Mt Barker WA: history, architecture, wine

Federation-style Plantagenet Hotel

built 1912-4

Mt Barker is 360 ks south of Perth, Western Australia, in the shire of Plantagenet. Fr­amed by the Stirling and Porongurup Ranges, Mt Barker is the ideal base to expl­ore the surround­ing mountain country, wildflowers, great coast, na­tional and re­g­ion­al parks, and wineries.

                                  

Chapel at St Werburgh’s.

built 1873

In 1836 George Egerton-Warburton, a lieutenant in 51st Reg­im­ent, arrived in Albany WA. He sold his commission later, return­ing to Albany where he married and settled. In 1872 he received £550 from his eldest brother, Squ­ire of Arley Cheshire to build a Chapel at St Werburgh’s. The Chapel was dedic­at­­­ed to St Wer­bur­gh, a C7th Engl­ish Abbess who was a daughter of Wul­f­ere King of Merc­ia and 3rd Abbess of Ely. Artisans completed the building in 1873 and Bishop Hale consecrated the Chapel in 1874. The walls were made of clay plug and the roof of shingles. An Albany carpenter did the wood­work, using local she­oak and jarrah, whereas the iron­work was made in the family forge. Some of the materials need renovation. 

Wine tasting

Mt Barker is a starting place for travellers exploring the Great Southern Wine Region. This became an important region, producing ov­er a third of the state’s wine. In 1859 George Egerton-Warburton first pl­an­t­­ed vines and soon bott­led the first vintage. In the inter-war era, the Mt Barker region successfully made table wines in the light European style. In the growing-season, the Mt Barker region has warm sunny days, cool nights, excellent fruit-ripening and acidity-ret­ain­ing conditions. These conditions cr­eate wonderful intense wines, and I loved the tasting in the wineries!!

Mt Barker hosts yearly fest­ivals and events, incl Grapes and Gallops, Graze Mt Barker and Taste Great Southern Festival.

Police Station Museum

Police stables

changed to a lockup

There are some fascinating historic build­ings eg the historic Police Station Museum Complex built by convict labour in 1868, are part­ of this rich heritage. The Old Police Station was used un­t­il 1908 when a new station was built next door. The police hor­se stables were div­id­ed off as a lockup and a Court House of­f­ice was added in 1919.

Surrounded by lovely lawns and gard­ens, the Plantagenet Hist­or­ical So­ciety opened the cottage as a Mus­eum in 1968, furnishing it with lo­cally donated objects. In 1971 the Pion­eer Room was built to dis­p­lay more artefacts, in 1985 and 1987 the cottage and stables were re­stored, and in 1994 the Napier Creek one-teacher schoolroom was mo­v­ed to the Museum. In 1997 the second Po­l­ice Station and Court Room were acquired. And an apple picking shed has been assemb­led in honour of the apple industry's historical contribution.

Police duties included having a change of horses ready for the mail coach which operated from Albany to Perth. They also patrolled as far as Esperance (400+ ks) on horseback, also doing the census and rep­orting on weather.

At the Old Police Museum, the main and out-buildings nest in beautiful landscaped gardens, with structures covered in colour­fully flowered creep­ers, giving an old fashioned village look. Any­one visiting the Museum comp­lex with an inter­est in his­t­or­ical heritage sh­ould allocate a few hours. There’s a wide ran­ge of hist­or­ic­al arte­facts and images spread around.

The Plantagenet Hotel was a two st­orey pub built by the Sounness fam­ily in 1912-4 with Feder­at­ion style ch­ar­acter. The veranda posts and balcony’s ap­p­le motifs depicted their link to large apple orch­ards in the area in the early part of the century. It took ov­er the licence from the origin­al Park Hotel when it was delicensed in WW1.

In 1996 the hotel was smartened up so it would continue to be a soc­ial gathering place for the local comm­unity and visitors. The large open fire in the lounge area is a beautiful feature on cool Mt Bar­ker ev­enings and the wide veranda is for en­joy­ing pre dinner drinks. Yet another of the many historical land­mark jewels of the area!

