kept their residences in this area.
As Kiyomasa was loyal to the house of Toyotomi and as a final showdown between the Tokugawa and Toyotomi grew, the Tokugawa began to have their doubts about where Kiyomasa’s ultimate loyalty rested. Fearful of having to face this fierce and influential warlord on the opposing side of the battlefield when the fighting would inevitably erupt in 1615, it has been suggested that the Tokugawa had him poisoned. Shortly after the fall of the Toyotomi, Kiyomasa’s son was accused of disloyalty (most likely a trumped up charge) and the family’s fief in Kumamoto, Kyushu was seized by the shogunate and the clan was abolished. Soon after this, the grounds of the Katō estate in Tokyo were given to the Ii family.
When the New Otani Hotel was constructed, it was decided to keep the traditional Japanese garden intact. Today the garden covers more than 10 acres and has over 800 trees, 10,000 flowering plants, ponds, a waterfall, and 42 stone lanterns, many of which date back from the Edo (1603-1868) and the Kamakura (1192-1333) periods.
This is a retaining bracket used to hold a railway sleeper in place. Its clearly been in place for a long time, and doubtless has served numerous times the fisherman unloading their catch at Dungeness beach. This is a strange location, but one I've photographed many times. On first arrival it appears to all be a uniform colour tone - a dullish green/beige, except for the occasional white boat stored on the stoney beach. Yet when you look closer an array of bright contrasting colours reveals itself, as in this image, right below my feet. The lighting was fortunate, with low angle late afternoon sunlight dappling the decaying metal. In this kind of colourful detail lies the photographic allure of Dungeness, and its the reason I'll likely return many more times in the future.
20/365
This guy scared me senseless, so I thought I'd put a little fear into him too.
I'm in a great mood today. I'm looking forward to next Thursday. New camera is the same, just a little different... and is taking great shots!
Edo Competition’s engine modifications:
■ A bump in displacement from 6.0 to 6.3 liters,
■ new camshafts,
■ new titanium valve spring retainers
■ connecting rods,
■ modified cylinder heads,
■ new high performance exhaust headers,
■ high flow catalytic converters,
■ mufflers and air filters:
The standard hydraulic tappets are replaced with newly developed solid tappets, enabling the 12 cylinder engine to rev to an incredible 9,600 rpm.
Additionally the intake system of the V12 was modified,
■ a new high performance clutch - available with „strada“ or „pista“ friction pads –
■ a more powerful oil pump were installed.
The power output is increased by 180 to 840 horsepower.
Without mufflers more than 860 horsepower is possible. The maximum torque of 780 Nm (575 ft-lb) is available at 5,800 rpm.
Specifications
Engine V12 cylinder 6.3 ltr.
Power est. 840 hp
Max. torque est. 780 Nm / 5.800/min
Performance
Top speed > 390 km/h
0 – 100 km/h (0 – 62 mph) est. 3.2s
0 – 200 km/h (0 – 124 mph) est. 9.0s
0 – 300 km/h (0 – 186 mph) est. 19.0s
herausnehmbare Retainer meiner Freundin (Tragedauer: voraussichtlich 36 Monate, anfangs ganztags, später ca. 70 Wochenstunden).
Carvings of staff and retainers around a large box tomb in the Chancel of the Church. A pleasant hour spent at St Andrew's Church Wroxeter
I had a dentist appointment yesterday and I noticed that my dentist (this wasn't my orthodontist who put the braces on my teeth) felt one of my teeth that has become less straight. So when I got home I put in my retainer. Every now and then, I'll wear my retainer. I've been really bad since I was pregnant with Braden. I used to be super good, but not any longer. It's like flossing, I do it in when I remember.
This is where the 47 Rōnin of Akō, along with their lord, Asano Naganori, are interred. Sengaku-ji is located in the Takanawa are of Minato-ku, Tokyo, near Shinagawa Station.
Ōishi Kuranosuke was the chief retainer of the Asano clan during the turmoil associated with the 47 Rōnin incident, in which the feudal lord, Asano Naganori, attacked and wounded Kira Yoshinaka within Edo Castle. As drawing a weapon within the shogun's castle was a capital offence, Asano was sentenced to commit seppuku the same day.
As a result of Asano's impulsive behavior, the Shogunate disbanded the Asano clan and seized their lands. Ōishi and 46 other former Asano retainers waited and unleashed their misguided revenge on Kira, attacking his home in the dead of night in December 1703, killing his body guards as well as taking his head and placing it in front of Asano's tomb in Sengaku-ji Temple in Takanawa, Tokyo.
