See the beginnings of Tamworth's west

West Tamworth only started to develop as a residential and business area after the Australian Agricultural (AA) Company gained the full title deeds to its Peel Estate, enabling it to sell off some of its land in that area.

This first came about in 1851, around 2 decades before this photo was taken, nearly 30 years before our first motor vehicle was sighted in town.

The photographer here looks up our other Peel Street (renamed Bridge Street in 1938), taking the photo from Barnes Gully, which now runs behind today's Ibis Styles Motel (ex Travelodge for those of my generation).

Barnes Gully was named after John Barnes who arrived as a 7-y-o from England with his parents, who worked at the AA Company HQ at Port Stephens before moving to Tamworth.

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Interestingly the first burial recorded in the St Pauls Church Register is that of John Barnes' 6-y-o daughter Susan, taking place on March 27, 1850, the child buried in our first cemetery behind today's Ibis Styles Motel.

In the first land sales John Barnes acquired land around the Ebsworth/Bridge Street corner, enabling him to build the Royal Oak Hotel, situated near today's traffic lights where the takeaway coffee business is now located.

The Hotel was soon taken over by new licensee Thomas King.

During 1875, around the period this photo was taken, Barnes sold more of his original land purchases to James Thibault at the now Gasweld Tool Centre Bridge/Ebsworth corner, so known to many of my generation as "Thibault's Corner".

Thibault started by erecting a small general store a little up the hill.

The Barnes name is now commemorated by the nearby Barnes Street in Taminda.

Another allotment in the 1851 West Tamworth land sales on the "Company side" was purchased by William Settatree, who had arrived in NSW at the age of 21, working in the Warrah/Willow Tree area before moving to Tamworth.

His angled-roof blacksmith's shop can be seen in the photo, with his white-walled storeroom behind.

Beyond that is the Woolpack Inn that he constructed in 1859, an impressive substantial building for the time, constructed of limestone and greywacke, now the site of KFC.

Settatree had passed away in 1872 by the time this photo was taken, with his widow Ann taking over as licensee until 1880.

Outside the Woolpack Inn was Tamworth's first "letter-receiver" (letter-box), with our first postman (from 1870), James Johnston, initially walking twice a day up the street in this photo to collect mail for widespread local distribution, before he was granted two shillings forage allowance for two horses to ride for postal deliveries by the time this photo was taken.

Out of shot to the photographer's right in this photo would have been the second Denominational School building on the western Bridge/Ebsworth Street corner, eventually to close down when Tamworth West Public School took its place in 1884, the building later becoming the Retreat Theatre.

Also out of shot, on the hill just behind that was the original St Pauls Church building, the second Church building to be completed in Tamworth, 18 months after St Nicholas, a few years before this photo was taken.

Consider these things the next time you drive up the rise from the traffic lights in Bridge Street.

How things change over time, and no doubt will change into the future. Don't think I'll be around to see much of it!

These history articles appear each Wednesday in the Northern Daily Leader.

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