Art Gallery

The Gallery & Arts Centre is where artists can create, exhibit or sell their paintings, quilts, jewellery or pottery. The Gallery runs the Art Trail and the Plantag­en­et Art Prize, and runs a yearly fund-raising exhibition. And they hold solo exhibitions at Mitchell House in the little pink building that once was a post office. Here cours­es are run in Drawing, Painting, Pottery, Hat Mak­ing, Weaving, Felting and Craft.

Mt Barker Railway Station

built 1883

The rail line southwards from Mt Barker Junction to Mt Barker was const­ructed by Messrs Walker & Swann who had previously built an Ad­el­aide line. The sub­stantial stone station buildings were built from Aldgate freestone in 1883, including a Stationmaster's quarters at the southern end. Ceremoniously opened by the Gov­­er­nor in 1883, Mt Barker passenger facilities were still in place into the 1970s. At the northern end were timber refreshment rooms which were used up until 1963, with white linen laid out un­d­er the poplar trees. The Dis­trict Council of Mt Barker restored the historic Railway Station building to coincide with the transfer of SteamRanger from Adelaide in 1996 and they re-planted the turn-of-the-century gardens.

Mt Barker Rolling Stock Depot took the south of the station first used as a goods yard, and incorporated the original bluestone goodsshed. New Depot has been operating since May 1996, while the heritage goods shed was retained as a storage area for Track Maintenance. My young sons loved it.

ES&A Bank building, erected in 1928 

Later converted to a bookshop

Photo credits: Photographs of Perth and the South West of Western Australia 

Langton Vineyard in Mount Barker

Wine Searcher

Vikings' North Exhibition in York !!

As the premier museum in North England for ancient objects, The Yorkshire Museum in York is displaying the Viking North Exhibition from July 2025-July 2027. In partnership with the British Museum it explores the world of the Vikings and the North’s Power Base from 800-1066 AD. Dr Adam Parker, Curator of Archaeology York Museums Trust wrote: “Viking North is a story of geopolitical change & clash of cultures. When the Viking Great Army arrived in North England in 866 AD, everything changed. Anglo-Saxon kings were defeated, new territories and allegiances rose and fell, new identities were forged and new connections made. The true story is brought alive by the emergent research into these temporary towns in the late C9th as these settlers expanded their geographical locations and made England home. 

Yorkshire Museum

Little Vikings

Based on new archaeological research and new technology, the exhibition combines objects from Yorkshire Museum’s own collection, the Vale of York hoard and specially loaned national and regional items eg objects from Viking Army Camp at Aldwark Nth Yorkshire. Many of these items in gold and silver are valuable and prestigious, showing the power, wealth and skills of the Vikings who lived in Nth England.

York helmet, c760

Yorkshire Museum

The York Helmet is an impressive star in the Viking North Exhibition, possibly the best-preserved early medieval helmet in Britain. This iron cap with brass edging and a chain mail neckguard, beautifully decorated with tiny animals, displays how these helmets were made, used and stored. Latin across the two bands reads: “In the name of our Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God; and to all we say Amen. Christ.”  The helmet was a great status symbol for the owner, Oshere, a nobleman and a ?member of the Northumbrian royal family, the most powerful dynasty in England then.

The Ormside Bowl was discovered in 1823 in St James’ Churchyard in Great Ormside Cumbria, just where a Viking warrior grave was also discovered decades later. Was the bowl looted from York by the Viking warrior and then buried with him in his grave alongside his sword & shield boss? This gilded silver and bronze with glass bowl was the ?finest piece of silver work, with remarkable craftsmanship, surviving from Anglo-Saxon England.

The 2 shells are intricately decorated and fused, making a unique luxury item. It would have been treasured by its original owner for its beauty, quality and value. It is decorated with vine scrolls in the outer design, being a common Christian theme. This suggests that the delicate outer shell started life as a religious vessel. It was owned used by monks for religious services in a Northumbrian monastery, likely looted by Viking raiders, or given to them in tribute. A religious object could be adapted by Vikings as a drinking vessel (850-900). When an inner bowl was added, it was used at celebrations with friends.

