Three blacksmiths, a tailor, a bootmaker and an iron foundry
complete the trade establishments. Of the latter, I should say
more, but I hope to see it on my next visit, as Mr. Goddard
deserves credit for his enterprise in such an undertaking.1
Unfortunately, this particular reporter did not
appear to have revisited Mr Goddard's foundry in its early years, but
other scribes did, as we shall progressively observe.
The present Uralla foundry in East Street ― C A
Young's Phoenix Foundry and Engineering Works ― incorporates much of the
plant and machinery, tools and other appurtenances used in an earlier
foundry ― The New England Iron and Brass Foundry (Mr Goddard's) ― which
was once located on the corner of Salisbury and Queen Streets, Uralla ?
It is therefore necessary to examine something of the history of both
these establishments. The fortunes of the two foundries over almost a
century were bound up closely with the technical and entrepreneurial
skills of three men: Henry Goddard (the New England works) and
Christopher Young and one of his sons, Leslie (the Phoenix works).
In compiling the following narrative concerning the
history of the foundries, much use has been made of news items and
advertisements which appeared in local newspapers. At the outset,
acknowledgment must be given to local historian Arnold Goode, who, over
a number of years, has painstakingly searched for and copied relevant
extracts from these papers, and lodged copies with the present owners of
the foundry, Mike Money and Diana Carrick.
Other sources used are given in the text, or in the
references. The inferences drawn from all sources, and in particular
from the actual wording of historical documents, are entirely the
responsibility of the authors.
3.2 The Goddard era
The precise date of the establishment of the first
foundry in Uralla is Thursday, October 7th, 1875. It was on this day
that the first iron was cast, and a fulsome account of this important
milestone in the town's history appeared in the The Armidale Express
on Friday, October 15th, 1875. The paper's Uralla correspondent
reported that on Thursday last a number of the
leading inhabitants visited the engineering works of Messrs. Goddard and
Mather, of this town, to witness their maiden operation in iron casting.
This, to many who witnessed it, was indeed a novel process, and the
interest manifested by the visitors kept pace with each succeeding stage
of the work until the last casting was made, and the residue of the
molten metal discharged from the glowing furnace.
In pinpointing the date of the foundry's
establishment so precisely, we are assuming that, when The Express
used the expression "on Thursday last" in its issue of Friday mh, it
referred to the Thursday of the previous week (October 7th) rather than
'yesterday' (October 14th).
This contemporary account of the first casting in the
foundry noted a feature of the works that is still remembered by older
townsfolk today ― the noise of the furnace blower.
The process of loading the furnace with the material
commenced at about 2 p.m., and in a short time the loud hum of
the blast, telling that something unusual was in the wind,
collected together the curious, and the idle, and the
interested, as sightseers.
The report in The Express continued with the flowery
superlatives typically used on such occasions, each fresh supply of
molten metal from the furnace being said to rival its predecessors in
"whiteness, coruscation, and scintillation"! The largest castings made
on this historic day weighed between two and three hundredweight. At the
conclusion of the casting, the visitors to the works were invited to
drink "Success to the New England Foundry", and they appear to have done
so with some enthusiasm. The newspaper account concluded with the
comment that the establishment of the foundry was an "event to be hailed
as another step forward in the New England district in the march of
progress" .2
The establishment of an iron foundry in 1875 in a
town as small and relatively isolated as Uralla must have indeed been a
surprising event. One early newspaper report went so far as to proclaim
that Uralla was "one of the smallest towns in the world which [could]
boast of possessing a foundry".3
The village of Uralla had developed as a result of
the gold rush to the Rocky River field, the first
business being established in 1853 when Samuel McCrossin opened an inn.
The town was laid out
and gazetted in September, 1855, and the first sale of allotments was
made in January, 1856.4
When the foundry commenced casting in 1875, the coming of the railway
was still some seven
years off. A 'Special Correspondent1 from the Town and Country
Journal visited Uralla in 1874,
and he had this to say of the village: __...-..
The population of Uralla amounts to about 300. The town
consists of but one street, which contains four churches, the
same number of public-houses, a Temperance Hall, two flour
mills, three stores, three blacksmith's and wheelwright's shops,
an engineering establishment [our emphasis], a court
house, post and telegraph office, a bank, and last, though not
least, a first-class public school.5
While the foundry was not formally established until
the first metal was cast in 1875, it is clear from the wording of two of
the newspaper reports quoted above that Goddard and Mather were already
operating some sort of engineering works in Uralla at the time they
poured their first castings.
