We have heard some amazing stories about our home over the last few weeks. I had spent quite a lot of time researching the home and its history prior to taking ownership, however we have since found that the best source of history are the neighbours that surrond us. I have the last 40-60 years of history, before that was a little lost.
Recently, after meeting one of our neighbours, we were told of the original owners of Pen Y Llechwedd. The owners of their home, were the parents of the owners of our home, in fact they comminsioned the artiect, George Brockwell Gill, to design our home for their Daughter and Son in Law. With a little more research, we found that the Father who built our home, was actually Mr Fredrick Goleby, a prominent Ipswich businessman.
Fredrick Goleby was born in Brundish, Framlingham, Suffolk (England) March 19th 1859. He was the second eldest of 19 children. He arrived in Australia with his family when only 5 years old. He received his early education in Ipswich schools before he became an apprentice saddler. Once completing his trade, he moved out west for experience, and finally came home to set up his own business in the main street of Ipswich. Mr Goleby’s business soon grew, eventually incorporating his sons into the business, which came to be called, F. Golbey and Sons.
Mr Golbey married his bride, Miss Ellen King in 1881, and together they had 2 daughters and 2 sons. Mr Goleby, was a very active part of the Ipswich community, the head of many committees. He was an Alderman for many years before being elected Mayor in 1906.
It’s a real thrill to know a little more about our homes history, and super exciting to know more about the owners.
Do you know any of the history of your home? Have you found any exciting secrets?
Nicole xxx
Wow. That is so cool. I love history.
My house is only 30 years old. It has less history that I do. ?
But I used to live in a house in Christchurch, New Zealand that was about 100 years old. Christchurch is a relatively small city and almost everyone that visited us had a story about the old house. My best friend’s dad told us he had helped do the hideous stippling on the ceiling when he was a young apprentice. Another friend’s uncle remembers swimming in the pool when he was a child. The house was much older than any of those stories, but it did seem to be semi famous in that neighbourhood.
The house used to be the only one in the area and was surrounded by orchards. When we lived there it was surrounded by houses. No orchards ? We had one lonely lemon tree.
It was also totally haunted. One ghost used to walk up the hallway and disappear into the bathroom. The bathroom was an add on, so we figure it used to be the back door.
Another ghost simply stood in the corner of my brother’s bedroom. Looking at the layout of the house we figured that the bedroom used to be a formal dining room and where the ghost stood was a doorway. We called him the butler.
When we did some work in the attic we found old newspapers from 1955 which was a cool find.
It was a very interesting house.
This is simply the BEST story, Toushka Lee, I love that you were able to find so much about the history of your home. Christchurch is a beautiful city, my Step Mother grew up there. I was there last year with my Father, as she had recently passed, to do a tour of the South Island and visit the places where she had spent time living as a child and a young adult. I particularly loved Christchurch, it is so beautiful, my only wish was that I saw it before the devastation. Do you know if the home you lived in was affected at all?
I find it amazing how the landscape of an area changes over the years, you speak about your house previously being surrounded by orchards, and how dramatically that had changed by the time you were living there.
Our house is similar, in that everyone has a story about it, so many people have lived or visited here, or admired it over the years and now we get to share in that history every day. ?
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your story. xxx
[…] spoken before about how our home came to be built, here. Originally owned by Fredrick Goleby, and given to his daughter, Mrs A M Johnson. What gets me […]