All the Akō rōnin were sentenced to death by seppuku (harakiri). Actually, recent scholarship is saying that the rōnin may have not been allowed the honor of death by seppuku, but were actually beheaded like common criminals. The promise of the right of death by seppuku may have been a sugar-coated lie told by the shogunate to help the public more easily swallow the death sentence imposed on the Akō rōnin.
Anyway, the loyalty that these guys showed to their foolish lord by committing what can only be described as what me and some of my friends refer to as a feudal "drive-by"- Japanese style, has been lauded by the Japanese public ever since. The facts behind the actual events have been buried in the countless puppet and kabuki plays as well as movies that have been made about this.
I'm not a terribly big fan of Asano Naganori, nor do I think the Akō rōnin were particularly "brave" by carrying out a night attack after a party and fighting a small group of drunk bodyguards and taking the head of a feeble old man. But, this perspective is from modern, western eyes. In reality, night attacks of this nature have always been a staple of samurai warfare, being documented since the Heian period. As much as I don't partake in the 47 Rōnin Kool Aid drinking parties, I do admit to enjoying watching a good fictional film or kabuki play about these guys.
herausnehmbare Retainer meiner Freundin (Tragedauer: voraussichtlich 36 Monate, anfangs ganztags, später ca. 70 Wochenstunden).
There is a sad legend in this pond.
"The old woman who piled the daughter of the senior retainer around a pond has lost a daughter in the pond by mistake. The daughter has been just depressed. It is informed that I am completely at a loss, and the old woman jumped into the pond."
Yesterday at my garage sale bike ride I found this great ceramic figure. I was told that it was a holder for a retainer. the big open mouth just looked funny. I was saving it to blow up when I realized last night that it would make a fun back ground for a projectile shot.
This shot took way longer than I expected and one of the reasons was kind of scary. I set-up the shot, taking a dozen trial shots to get the position and lighting how I wanted it and then did the real shot. The image on the backscreen looked great so I pulled the card and took it inside to the computer. To my shock, every picture that I had taken and reviewed was gone.
The last stored shot was from last night.
I've been using digital cameras for ten years and never had anything like that happen. I went back to the garage and took a few test shots and everything was there.
But ten or so pictures are gone like they never existed. If anyone has any idea what to suspect or do, please let me know.
I'm lucky that these types of pictures are (mostly) possible to re-create. But others are not. I'm just not sure how pictures that you took and reviewed on a camera could just go away.
Hot again today. I decided to not go to the Point Mugu Airshow because I'm just not interested in standing around in the sun and snapping airplanes. The heat is predicted to continue through next weekend. This is the muggiest mess of a late summer/fall that I've even been in since I lived in Camarillo. It's leading me into a really grumpy mood.
Cheers.
She is strapped into her orthopedic appliances which have been extended and locked. Her braced legs are straight and slightly parted with a very sturdy retainer bar. Other braces available as well as made to measure braces. Contact me at my1970junk@msn.com for information.
'Old Retainer'. This very old beech tree is getting very lop sided as every year it seems to lose more main branches.
Loyal Retainer
Long since these sightless eyes have seen
The love, the life, that once had been
Who daily strove to grasp each day
And finally simply walked away
Do they return to see my face,
To dream of days spent in this place?
Or have they left the Earth behind
For lights that even brighter shine?
The answer moot, for I will wait
To meet at last my final fate
I was not made to stand so strong,
But to remember, and to long...
by John Griggs
A Buddhist jizō statue overlooking the graves of the 47 Rōnin of Akō, along with their lord, Asano Naganori, are interred. Sengaku-ji is located in the Takanawa are of Minato-ku, Tokyo, near Shinagawa Station.
Ōishi Kuranosuke was the chief retainer of the Asano clan during the turmoil associated with the 47 Rōnin incident, in which the feudal lord, Asano Naganori, attacked and wounded Kira Yoshinaka within Edo Castle. As drawing a weapon within the shogun's castle was a capital offence, Asano was sentenced to commit seppuku the same day.
As a result of Asano's impulsive behavior, the Shogunate disbanded the Asano clan and seized their lands. Ōishi and 46 other former Asano retainers waited and unleashed their misguided revenge on Kira, attacking his home in the dead of night in December 1703, killing his body guards as well as taking his head and placing it in front of Asano's tomb in Sengaku-ji Temple in Takanawa, Tokyo.