Henry Sheldon Goddard was an Englishman, born on
October 24th, 1841, in Stratton, Cornwall. His father Samuel was a
policeman, and his mother Mary's maiden name was Sheldon. Young Henry
was baptised in Stratton Parish Church on November 14th of the same
year, and, in the same church, on February llth, 1863, he was joined in
holy matrimony to a local girl, Mary Crutchett. By this time, Henry's
father Samuel had left the constabulary, his occupation on the marriage
registration papers being now given as "inn-keeper". Henry's own
occupation was shown as "mill wright". Birth registration papers show
that Henry was working in Stratton as a "machine maker" when the
couple's daughter Mary was born in January, 1864. When baby Sarah was
born in March, 1865, the papers show that the family had moved to Tamar,
Devon, where Henry was working as a millright at the Keyham Steam-yard.6
Henry and Mary Goddard and their two daughters
emigrated to Australia later in 1865, arriving in South Australia on
December 6th. Henry is reported to have obtained work in Adelaide as a
millwright.7 An Obituary written at the time of Goddard's death in 1900
claims that he moved from Adelaide to Sydney, where he worked at Mort
and Go's Engineering Works.8 His name first appears in Sydney's Sands
Directory for the year 1870, when he is listed as a millwright
living in Barker's Lane. This directory entry can be interpreted as
meaning that he was living there at some time during 1869. Barker's Lane
was located on the eastern side of Darling Harbour, and, while Goddard
could have taken a ferry from the Erskine Street wharf over to Mort's
works at Balmain, it seems more likely that he may have by then been
working at Russell & Go's Sydney Foundry and Engineering Works, which
was located in Barker Street closer to where he lived.
Goddard is reported to have moved to Tamworth in
about 1870 where he has said to have worked
on the installation of machinery in Lewis's flour
mill and Britten's brewery.9 In the early 1870s Mort's Dock and
Engineering Co were advertising prominently in local newspapers, flour
mill machinery being one of many lines being offered to prospective
clients.10 If the machinery for these jobs was made by Mort and Co,
Goddard was quite possibly sent to Tamworth by Mort's as their man on
the spot. Unfortunately, no Tamworth papers from this period survive in
the State Library of New South Wales to enable us to check this
possibility.
From Tamworth, Goddard next moved to Uralla, where he
worked on the erection of another flour mill, this time the owner being
John McCrossin, a son of Uralla's early settler Samuel McCrossin. If
Mort & Co did make the machinery for the Tamworth mill and brewery, one
could reasonably expect that they would have provided the plant and
equipment for McCrossin, and that this could have been the reason why
Goddard arrived in Uralla. But this hypothesis cannot be sustained.
We do not know precisely when Goddard came to Uralla.
L Godwin's 1983 paper on McCrossin's Mill in Australian Historical
Archaeology makes no mention of either Henry Goddard or the supplier
of machinery to the mill.11 But the Town and Country Journal's
1879 'Travelling Reporter' clearly records that the machinery for
McCrossin's Uralla mill came from "Mr. Russell's foundry".12 This refers
to the well-known Sydney Foundry and Engineering Works, established by
Peter Nicol Russell and his brothers in 1838. Although P N Russell & Co
closed down in 1874, soon after McCrossin's Mill opened, Peter Russell
himself was by then a rich man, and around the turn of the century he
endowed an engineering school at Sydney University.13
The fact that Henry Goddard erected machinery for
McCrossin manufactured by Russell & Co suggests that, at that time, he
may have been working for the Sydney Foundry and Engineering Works
rather than Mort & Co. This supposition is supported by the following
note in the 1874 Town & Country Journal report referred to
previously:
Two enterprising and clever young fellows, named Goddard and
Ormandy, from the great firm of P.N. Russell & Co., Sydney, have
recently commenced an engineering establishment in Uralla, and
it has proved a great boon to the district. 14
No source yet sighted puts forward a precise date for
the opening of McCrossin's Mill. Godwin's paper merely puts the time of
erection as late 1860s to early 1870s. Local historian Arnold Goode has
said that the mill was about half completed by October 1871, with the
boilers and machinery already delivered to the site.15 Although we do
not know precisely when Goddard arrived in Uralla or completed his task
at the new mill, it is clear that he must have liked what he saw of the
township in the early 1870s, as he was to spend the rest of his life
there. His decision to set up a business in Uralla may well have been
influenced by John McCrossin, as the three parcels of land on the corner
of Queen and Salisbury Streets on which the engineering works were
established were originally owned by McCrossin. Goddard and Ormandy/Mather
must have initially leased the land from McCrossin, and after his death
in 1881, from his widow Helen.