The inner bowl was made later made from gilt-bronze and riveted with studs of blue glass and silver with an internal bowl and 16 circular pieces of glass in a ring of cloisons-partitions. The base plate of the internal bowl and features five further rivets, of which the central is missing.

Ormside Bowl, c775

Esmeralda's Cumbrian History

 

The bowl is a double-shelled cup made from 2 pieces joined with dome-headed rivets and beaded collars. The bowl’s interlaced cruciform surface is decorated with a chased repousse technique.  The gilding on the bowl was added after the other decoration. The inner bowl could have been made in York where a matching blue-glass stud was found.

Bird and vine decorations

Instagram

The original outer shell was made of gilt-silver decorated with Anglo-Saxon style interlaced creatures in Continental vines. Note plants, fruit, animals and birds in decoration. The outer bowl decoration was done using the chase repousse method where the design was hit from the reverse side, creating it in relief outside of bowl. The rim had a strip of ungilded silver although this has now mostly been lost. This strip was first attached using some clips in the shape of animal heads. The frontal gaze of some creatures was a familiar occurrence in carvings of this type, with both naturalistic & grotesque decorations.

After seeing Christians wearing crosses around their necks, Vikings wore pendants in the shape of Thor’s hammer from their own pagan beliefs. And other religious symbolism. A collection of late C10th-mid C11th stone crossheads is currently on display in the monks’ dormitory at Durham Cathedral, found and reused at building materials or found during excavation of the 1891 Norman Chapter House (so note that Durham borders Yorkshire but is separate). The scenes depicted include the Baptism & Crucifixion of Christ, and an ordination scene.

memorial cross, found in 2nd century foundations

Durham Cathedral

 

Dr Parker, Viking North is telling new stories about the Vikings 

BBC

Thanks to Esmeralda's Cumbrian History & Folklore; I recommend reading her posts.

Ferrara - what a cultured city

The first official document on Ferrara in Nth Italy was published by Lombard King Astolfo in 753 AD. Late in their era, Ferrara was ruled by the Church in 774 & became a fief of the Canossa family; under the Grand Countess Matilda of Canossa it reached its peak. The city was successively occupied by Tedaldo di Canossa (988), Countess Matilda of Tuscany (1101) and Frederick I Barbarossa (1158), while its internal C12th history was that of the conflict between rival families. The Cathedral of San Giorgio was consecrated in 1185, after the independent commune emerged.

 

Cathedral

The Este family didn’t assume absolute power until 1242 when the city was becoming a growing medieval centre with its own laws and its own mint. It was only under the Estes was it to become an internationally known capital with great value for arts, economics, ideology & religion. The court flourished and for 2 centuries equalled Florence and Venice, or great European courts in France or Spain.

Estense Castle

Estense Castle & moat, built 1385 by the Estes, remained their bastion until 1598. Urban planning schemes were created in 14th-C16th, making Ferrara the first Renaissance city to be developed using a complex urban plan. Thus the network of streets and walls were linked with palaces, churches and gardens, a scheme that gave precedence to a united urban layout. Ferrara, an archbishopric, gained other impressive churches: San Francesco, Corpus Domini, Santa Maria in Vado and San Cristoforo

City walls

In Ferrara

The last Duke had no legitimate descendants, so the dynasty became extinct in 1597 and the Church took over. Ferrara became the seat of a powerful princip-ality and cultural centre but declined both commercially and politically under the Papacy. Revolutionary uprisings came much later.

Palazzo del Comune/Town Hall 1245 and Palazzo della Ragione/Court 1325 are medieval structures, safe once medieval walls could hold growth. Plans were extensively restored, and the uni founded in 1391 is now housed in a later building whose library holds valuable manuscripts, including works by the poets L Ariosto & T Tasso.