All the Akō rōnin were sentenced to death by seppuku (harakiri). Actually, recent scholarship is saying that the rōnin may have not been allowed the honor of death by seppuku, but were actually beheaded like common criminals. The promise of the right of death by seppuku may have been a sugar-coated lie told by the shogunate to help the public more easily swallow the death sentence imposed on the Akō rōnin.
Anyway, the loyalty that these guys showed to their foolish lord by committing what can only be described as what me and some of my friends refer to as a feudal "drive-by"- Japanese style, has been lauded by the Japanese public ever since. The facts behind the actual events have been buried in the countless puppet and kabuki plays as well as movies that have been made about this.
I'm not a terribly big fan of Asano Naganori, nor do I think the Akō rōnin were particularly "brave" by carrying out a night attack after a party and fighting a small group of drunk bodyguards and taking the head of a feeble old man. But, this perspective is from modern, western eyes. In reality, night attacks of this nature have always been a staple of samurai warfare, being documented since the Heian period. As much as I don't partake in the 47 Rōnin Kool Aid drinking parties, I do admit to enjoying watching a good fictional film or kabuki play about these guys.
Aboriginal History of Wilcannia:
Wilcannia is located on the Darling River, about halfway between Bourke and Wentworth. The river is known as Barka by the local Aboriginal people or Barkandji, literally people belonging to the Barka, and it is surrounded on all sides by Barkandji speaking people. The people from along the Barka and varying distances either side from near Bourke down to Wentworth all recognised the Barkandji language as their primary language, but they were divided into subgroups with different dialects of this one language. The Barkandji language is very different from all the neighbouring languages including the adjoining Ngiyampaa/Ngemba to the east, the Kulin, and Murray River languages to the south, and the Yardli and Thura-Yura language groups to the west and north.
Barkandji have a unique culture and depended heavily on the grinding or pounding of seeds on large grinding dishes or mortars and pestles, such as grass, portulaca, and acacia seeds. In the riverine areas, there is a strong emphasis on aquatic plant food tubers and corms, and fish, yabbies, turtles, mussels, and shrimps as well as water birds and their eggs. Insect foods were also important, such as parti or witchetty grubs along the rivers and creeks, and termite larvae in the Mallee country. Large and small canoes were cut out, necessitating ground edge axes, and string manufacture for fish nets, hunting nets, bags, and belts was an important part of the culture. The Wilcannia area still shows tangible evidence of traditional life in the form of canoe trees, coolamon trees, middens, heat retainer ovens, ashy deposits, stone tool quarries and artefacts.
Thomas Mitchell led the first exploring party to reach Wilcannia and gave the Barkandji their first unpleasant taste of what was to come. Mitchell travelled via the Bogan to the Darling River near Bourke and then down the river to Wilcannia then Menindee, reaching it in July 1835. Mitchell was harassed by Barkandji as he did not understand that he had to properly negotiate permission for use of water, grass, land to camp on etc., and in addition his men were abusing women behind his back and breaking all the rules. He gave them names such as the Fire Eaters and the Spitting Tribe as they tried to warn him off. His comments show that the Barkandji groups he met occupied "different portions of the river", and that they owned the resources in their territories including the water in the river. The exclusive possession enjoyed by the Barkandji and the need to obtain permission before using any of their resources is demonstrated by the following comment about the "Spitting Tribe" from the river near Wilcannia:
"The Spitting Tribe desired our men to pour out the water from their buckets, as if it had belonged to them; digging, at the same time a hole in the ground to receive it when poured out; and I have more than once seen a river chief, on receiving a tomahawk, point to the stream and signify that we were then at liberty to take water from it, so strongly were they possessed with the notion that the water was their own"
A hill 15 kilometres north of Wilcannia was named Mount Murchison by Mitchell and this became the name of the very large original station that included the location that was to become Wilcannia township.
