James George Flindell’s days in Newcastle, by Beth Frayne.
Extract from Duidgeeana, the newsletter of the Toodyay Historical Society (Inc.), Issue No. 10, July August 2009, pp. 6-8.
Editor Dr. Robyn Taylor’s introduction to this essay: Earlier this year Ken Flindell contacted the Society for information about his ancestor James George Flindell who had lived and worked in Newcastle. Beth did some research and in return a grateful Ken forwarded his transcript of a letter he found in the Wiltshire Archives in England that had been written by Flindell in 1858 during the time he supervised a convict road party on the York road. I contacted Ken for his permission to reproduce this letter in Duidgeeana. On request, he also provided a photograph of Flindell and his brother. We then began an email discussion about the possible location of the convict camp, which J G Flindell noted as being at Chancery Springs, though I suspected he may have meant Chauncy Spring as ‘Chauncy’ is a name that still exists in the general location. With Ken’s permission I contacted Fiona Bush because of her expertise in this area and emailed a copy of the letter to her. Fiona has now provided a map with what she believes to be the approximate location of the campsite, though she stresses this is not conclusive. Unfortunately we were not able to format the map in time to include it in this newsletter. The following article combines all these pieces of research into one fascinating look into the early history of Toodyay and the Avon Valley region.
File date: 19 Jan. 2022. Access: Investigator and Query Subscribers