Dinga Dingi, via Stockingbingal NSW, built by my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Granparents, Daniel & Katherine Dacey! Started in 1845 and completed in 1847 after spending two years living in tents and a bark hut! Both were ticket of leave convicts, Daniel arriving in 1819 aged 19, and Katherine arriving in 1833, aged 19! They were married in St Marys Church, Sydney, now St Marys Cathedral in May 1836! The property was named after a county Manor where Katherine was born in County Clair, Ireland! All the bricks were hand made from the creek near the homestead, the floor boards, shutters, beams and joists, and the roof shingles were hand made and took two years to gather together before building commenced! The vast majority of the roof shingles are still in place and can be seen under the colour bond roofing on the verandas! 10,000 mud/clay bricks were made prior to building and another 1200 during building! The wooden window shutters were also hand made with the majority still in place! Of course some required repairs, and slats replaced. The iron hinges, nails and screws were all forged by hand and these were made by a convict in their servitude at the time, a William OConnor! The homestead fell into disrepair and was listed on the National Trust Register in 1962! The current owners spent quite a lot of money to restore the old place and saved as much of the original fittings as possible! Even pieces of the original wallpaper have been framed and hung on the wall in the original drawing room! The cellar and stairway are intact and we were lucky enough to be given bricks from the cellar which has thumb prints on opposing corners where they were pushed down into place! In essence I have thumb prints of my forebears going back five generations to where it all started! A fantastic piece of my heritage!
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 03:54:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015