20 February, 2015
Born to perform - Elma Gibbs
The pulling power of a high media profile was obvious even in the
Newcastle of the late 1930s. When ‘sweetheart of the airwaves’ Elma Gibbs
resigned to get married in 1942, thousands packed the Town Hall for her
farewell. When she married Charles Puddicombe, a Newcastle Sun journalist, at Wesley Church, Hamilton, the press of
people was so great that as she left the church, she ‘had to be carried to her
car over the heads of the spectators’. [1]
06 February, 2015
Saving an AA Company house in Hamilton
It continued to
await its future, concealed in a battle axe block behind 195 Denison Street. This
compact nineteenth century residence was once the home of two AA Company
Overmen and a Viewer (manager) of collieries.
In 1994, a chance
discovery by a young postgraduate student cycling over Cameron’s Hill along
Denison Street was to bring hope to this historic house. Vacant since 1963 and
the passing of owner Charles Little, it was becoming increasingly derelict.
28 January, 2015
Which David Murray was he?
The repetition of given names, especially
naming first born sons after their father or grandfather, is a tradition with
centuries of history behind it. I find it extremely confusing, especially when trying to
understand how the many different Murrays that scatter Hamilton’s history are
connected.
Murray Street, Hamilton runs parallel to
Beaumont Street to its east, neatly truncated at its northern end by Lindsay
Street and south at Denison Street. The Scots Kirk, dedicated in 1887 and
considered one of the finest pieces of church architecture in the Northern
District, occupies the corner of Tudor and Murray Streets. Inside the Kirk are
three stained glass windows – each a memorial to a man with the name David
Murray. Were there three?
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