Early electoral rolls for the seat of New England
show Goddard listed as a 'resident', his first listing as a 'freeholder'
being in 1881-82. It was in 1881 that Goddard commenced the first of a
number of land dealings in and around Uralla, three separate blocks
being purchased in that year. In 1886 and 1887 the transfer of Lots 7, 8
and 9, Section 12 - the site of the foundry - from Helen McCrossin to
Goddard were finally registered. Goddard paid a total of #300 for the
three allotments, each of which was two roods in area.16 Presumably most
if not all the buildings associated with the foundry were erected on
this land at the expense of Goddard and his early partners, which
suggests that the lease from the McCrossins must have contained some
option to purchase.
The first documentary reference that has been sighted
relating to Goddard's business dealings in the town is the fact that he
opened, in partnership with a James Ormandy, a bank account at the
Uralla branch of the Bank of New South Wales on September 24th, 1873.
The partners styled themselves as "engineers".17 Just days later,
Goddard and Ormandy advertised in The Armidale Express for one
good carpenter and one good blacksmith.18 Early business must have been
promising, as early in November the partners advertised again for
additional men ― two engine fitters and two wheelwrights.19
The 1870 Sydney Sands Directory listed a J
Ormandy, engineer, in Campbell Street, Camperdown, and a John Ormandy,
pattern-maker, at the same address in 1871. It is quite possible that
the James Ormandy who had worked for Russell & Co before going to Uralla
was a member of this family. Ormandy's partnership with Henry Goddard
was to be short-lived, and we do not know the reason it broke up. By the
time the first iron was cast in the town's engineering works in October,
1875, Goddard had established an association with John Mather. Ormandy
remained in the New England district after terminating his partnership
with Goddard. In 1874 he married Elizabeth Watkins in Armidale, and a
number of children born to the couple over the ensuing years were
registered in Wellingrove and Glenn Innes.20 Sands Country Directory
lists Ormandy in Glen Innes in the years 1878-79, 1881-82, 1884-85
and 1889-90, giving his occupation variously as "miller", "farmer", and
"miller, Mount Clair". James Ormandy was killed in an accident at
Grover's Glen Innes sawmill in 1901. In recording his death, The
Uralla and Walcha Times remarked that Ormandy's respectful demeanour
and many other good qualities had won for him a host of friends. 21
Like Ormandy, very little is known of John Mather.
The Official Post Office Directory and Gazetteer of New South Wales
for the years 1875-77 lists Mather in Uralla as an 'engineer', while
Goddard himself is styled as a more humble 'wheelwright1, although to
draw too much inference about the relative skills of the two men from
this single reference would seem a little unwise.22 But once again it
would appear likely that our Uralla Mather would have been related to
one or more of a number of other Sydney Mathers who were styled
'engineers' in Sands Directory in the late 1860s-early 1870s ―
Henry G, Joseph, John, and Byron M Mather. Interestingly, while
Goddard's name does not appear in the 1871 Sydney directory, it pops up
again in 1873, where he is shown as an 'engineer' living at 7 Barker's
Lane.
In the middle of 1875, Goddard and Mather placed a
notice in The Armidale Express stating that they had, by a Deed
dated July 1st, 1875, entered into a CO-PARTNERSHIP as ENGINEERS and
MILLWRIGHTS.23 Soon after the first iron had been cast in the New
England Iron and Brass Foundry a few months later, Goddard and Mather
advertised their growing business in the The Armidale Express.
The foundry was said to be equipped to make castings up to one ton in
weight, and the advertisement ambitiously proclaimed that the firm could
make, on the Shortest Notice, Steam Engines, Flour Mill Machinery, Horse
Power Machines, Threshing Machines, and all sorts of Agricultural
Machinery. Ploughshares and Mouldboards, &c., were always on hand. In
the same issue of the paper, Goddard and Mather advertised for an
apprentice.24 A very similar advertisement was placed in the very first
issue of The Uralla and Walcha Times, which appeared on Saturday,
April 15th, 1876. For the next forty years or so, The Times did
its best to promote the products of the local foundry.
