101 Bungay Road, Wingham

handprint_tiny — A child’s handprint made in the concrete of the shed 17-7-54. Photo courtesy of M Brown, 2020.

In the back shed of 101 Bungay Road Wingham is a child’s handprint pressed into the concrete slab with the date 17-7-54. After watching episodes of ‘Restoration Home’ during Covid19 social distancing measures, the hunt was on to work out whose print this was.

The land on which the shed sits was first bought by Elizabeth Jackson Broomfield by crown grant on 11 February 1919.¹ When Broomfield died in 1939 her estate was held by her executors until WWII ended.² In 1945 Wingham postal clerk Harold Lewis Healey bought the property having married Madge Yarnold the previous year.³ Healey had been unable to sign up to fight in WWII because he had lost his left hand in a shooting accident when 18 years old.⁴

In 1948, the Healeys subdivided their property into 23 allotments of differing sizes using local surveyors W H S McGlashan. It became known as ‘Healey’s Subdivision’.⁵ The Healeys retained one lot of land (now 79 Bungay Road) and sold the rest. Carpenter George Charles Douglas bought Lot 12 (now 101 Bungay Road) and in 1951 water services were installed and Douglas received approval to build a fibro cottage for £1800.⁶

The following year Douglas sold the property to David and Claire Redman.⁷ Redman was also a carpenter and in 1954 he built a large shed costing £200.⁸ On the 17 July 1954 when the concrete slab was freshly poured, it is likely that it was the couple’s two year old son, Ian David Redman, who pressed his little hand into the concrete and sealed the memory of this event for future owners.⁹

Author: Janine Roberts

There is a second part to this story, click here to read.

Healey's Subdivision_tiny — Healey’s Subdivision, once the original crown land grant sold to Elizabeth Jackson Broomfield in 1919 containing Portions 381 and 382. The red outline shows Lot 12 (also Lots 24 and 25), now 101 Bungay Road. Image created by J Roberts (2020) based on a map of Wingham, NSW Land Registry Services.

Healey_tiny — Joe Styman, Harold Lewis Healey, John Stanley Healey and Charles Ernest Healey. Photo courtesy of Anne Eggins.

References:

¹ NSW Land Registry Services, Vol-Fol: 2915-210.

² SMH, 18 January 1940, 2.

³ NSW Land Registry Services, Vol-Fol: 2915-210; NSW BDM, Marriage Index for Harold Lewis Healey and Madge Cynthia Yarnold, No. 19678/1944.

⁴ Manning River Times and Advocate for the Northern Coast Districts of NSW, 17 February 1937, 2.

⁵ Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Observer, 27 May 1949, 3.

⁶ NSW Land Registry Services, Vol-Fol: 5993-97; Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Observer, 22 June 1951, 6 & 20 July 1951, 3.

⁷ NSW Land Registry Services, Vol-Fol: 6520-137.

⁸ Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Observer, 21 May 1954.

⁹ NSW BDM, Death Index for Ian David Redman, No. 61707/1973.

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