Historical Archaeology of Australia ARCH2002 Emily Armstrong 2045596
A History of 5 Marlborough Street, Fullarton
Why I chose this building
I was born in Parkside, and lived on Young Street in Parkside until I was four years old. After my brother was born, my parent’s decided to move to a larger house, and we moved to 5 Marlborough Street in Fullarton, not far from my first house in Parkside (see appendix 1).
Figure 1: Our house, 5 Marlborough St, The day my family moved in.
On the day that my family moved into the house, I remember being told by my mother that our new house was over 100 years old. As a child, I always wanted to know exactly when it was built and who had lived there. When I found out I had the chance to research the history of a house, I immediately chose this house, because I was sure that it had an interesting history and I have so many happy memories attached to it.
When my family owned the house, written onto one of the bricks near the front door was the name Wyndham. I have always been interested where this name came from, if the house originally given this name, or if it was perhaps named after one of the former occupants of the house.
When my parents sold the house after my brother and I moved out of home, the new owners renovated the house and changed it a great deal. I found this very upsetting, as it is such an old house that it seemed a shame to render the outside and dig up the garden, transforming it into something that now looks relatively modern. I thought that researching the house would help me to remember the house as it was when I was a small child.
Research Process
The first step in researching the house was to visit Land Services, located at 101 Grenfell Street, Adelaide. After finding out the title number of the current title, I was able to search the database to find out if there were any other title numbers relating to the block of land that the house was built on. I searched for these titles by using the Volume and Folio numbers that were written at the top of Certificate of Title. The search returned four different titles (see appendix 2). Three of them could be printed immediately, but the last title number was not known. I had to order a copy of the transfer from the earliest Certificate of Title to be brought out of storage (see appendix 3). This would give me the reference numbers for the title certificate that came before the earliest title that I already had a copy of. I had to arrange with Kristy, an employee at Land Services Group, to have it brought out of storage. This meant a two day wait until I was able to find out who was the original person who had their name listed on the title. At first I was confused as to how to read the Certificate of Title, and could not find my family’s name listed anywhere, but I was shown how to read the Certificate by staff members before leaving the Land Services office.
When I went to collect the transfer, I was able to find out the price that the block of land was originally sold for, and the date that the land was divided.
I then rang the Unley Council and requested to see the original house plans and to see any extensions that were added to the property, and the dates that these extensions were added. Again, I was told that I would need to wait two to three days, and also pay a small fee to have these plans taken out of storage.
While I was waiting to see the house plans, I searched the Unley Council website’s database for any council meeting’s minutes that include the word ‘Marlborough’. I then went through all the minutes that came up in the search results, to see if any of these meeting involved approving extensions to the house, or any boundary issues. Out of about 50 results, only three of the results were related to number 5, And one result was simply stating that our address had been notified of planned construction next door, while the other result was related to my mother objecting to the placement of a wall on this construction (see appendix 4).
I also searched the databases at State Records of South Australia, but was unable to find any plans or written information relating to the property, even after searching under any keyword that seemed to have the anything to do with the property.
Although I was not hopeful of finding any information at the State Library, I decided to do a search anyway, but was not surprised when I was not able to find any information. I also attempted to search any newspapers for anything relating to the property, and I used the website Australian Newspapers beta to conduct this search. I found several land sale advertisements, but the information was fairly general (see appendix 4). They stated the land for sale was located on Marlborough Street, Malvern. Although the property is located in Fullarton, the Certificates of Land Title show that Fullarton was once part of Malvern. This result also stated that the land for sale was named Fullarton Estate. This would suggest that a new suburb was named when the estate was divided up for sale. There were also results that showed Marlborough Street, which were advertisements for housemaid, but no house number was attached. After consulting the title certificates, I was not able to find a matching name for the year the advertisement was placed. Many of the search results came up as the Marlborough Street in College Park. This was the most time consuming search, as there were so many results and I then had to search through each paper to find each small advertisement. I decided to search under the keywords of ‘Marlborough’ and include the names of past occupants of the house, and found a death notice for one of the house’s earliest occupants (see appendix 5). This told me how old he was when he died and also gave the names of other people in the household at the time. While this information was not directly part of the research question, I still found the information very interesting.
After ringing the Unley council again, as I had not heard back from them, I found out the house plans were available for me to look at. I was hoping that this would be where I would get a great deal of information, but unfortunately, there was very little relevant information. I was not able to find out when the house was built, or see any early plans for the house. I spoke to Rachael, who was in charge of the plans, and she informed me that prior to 1950, it was not necessary to provide house plans in order to build a house in the Unley area. There were only a few pieces of information about additions made to the house, the earliest being 1964.
The last, and by far the easiest, step in the research process was to ask my parents about their memories about the house. When we moved in, a lot of the original features of the house had been covered up with render, plaster and paint. My parents spent several years trying to return the house to as close as possible to it’s original state, however, when my second brother was born, some modifications to the property were made. I also searched through our photo collection to see if I could find any old photographs of the house.
Results
Before the block of land that is now known as 5 Marlborough Street, Fullarton, was first sold as it is now, it belonged to James Champion, a ‘Malvern Gentleman’ (Certificate of Title Vol. 655 Folio 67). The title transfer took place on the 6th of December, 1899. The original allotment 522 feet long and 204 feet wide, and extended to Fisher Street, making it more that twice the length of the allotment that was sold as allotment 9 after James Champions death on the 17th of January in 1905, at the age of 36 (The Advertiser, 1905). After his death, the title was transferred to his wife Clara on the 20th of July, 1905. In 1907, the land was sold to Elizabeth Robinson on the 29th of May. Elizabeth died in 1910.