Henry Goddard appears as though he may have had his
fair share of problems dealing with other people. We have noted above
his brief partnership with James Ormandy. In the very issue of The
Armidale Express that reported on the casting of the first iron at
the new Uralla foundry, another story on another page told of a court
action brought against Goddard by a man named Faint. Faint alleged that
Goddard and one of his employees had carried out unsatisfactory work on
a threshing machine. While the court ruled in favour of Goddard, the
publicity could not have been good for his business fortunes.25
Then in mid-1876, the Uralla paper carried a notice
advising that Goddard and Mather had dissolved their partnership "by
mutual consent" on July 22nd, 1876.26 No sooner had Goddard tidied this
matter up, than he was back in trouble again, this time taking an
apprentice named Furnifull to the local magistrate's court, alleging
that the lad had left his apprenticeship before the expiration of his
indentured term. Furnifull's advocate submitted that the case should be
dismissed on the grounds that the indenture had been imperfectly
executed, and, in any case, Furnifull had signed on with Goddard and
Ormandy, and had not consented to a change of "mastership" following the
dissolution of that partnership. This time, the Bench found against
Goddard.27
Despite this setback, Henry Goddard and his foundry
gained considerable publicity at this tune by casting a bell for a Glen
Innes church. The Uralla and Walcha Times reported that
The ceremony for the casting of a bell for the Roman Catholic
Church at Glen Innes took place at the foundry of Mr. H.S.
Goddard on Wednesday afternoon last [ie 26/11/1876]. The
attendance of visitors was rather numerous, several coming from
Armidale to witness the casting of the bell. Operations were
commenced about 3 o'clock, the bell metal having previously been
thrown into the furnace along with the coke, &c. The mould,
which had been prepared by Mr. T. M. McDonald, was a piece of
skilful workmanship, and, as the result proved, was fully equal
to the service required of it. Everything being in readiness,
the molten metal, all aglow with heat, its burnished brightness
being rather trying to the eyes, was allowed to run from the
furnace into a large ladle, from which it was successfully
emptied into the mould.
After the casting, the assembled party toasted
success to the bell with champagne which had been "liberally supplied"
by Mrs Ryan of the Commercial Hotel. The toast appears to have proved
successful, as, when the "tintinnabulator", weighing about 7 cwt, was
taken from its "earthy bed" the next day, a rough test gave most
gratifying results.28 The bell, made from tin, copper and other metals
obtained in the New England district, cost the Glen Innes faithful 93
pounds, and this sum was handed over to Henry Goddard at a public dinner
held in Glen Innes in his honour. It was Goddard himself, and not his
bell, that was toasted in champagne this time! Henry Goddard had
predicted that the bell, on a calm, clear morning, would be able to be
heard up to seven or eight miles from the town ― we are not aware of
whether this prediction has ever been tested.29
The next decade or so must have seen the heyday of
the New England Iron and Brass Foundry, and numerous references appear
in the local press to plant and machinery manufactured there. Though
beyond the scope of the present study, a very worthwhile project for
local historians would be to compile a schedule of known surviving work
by both Goddard and his successors, C A Young & Co, indicating whether
the provenance of each item was documentary evidence or a maker's
nameplate. Some commissions undertaken by the foundry that were reported
in local papers were:
A baker's oven for Mr Love, Armidale (Armidale Express,
27/4/1877)
Iron palisade fencing for Mr Peter Speare's house, Armidale
(Uralla Times, 9/6/1877}
Cider mill for Mr George Feint (Uralls Times, 16/6/1877}
Iron pillars for Armidale Railway Station (Uraila Times,
27/12/1882)
5 head battery for Mr E Davis, Tingha (Uralla Times,
31/8/1887)
Vertical saw for Mr R Harrison's steam saw-mill, Uralla (Uralia
Times, 18/8/1888)
5 head battery for Mr W Butler, Armidale (Uralla Times,
4/9/1889}
8 bronze castings for altar rail (1889)
Cast iron tireing platform for Mr B J Smith, blacksmith,
Uralla (Uralla Times, 21/5/1890)
5 head stamper battery for Great Britain Gold Mine, Tilbuster
(Uralla Times, 4/6/1890}
5 head stamper battery for Clarendon G.M. Co., Tilbuster
(Uralla Times, 4/6/1890)
10 inch pump for Lady Carrington Mine, Hillgrove (Uralla
Times, 4/6/1890)
Pump for Mount Copeland shaft (Uraila Times,
28/10/1896)
Henry Goddard must have been optimistic about the
expansion of his business in the 1880s, as, on January 16th, 1884,
The Uralla and Walcha Times carried a large advertisement inviting
investors to take up 6,000 #1 shares in a proposed New England Foundry
and Engine Works Company. The notice proclaimed that
The vast increase of business through Railway
Extension and development of Mining Industry,
combined with the great progress of Agriculture,
necessitates in this Business
a corresponding extension of capital.
Goddard proposed to take up 1,000 shares, but, in the
process, would sell his business to the new company for
£ 2,500. The
foundry's assets were listed as:
Land (one and a half acres freehold)
Dwelling House, Cottage, Workshops and Foundry thereon
erected Six Horse Power Engine, Lathes, Tools, and General Plant
Stock in Trade and Goodwill of Business.