In 1862 the area northwest of Mount Murchison Station was still frontier country with continual conflict. Frederic Bonney was based at Mount Murchison homestead and then nearby Momba homestead from 1865 to 1881 and he bluntly states in his notebooks that in this period "natives killed by settlers - shot like dogs"
Bonney recorded extensive detail about the lives, language, culture, and personalities of the Aboriginal people at Mount Murchison/Momba and left us with extremely significant series of photos of Aboriginal people taken in this period. He does not elaborate about the way the station was set up except for his comment above. Frederic Bonney not only respected and looked after the local people but he sympathised with them, worked with them, and respected them. The Bonney papers and photographs are a treasure of information about the Aboriginal people living there between 1865 and 1881. Bonney published a paper in 1884 but long after he had returned to England to live he campaigned for the better treatment of the Aboriginal people, and he tried to educate the public about the complexity of Aboriginal culture.
Bonney names about 44 individual Aboriginal people living at Momba in this period, and one group photo from the same period shows a total of 38 people. Descendants of some of the people Bonney describes still live in Wilcannia and surrounding areas today.
Aboriginal people worked on Moomba and Mount Murchison Station, and from very early times fringe camps grew up around Wilcannia. The land straight across the River from the Wilcannia post office was gazetted as an Aboriginal Reserve, and this became the nucleus of a very large fringe camp that grew into a substantial settlement spaced out along the river bank in the 1930s to the 1970s. By 1953 the Aboriginal Welfare Board had built a series of 14 barrack-like and inappropriately designed houses in an enlarged reserve, now an attractive tree lined settlement known as the Mission (although never a mission it was beside a Catholic School and clinic, thus the name). Today Aboriginal people are the majority of the population of the vibrant, creative, and culturally active town of Wilcannia, and the main users of the post office facilities.
Wilcannia History:
The first secure pastoralists at Mount Murchison were the brothers Hugh and Bushby Jamieson of Mildura Station on the Murray, who in 1856 took up Tallandra and Moorabin blocks, later extended with other blocks and named Mount Murchison Station. Captain Cadell's paddlesteamer Albury was the first to travel up the Darling, landing flour and other stores for the Jamiesons at Mount Murchison in February 1859. The Albury then loaded 100 bales of wool from their woolshed and brought it down to Adelaide. At this time there were no other stations on the Darling between Mt Murchison and Fort Bourke. A little later:
"An enterprising attempt has just been made by Mr. Hugh Jamieson, of Mount Murchison, to bring fat sheep speedily to Adelaide. Mr. Jamieson having chartered Captain Cadell's steamer, Albury, that vessel was prepared, and received on board at Mildura 550 fine fat sheep. These were landed at Moorundee last Tuesday, after a rapid passage of two days, all the sheep being in splendid condition when put ashore"
Jamiesons sold in 1864 to Robert Barr Smith and Ross Reid from Adelaide. The brothers Edward and Frederic Bonney were leasing some adjacent blocks and possibly worked at Mount Murchison for these owners. In 1875 they bought the Mount Murchison/Momba complex, one of the largest stations in New South Wale. In 1865 it was known as Mount Murchison, in 1881 it was all known as Momba, later splitting into smaller stations. The original Mount Murchison Station homestead block was also known as Head Station or Karannia, the Barkandji name for the area just north of the town near where the Paroo River comes into the Barka. The original Mount Murchison woolshed was located on what is now Baker Park, Wilcannia, which is adjacent to the current Post Office.
The site of Wilcannia was selected on Mount Murchison Station in 1864 by John Chadwick Woore, who was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands of the Albert District in 1863 and was based at Wilcannia. The town was proclaimed in 1866 and in the 1870s it became a coaching centre for prospectors exploiting the region's gold, copper, silver, and opal resources, and the administrative, service, and shipping centre for the pastoral industry. Wilcannia was incorporated as a municipality in 1881, and around this time it became New South Wales biggest inland port and Australia's third largest inland port (after Echuca Victoria and Morgan South Australia). 'The Queen of the River' or 'Queen City of the West'. At the height of its prosperity around 1880, the town boasted a population of 3,000. According to the Register of the National Estate, during 1887 alone, 222 steamers took on 26,550 tonnes of wool and other goods at Wilcannia wharves. The value of goods coming down the Darling River in 1884 was 1,359,786 pounds, and included over 30,000 bales of wool. The customs house, another Wilcannia stone building now demolished, located immediately between the Post office and the river bank and wharfs, took 17,544 pounds in customs duties in 1889. Paddlesteamers gradually declined, particularly after the 1920s, although a few continued to trade up and down the river into the 1940's, still remembered by elderly Wilcannia residents.