Allen Crisp Edwards then took over the title on the 21st of August, in 1911, and sold the land on the 5th of December in the same year, to George Tyler White. George owned the land for just over a month, before selling it to William Richard Strout on the 25th of January, 1912.
The land was then subdivided, and the right of way leading through the block of land was named Marlborough Street. The subdivided land, allotment 9 and a portion of allotment 10, was sold to Edith Louisa Yeates on the 2nd on January in 1912. The new allotment now measured 60 feet by 136 feet, and Edith paid £75 for the land. Edith later married Harry Wilson Coleman on the 27th of August, 1913. The title was transferred on the 18th of February, 1920, to the Board of Trustees of the Bank of South Australia, presumably because Edith died before she still had discharged her mortgage.
The allotment was then sold to Evelyn Ayliffe, in 1924, on the 22nd of October. The title was transferred the same day to Carl Frederick August Klein. Carl owned the allotment for a short time until he sold in on the 30th of January, 1925, to Thomas James Mathers. The same year, the title was transferred to Mary Dorothea Gordon. This transfer took place on the 26th of August, 1926. Mary held the title for the allotment until 1943, when the title was transferred to Arthur Stanley Farmer and Gladys Bernadette Farmer on the 24th of November. They owned the allotment for just under two years. The title was transferred again in 1945, to Lawrence Nelson Carling.
About five years later, the allotment was sold to Geoffrey James Hamill, and the transfer took place on the 19th of October. In the same year, the title was transferred again on the 30th of July, to Victor Samuel Modra and Leslie Edwin Modra. It is during the time that this couple owned the title that the first recorded addition to the property took place. In 1964, there was a carport added to the property. Leslie died in 1971 and on the 5th of March, the title was transferred to Anthony Duval Stokes and his wife Virginia Margaret Stokes. The Stokes occupied the house for nearly nine years, and then sold it in 1980, to Jacqueline Mary Driver, on the third of January. Jacqueline lived at the property for two years, and then sold the property in Neil Arthur Jaensch and Karenne Joy Janensch.
During the time that the Jaensch’s owned the property, they made a significant addition to the back of the house. They added a large living room, a bathroom and a laundry. The council records have this listed as simply ‘1984 – dwelling addition’ (Unley Council Development Records), and the only reason that I am aware what that addition involved, is because the back of the house clearly stands out as being added as an extension some time after the house was built.
In 1986, on the 1st of August, the title was transferred into the names of my mother and father, Thomas Andrew (Andy) Armstrong and Jane Marianne Armstrong (now Jane Horton). The house was sold to them at auction for $155,500 (Andy Armstrong, pers. comm. 5th of June, 2009). During the time that my family lived at the house, the white render that covered the house was removed and a great deal of paint stripped back to reveal the original wood. The house was revealed to be made of sandstone underneath the render (see figures 2 and 3). This work was carried out in 1990.
Figure 2: Removal of Render
Figure 3: Render completely removed
In 1997, a new carport was added (Council Development Records) as the old carport was falling down (Jane Horton, pers. comm. 5th of June, 2009). And in 1999, a rear extension of a new bedroom was added. My parents sold the house in 2005 to Michael Brain Stone, on the31st of March, for $550,000 (Jane Horton, pers. comm., 5th of June, 2009).
The new owner has since added a shed, in 2005 (Council Development Records) and an in ground pool (City of Unley Development Register, 2005). I am also aware that the new owner has pulled down the ivy fence and landscaped the garden (see figure 4), as I see the house regularly when I visit my friends at number 9 Marlborough Street, however, I did not find any records relating to the removal of the fence.
Figure 4: 5 Marlborough Street as it looks today
(Image source: Google Street View)
Conclusion
I was disappointed with the amount of information that I was able to find about the house I grew up in. I had hoped to find out exactly when the house was built and by whom, and I was also hoping to find out the significance of the name Wyndham. I was initially surprised that there was not more information about the house, but given that it much the same as any other residence of the time, it stands to reason that no one saw it as important to record much information about it. Had there been more time to carry out this study, I may have attempted to search for previous owners of this house and record their oral histories of the house and land and any changes that took place to the property over the years.
I did, however, find the process of researching my childhood home very interesting. Several of the facts I discovered, such as the price that was paid for the original allotment, to be something I would not have expected.
List of Appendices
Appendix 1: Map showing location of house
Appendix 2: Certificates of Title
Appendix 3: Transfer Certificate
Appendix 4: Council meeting minutes and agendas
Appendix 5: Newspaper listings
References
List of Certificates of Land Title
Certificate of Title Volume 655 Folio 67
Certificate of Title Volume 941 Folio 184
Certificate of Title Volume 1866 Folio 131
Certificate of Title Volume 4137 Folio 438
Council Meeting Resources
City of Unley Development Assessment Panel, Agenda, Monday 9th of February, 2004
City of Unley Development Assessment Panel, Minutes, Monday 9th of February, 2004
City of Unley Development Register, August 2005
Newspapers
The Advertiser, Article 5148900, Tuesday 9th of June, 1908, Page 12
The Advertiser, Article 5401174, Friday 2nd of January, 1914, Page 7
The Advertiser, Article 5036190, Thursday 17th of January, 1905, Page 4
Electronic Resources
Australian Newspaper beta < accessed 5th of June, 2009
Unley Council website < accessed on 2nd of June, 2009
State Records of South Australia <sa.gov.au/>accessed 3rd of June, 2009
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