No company appears to have ever been registered.
Goddard must have failed to convince his fellow townsmen that this
"present and fast increasing business alone will pay a handsome
percentage, and will be a desirable investment of a permanently
profitable character".30
An excellent contemporary description of the works
appeared in The Uralla and Walcha Times on June 4th, 1890. At
that time, William Hunter was in charge of the moulding department and E
Purkiss the blacksmith's shop, while other artisans then employed named
in the article were Frank Crutchett, W Hardman, G Fuller and J Hare. A
full transcript of the account of the works appearing in The Times
may be found in Appendix I.
An interesting advertisement for the foundry appeared
in The Times on April 3rd, 1889. This not only noted that his
business had been established in 1873, but it announced that "Best
Ironbark Cogs" were always on hand. Presumably Goddard put his
pattern-maker to work Grafting cogs in between preparing for new casting
jobs. We should emphasise that a 'cog' was not a gear wheel, but the
tooth of such a wheel. Timber was commonly used for making cogs,
enabling machinery in remote places to be quickly repaired by the
replacement of a wooden cog rather than requiring the services of an
engineering shop to repair or recast a metal wheel.
Henry and Mary Goddard had no further children by
their marriage after arriving in Australia in 1865, and their daughters
Mary and Sarah were both married in Uralla in 1885. A daughter born to
Sarah had been registered in Uralla in 1881 as Philipa Goddard, and no
father was listed. Philipa married in Uralla in 1931 Henry Goddard
was active in the local Anglican Church and the agricultural and
pastoral association, and was said to be the founding father of the
Ancient Order of Foresters in the New England region. In 1884 he was
appointed to the local Council without an election, when the nomination
of three other aspiring candidates was ruled invalid after Goddard
himself had lodged a protest.32
As events were to turn out, the people of Uralla were
wise not to invest in Goddard's proposed company in the 1880s, as his
engineering works was caught up in the economic downtown experienced by
many in the 1890s depression. Goddard's financial position appears to
have been deteriorating over some time. No sooner had he purchased land
in 1881 and again in 1886-87 than he took out mortgages on both with the
Bank of New South Wales. He borrowed against a life insurance policy.33
In 1888, he was in trouble in the courts for allegedly wilfully
obstructing a council officer serving a notice in relation to unpaid
rates.34 In 1893, Goddard raised 800 pounds by selling a number of
parcels of land he had earlier purchased in partnership with a
hotel-keeper named Patrick Griffin: 40 acres in the Parish of Uralla,
and four other 40 acre blocks in the Parish of Harnam.35 It is not known
whether any of this land had anything to do with Goddard's prospecting
speculations: back in 1877, Goddard and several colleagues were trying
to raise #1,000 capital to float the Perserverance Gold Mining Company,
Limited. The newspaper announcement regarding the proposed the company
stated that it was being formed to work the main deep lead of the Rocky
River Field, which was supposed to run by the head of Tipperary Gully.36
If Goddard did loose money on prospecting ventures,
it must have only hastened his overall financial demise, and, finally,
in March, 1895, he was forced to call a meeeting of his principal
creditors. At this meeting, unsecured creditors agreed to take 4/- in
the pound "in full satisfaction" of their debt.37 Relating the history
of the foundry to a newspaper reporter in 1964, the then-owner, Les
Young, claimed that when the business ran into financial difficulties,
the bank took over for some years and put in a man named Cleghorn, who
managed the foundry for a time until it was closed altogether.38 It is
difficult to reconcile this story with what little documentary evidence
we have from that period.
Moore's Almanac lists the foundry right through
the 1890s under Goddard's name. Goddard advertised in the local paper in
1895 and 1896 in his own name. Although Goddard was clearly indebted to
the bank, they never sold him up during the 1890s, and when he died in
1900, his total assests exceeded his liabilities by ??? pounds. The
papers prepared at the time of his death for the purpose of assessing
stamp duties show that Goddard then owed W G Cleghorn sixteen shillings
in wages, and H C Crapp five pounds.39 It appears, therefore, that both
Cleghorn and Crapp were employees of Goddard, rather than any sort of
manager put in by the bank. So, in the absence of any other evidence, we
must assume that Goddard continued to operate the foundry and
engineering works after going bankrupt, and he appears to have done so
up until his death on Saturday, February 10th, 1900. Henry had been ill
for some months with "a most painful internal malady". After a funeral
service in St John's Church of England, Uralla, Henry Sheldon Goddard
was buried in the local cemetery.40
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