Wilcannia in the 1870s and into the 1900s was the centre of the pastoral and mining boom of the far west of New South Wales, and it was the centre of the paddlesteamer river trade from the Upper Darling to the Murray River and outlets such as Adelaide and Melbourne. The frequent dry seasons and lack of water in the river led to other methods of transporting goods being used, such as camel trains, but when the water came down the river trade always returned. The river trade built Wilcannia's fine buildings, but it was also its undoing, as the New South Wales government intervened to reduce the river trade because goods were moving to and from Adelaide and Melbourne, not Sydney.
Plans to improve navigation on the river were suggested in 1859 after Captain Cadell's first successful voyage up the Darling that was followed by other paddlesteamers. Cadell gave evidence at a New South Wales Select Committee that the Darling would be become reliable for boats if a system of locks were built at very reasonable cost that would hold back water during the drier seasons. The plans to build locks along the Darling River to make navigation more consistent were investigated again and again, but were not realised because the New South Wales government believed trade would benefit Victoria and South Australia.
After the opening of the Sydney to Bourke railway line in 1885, Wilcannia lost its status as the major commercial centre of the Darling River. The trade from the far North West New South Wales then tended to go to the railhead at Bourke and straight to Sydney. There were plans in the 1880s for the railway to be run from Cobar to Wilcannia, however this plan was continuously put off. Plans for a railway to Wilcannia continued to be made throughout the 1890's and early 1900's, and including a proposal from Cobar to Broken Hill then linking to South Australia as the Great Western Railway. In 1907 "a large petition was forwarded to Sydney from Wilcannia for presentation to the Premier urging immediate construction of the Cobar-Wilcannia Railway, and subsequent extension to Broken Hill".
The New South Wales government attempt to stop trade leaking out of the state resulted in their refusal to build a railway to Wilcannia (as goods tended to go to Wilcannia and down the river), or to extend the railway to South Australia for the same reasons. The bend in the river on the north side of town celebrates this government intransigence by its name "Iron Pole Bend", the iron pole said to have been placed at the surveyed location of the proposed railway bridge. New South Wales eventually built a railway through the low population Ivanhoe route to the south of Wilcannia reaching Broken Hill in 1927, and even then it stopped at Broken Hill and did not join the South Australian line until 1970. The link between Broken Hill and the South Australian railway was provided from 1884 to 1970 by the narrow gauge private railway 'the Silverton Tramway', which also took trade from Wilcannia.
The combination of missing out on the railway and locking of the river, the severe drought on 1900 - 1901, and the damage to the pastoral economy by drought, rabbits, and over grazing, led to a down turn in Wilcannia's prospects, leaving the fine stone buildings such as the post office languishing as tangible reminders of a time when Wilcannia was known as the "Queen City of the West" and was the largest inland port in New South Wales and the third largest inland port in Australia.
Post Office History:
During the 1850s, postal services became more regular, and the great colonial investment in postal infrastructure was underway. From the 1850s, each major rural centre had a postmaster of its own as the post office became a symbol of the presence of civilisation in many outback towns. Government architects built substantial post offices in provincial towns as statements of the authority and presence of the government. The original Wilcannia Post Office was established in 1860 under the name of Mount Murchison, the name was later officially changed to Wilcannia in 1868.
The Wilcannia Post Office and Post Master's Residence were designed by the Colonial Architect James Barnet, the signed plan being forwarded to Wilcannia in 1878. The Post Office and Residence were part of an official precinct in Wilcannia, with the courthouse (1880), gaol (1880), and police residence (1880) built across the road and one block south. In 1876 £1,500 was allocated to the post office project. Tenders were called in August 1878 and the builder D. Baillie accepted to erect the post office, and at the same time as the builder for the Court House, Lock-Up Gaol, and Police buildings.
A further £3,100 of consolidated revenue was allocated to the post office and £8,200 to the courthouse and watch house in 1879. By March 1979 the post office was "in course of erection". The complex was completed by 1880, succeeding the post office set up on Mount Murchison Station in 1860 and a second weatherboard building that was used from 1866.
