This week, Roy's outing day falls on a very special day. It is Fathers Day, the day when children, young and old, tell their Fathers, and indeed their Grandfathers, how much they mean to them and how important they are. To celebrate such a special day, Roy thought very hard about what place he would like to show you. Then, inspiration struck. Some time ago Roy was taken by his Grandpa to a very special place, a place which his Grandpa and Grandma have been taking the family to for years - since I was just a little girl! He decided this would be the perfect place to visit. So this week, Roy takes you to Morpeth.
Morpeth is a small, historic town in the Hunter Valley area of NSW, near Maitland and not far from Newcastle. Once a thriving riverport and the 19th largest town in the colony, today Morpeth is an historic tourist destination full of shops and cafes. Best of all, a wander around the town will reveal little gems of history like the massive well inside the Morpeth Trading Post (search hard enough through the shop and you're sure to find a treasure) or the 1860's Arnott's Biscuit factory, now operated by descendants of the Arnott's family as Morpeth Sourdough. Stop by the beautifully restored Campbell's Store, the place to shop back in the 1830s and today! Campbells store is heaven for children, with its own lolly shop, bear shop and even a railway carriage (it's a Brake Van) from John and Alexander Brown's private railway line to explore out the back. All of the photos, other than the black and white one at the top, show Campbell's Store. Further down the road you can try Gingerbeer or other old fashioned cordial at Morpeths cordial factory. If you plan to visit Morpeth though, best do it between Thursday and Sunday when most of the shops and cafes are open.
The history of Morpeth is a long and fascinating one, with the town once being the site of one of the busiest steam ports in the colony. Before European settlement, the area was covered with dense rainforest and was home to the Gringgai clan of the Wanaruah people who called the area Illalaung. When Europeans first began to explore the area, they renamed it 'Green Hills'. The first Europeans came to the area in 1801, when Lt Col. Paterson and his exploration party were investigating the Hunter River. Convict camps were established in Newcastle (not far from Morpeth) and Cedar-Cutters settled the Maitland area between 1815 and 1820, but the Morpeth area itself was not settled until 1821, when a massive area was granted to Lt Edward Close. He built the beautiful homestead Closebourne House, which is still standing today, in about 1826. Close built another house, also still standing, which he completed in 1852. This second house is named Morpeth House. Between 1848 and 1912 Closebourne House became the home of the Bishops of Newcastle.
Between 1827 and 1830, Morpeth (then known as Green Hills) began to develop as a River Port, to service the increasing settlement in the Hunter Valley region. In 1831, the first paddlesteamer to visit the town, Sophia Jane, arrived and it, along with another paddlesteamer, William IV, became regular visitors to the increasingly busy port. In 1832 two inns were licensed and a proper wharf was built in Morpeth and in 1833 a road was constructed to Maitland using convict labour. In 1834 Close subdivided the land he had been given and a private town was established. It was at this time that Green Hills was renamed Morpeth (after an English town near Newcastle in England). Between 1832 and 1890, Morpeth was the major port of the Hunter Valley and a lot of the produce and people moving between the Hunter Valley, Newcastle and Sydney would have visited the town. By 1866 there were ten separate hotels in the town! By 1870 though the River had begun to silt up, and combined with the expansion of Newcastle and the building of the railway between Sydney and Newcastle, which originally bypassed the port, Morpeth's fate was sealed. If you would like to learn more about Morpeth, click here, here or here.