From 1400-1600 Ferrara was home to prominent people in literature and the arts. Its historic centre is the perfect example of the ideal city from a humanist view. Each step offers the magic air of a glorious, preserved past: the Este dynasty for 3 centuries, transformed a rural centre into a masterpiece. This town was hospitable, environmentally aware and sustainable present. Artists Michelangelo, Piero della Francesca, Mantegna attended the Este Court and worked there. With great support from artists, the Estes created the first studiolo, their art collection becoming a model for both the Medici family and Papacy. 

The major treasure is the series of palaces of the later 15th-C16th. These palazzi include Diamanti, housing a municipal art gallery; Schifanoia Civic Museum; and Ludovico il Moro National Archaeological Museum with objects from an ancient Etruscan port. Piero della Francesca, Jacopo Bellini and Andrea Mantegna decorated the palaces of the House of Este. Neighbourhoods were built from 1492 by Biagio Rossetti. This project’s completion marked modern town-planning and influenced its development.

 Archaeological Museum

 Trip Advisor

National Museum of Ferrara School, 

amazing art donated by the Estes

Trip Advisor

Emilia-Romagna comprises Ferrara’s urban centre and agricultural lands into the large, ancient Po River Valley. The city extended to defensive walls that had enclosed the historic urban centre of C12th Ferrara. From 14th-C16th, the ruling Estes did extensive land recovery & building projects. Distinctive Renaissance changes made included: drainage of huge swamplands, establishment of estates, creation of new waterways and streets a la the urban development plans and building noble residences. Ducal residences were the political sign of glory, designed to widely mirror the image of the Court. In the key Renaissance years, the Este’s brilliant court drew star artists, poets and scholars of humanism.

`

narrow cobbled streets and artisan workshops

Winalist

In time the encircling medieval walls were extended to accommodate urban growth, and today the walls still encircle the city. The Municipality has identified the whole of the historic city inside the walls as an area of cultural interest and protection that’s been there since 1975.

The creation of coordinated management between urban & rural spaces led to effective control of the area and infrastructure development, more awareness of heritage values and the definition of policies for the adaptive re-use of historic properties that were damaged. Note the cooperation of public institutions at different levels of government: national, regional, provincial and municipal. It’s protected under national cultural heritage legislation: Legislative Decree.

One end of Piazza Trento e Trieste

Wiki

The Medieval built piazza is the perfect spot for sunset cocktails. With grand historic buildings behind, an impressive cathedral and one of Italy’s oldest universities, it’s long been the central city’s heart. Linked by rail with Bologna, Padua, Venice, Ravenna and Comacchio, Ferrara is the centre of a flourishing agricultural area.

Ferrara was involved in WWI with many workers, motivated by the promise of new arable land at the end of the conflict. Massive losses prevented this and the betrayal led to a wide adherence to Fascism. After WW2 there was a great expansion of industrial activity and the creation of a large industrial zone. The city’s principal products are chemicals, sugar, alcohol, shoes and hemp.

Ferrara’s cultural treasures were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995 and expanded in 1999 beyond the walls. There was damage from the 2012 earth quakes to the city walls, Estense Castle, medieval cathedral and other historic buildings. 

Ferrara is a vibrant city (pop:131,200) rich in art exhibitions & a top concert season. Thanks to World Heritage Convention

\

Honours to Helen Suzman, South Africa

                                               

In Parliament, late 1950s

Wiki

Helen Gavronsky (1917-2009) was born in South Africa, her Lithuanian parents having arrived with thousands of Jewish migrants from the Baltic states, desperate for peace. My hero in 1966 was by then called Helen Suzman, the bravest person on whom I might have aimed to model myself. 

Helen studied economics & statistics at Witwatersrand Uni. At 20 she married Dr Moses Suzman and had 2 children, before returning to university as a lecturer in 1944. She gave up academia for politics, being elected to Parliament in 1953 as a member of United Party. She moved to the liberal Progressive Party in 1959 and represented her district as her party's sole member, the sole parliament­arian clearly opposed to Apartheid, from 1961-74.