James Johnstone Barnet (1827 - 1904) was made acting Colonial Architect in 1862 and appointed Colonial Architect from 1865 - 1890. He was born in Scotland and studied in London under Charles Richardson, RIBA and William Dyce, Professor of Fine Arts at King's College, London. He was strongly influenced by Charles Robert Cockerell, leading classical theorist at the time and by the fine arts, particularly works of painters Claude Lorrain and JRM Turner. He arrived in Sydney in 1854 and worked as a self-employed builder. He served as Edmund Blacket's clerk of works on the foundations of the Randwick (Destitute Childrens') Asylum. Blacket then appointed Barnet as clerk-of-works on the Great Hall at Sydney University. By 1859 he was appointed second clerk of works at the Colonial Architect's Office and in 1861 was Acting Colonial Architect. Thus began a long career. He dominated public architecture in New South Wales, as the longest-serving Colonial Architect in Australian history. Until he resigned in 1890 his office undertook some 12,000 works, Barnet himself designing almost 1000. They included those edifices so vital to promoting communication, the law and safe sea arrivals in colonial Australia. Altogether there were 169 post and telegraph offices, 130 courthouses, 155 police buildings, 110 lockups and 20 lighthouses, including the present Macquarie Lighthouse on South Head, which replaced the earlier one designed by Francis Greenway. Barnet's vision for Sydney is most clearly seen in the Customs House at Circular Quay, the General Post Office in Martin Place, and the Lands Department and Colonial Secretary's Office in Bridge Street. There he applied the classicism he had absorbed in London, with a theatricality which came from his knowledge of art.
The substantial two storey attached post office residence faces the main street and more than doubles the size of the complex. This is unusual as Barnet tended to have residences on the first floor of the main building or at the rear. It relates to the remoteness and government determination to make the job attractive to the right post master, a government representative who had to be an honest employee and trusted by this remote community. It consists of four rooms on the ground floor; parlour, sitting room, kitchen, and servant's bedroom, and three bedrooms upstairs, plus various storage rooms, and a central staircase.
The new post office became the focal point of town, located in the main street and immediately adjacent to the wharves and customs house. In 1896 the iron bridge with lift span over the Darling River was completed and the east-west highway re-routed to go over the bridge and directly past the post office, from then on located on the busy corner of the main street and the highway. Descriptions include:
"the post and telegraph offices, together with the master's residence", are "both a substantial and ornamental piece of architecture"; "the post office is a very neat building indeed" with "white stone which seems to finely glisten among the dark foliage of the river timber"; "The colonnade of the post office is the Exchange of the town, and here all the business men meet daily and discuss the news of the district. Mails do not come in every day but when Her Majesty's mail coach is seen in front of the post-office there may all the people be seen gathered together. The Sydney and Melbourne papers are four days old when they reach Wilcannia, as the town is from 24 to 30 hours coaching from any railway terminus".
In 1890 the tender from R. B. Spiers to erect a "verandah and balcony etc" at the Post Office and Telegraph office was accepted, referring to the two storey verandah and balcony at the post office residence and possibly the small verandah on the side of the post office as well. Drawings from 1881 and 1888 show the single storey verandah of the residence, but a photo from 1894 clearly shows the two storey verandah. The two-storey verandah was added in response to the extreme climate, the wooden lined ceilings on both levels are an attempt to prevent the heat from penetrating onto the verandah, north facing wall, and windows. The two storey verandah was probably also designed by Barnet as he held the position of government architect until 1890 and its detail is similar to the 1889 Bourke post office verandah.
This Post Office building was in continuous use until 1997 as a post office, telegraph, then telephone exchange, and post master's residence. The post office service was then moved and the complex was used as a residence only until 2002. It became the post office again from 2013 and provides both postal and banking services for the town and surrounding stations.
The remoteness of Wilcannia also meant that the central post office performed a range of significant peripheral services, such as posting up government edicts and community notices, weather measurements and warnings, flood warnings and river heights, timetables and pick-up and drop-down place for coaches, mail coaches, and later mail trucks and buses. The mail coaches/mail trucks left the post office for the remote outback laden with mail, newspapers, groceries, spare parts, school lessons for outback children, and travellers (workers, family and friends and even occasionally nurses and church people). Mail coaches/mail trucks played a unique role enabling people to exist in the outback that cannot be underestimated. Mail trucks still operate out of Wilcannia delivering mail and parcels to the remote outback stations.
Source: New South Wales Heritage Register.
The Matsumoto of Kakunodate in Akita, Japan were samurai serving the Imamiya, hereditary senior vassals of the Satake clan. Previously, the Matsumoto family served the Ashina and lived in Tamachi Sugasawa. However, after the downfall of the Ashina and entering into the service of the Imamiya, they moved to Kobitomachi, where the house is still located. This area is where the Satake clan's lower-ranking samurai resided. This house dates back to the late Edo period.