Progressive Party's House caucus in 1960, prior 1961 election that left Suzman

as the sole parliamentarian opposed to apartheid for 13 years. Wiki

The ruling white government sent the police to watch her every action, whether work-related or private. Her mail was examined and her phones were bugged, largely because she was Jewish, a woman, middle class, liberal and a very vocal opponent of Apartheid. So the National Party put every conceivable hurdle in her way. I am amazed she survived assassins' bullets. The most obnoxious bit of legislation in her time was the Black Homeland Cit­iz­enship Act 1970 which changed the status of the blacks. They would no longer be citizens of South Africa, but would become citizens of one of the 10 autonomous territories.

Freed Nelson Mandela thanking Helen Suzman
1990, NY Times

Robben Island, located off South Africa’s coast, had a long history of being a penal colony but only from the mid 1960s-91 was it was the brutal home to the nation’s maximum security gaol. Nelson Man-dela was imprisoned there from 1964-82 and Suzman visited the island on a regular basis; she reported on the gross indignities of prison life and to get the prison system to reduce the worst suffering of Mandela and other political prisoners.
                              

Dame Helen was the first woman to be awarded the Honorary Freedom of Hull in 1987, but I cannot find her connection to that city. Yet correspondence with Helen Suzman is definitely still held at Hull Uni History Archives.

Later, as parliamentary white opposition to Apartheid grew, her Party merged with the Reform Party and became the Progressive Reform Party. Eventually Suzman was joined in Parliament by equally committed re­pr­esentatives. Altogether her parliamentary career lasted 36 years, leaving parliament in 1989, just in time for the inevitable emer­g­ence of a new South Africa. Very shortly after, in 1991, the government formally repealed all Apartheid laws.

Suzman became Pres. of South African Institute of Race Relations from 1991-3, not bad for a women in her mid 70s. In 1993 the Helen Suzman Foundation was founded as a non-partisan think-tank in Sth Africa, dedicated to liberal democratic values and human rights post-Apartheid via its research, journals, litigation & submissions to Parliament. I knew Mandela rightfully won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, but although Suzman was named twice, she sadly never won a Nobel. Luckily she had the time and energy in 1993 to publish her autobiography, In No Uncertain Terms: A South African Memoir, helping her country and the world to recognise the previous injustices of Apartheid.

For some years Suzman was a member of the statutory Human Rights Commission, excited to be at Mandela’s side when he signed the new constitution in 1996. She remained a much-favoured speaker and newspaper author.

The Liberal International is a global federation based in UK. The Liberal International Prize for Freedom is given to a well-known person of liberal conviction who had made outstanding efforts for the defence of freedom and human rights. In 2002 it was awarded to Suzman, the courageous champion of human rights, who in the dark days of Apartheid did more than any other person to keep liberal values alive in South Africa. They noted that as many African countries were moving to political systems based on democracy, human rights and rule of law, the pioneering work that Suzman did in South Africa could not be underrated. 

Blue Plaque unveiled by Helen's daughters

2017

Conclusion
The anti-Apartheid struggle had many heroes, all of whom rightly deserved commemoration and remembrance; all of their contributions helped in some important way to the ending of Apartheid and the dawn of democracy in 1994. Helen Suzman was one such a hero, and she was honoured late in her lifetime but since she died in 2009, she has been honoured in South Africa and globally. I suppose she was very fortunate to survive the hatred she faced in Parliament and lived long enough to see some of the honours with her own eyes. But most of the honours were greatly appreciated by her two daughters, Frances (b1939) and Patricia (b1943).

In Nov 2017  Johannesburg citizens and family members gathered to pay tribute to her with the unveiling of a blue plaque on the Eton Rd Parktown footpath. The plaque was unveiled by Helen’s daughters, 2017 being the centenary of the birth of South Africa’s amazing Helen Suzman. 

Many thanks to Democratic Alliance, South African History on-line, The Heritage Portal  and Liberal International.