John Delves

A Memory of Slinfold.

This is Alan Edgar Fullwood's memory and the reference to Slinfold is right at the bottom of this narration:
Edgar Fullwood was my father.  He was born in Birmingham England in what is to me the beginning of our history in 1875 on October 31st, and he was the grandson of Joseph and Ann whose birth and life times are unknown to me.  His parents were know to me as a school boy; Henry, his father was born in Birmingham and moved to Wolverhampton soon after my father was born.  Henry married Jane Badger, known to her family as Jenny.
Henry and Jame had 3 children Minna, Gertrude who died in infancy and Edgar.  Like his father Henry was a silversmith and jeweller and suffered from “consumption” now called tuberculosis and on the recommendation of his medical advisers decided to migrate to Australia as the climate was warmer and dryer.  This he and Jane with Minna and Edgar did in 1883 by steam boat with sails, the voyage taking about 3 months.  The time is fixed by my father’s recollection of the effects of the explosion of Krakatoa the greatest part of which occurred on August 27th.  “Great seas occurred over some days, and haze blotted out the sun”.  On this trip they were accompanied by Ernest, (Edgar’s cousin) and his father William (Henry’s older brother).
On arriving in Melbourne they obtained lodgings in Canning Street, Carlton, and Henry obtained employment with Gaunt and Co. Jewellers of Burke Street, Melbourne, in the capacity of silversmith a position he held until poor health induced him to try a period of a few years at Doncaster where he purchased an orchard which in my father’s words was too old and not large enough to make a good living.  However, owing to Henry’s continued poor health young Edgar still at school until he was 13 at the Doncaster State School, plowed between the rows of apple trees, dug by hand the un-plowed parts, picked the fruit with Minna’s help and carted it to the Victoria market in a horse drawn covered wagon and sold it for cash.  Now Henry’s health improved and with the beginnings of the land boom appearing the orchard was sold and the family returned to Canning Street, Carlton, Henry resumed his employment with Gaunt’s and Edgar completed his schooling at the same school as Mabel Delves who also lived in Canning Street not far from the Fullwood residence and whose books he carried home on many occasions with much appreciation from the owner not only for the carrying but for the company.
In 1901 Edgar married Edith Mabel Delves at the Carlton Apostolic Church.  The best man was Ernest Fullwood, Edgar’s cousin and the bridesmaid was May Gibson a second cousin of the bride.  
The year 1917 was noted for Edgar’s purchase of a Dodge tourer motor car his first, and was used for regular trips to Mount Erica, Victoria Australia.
On March 31st 1903 Estelle May was born, and on September 18th 108 Henry John, and on March 31st 1913 Alan Edgar, (the author of this family history).
In 1913 Edgar and family moved to a house he had built at No. 12 Zetland Road Mont Albert a site a few hundred yards north of the station.  The block of land was quite large with a rear access to Beatty Street.  The house was two storey brick with tile roof and 5 bed rooms and a sleep-out upstairs.  In 1917 the garage was built and housed the Dodge, and had a room and a store at the back used for petrol which cam in four-gallon rectangular tins as there were at that time very few bowsers.  Those that were in existence had a cylindrical glass container on top.  If for example you required four gallons a drain pipe in the centre was raised to an appropriate level and a hand pump was used to fill glass so that any in excess of the four gallons ran back into the underground tank after which the remainder flowed in the hose by gravity to the customer’s tank.  In order to pour petrol from the 4-gallon tins into the car tank we had a device which punctured the tin and was left on and used as a spout to pour into a funnel which had a brass mesh filter which kept out the foreign matter and usually some water from going into the car tank.  However there was always some petrol spilt during this operation as the spout was not a very good fit.
At the time of writing the St Georges Avenue house on the west side and to the north of a lane is still standing and appears to be in good order and is notable for the cladding on the front known as block-front.  This was made from durable timber about 12” x 1 ½” and nailed to the studs and was rebated lengthwise and also crosswise to simulate blue-stonework of which many old buildings particularly in Melbourne city were built.
The name of this house, which as been removed, was “Slinfold” .  There is a small town in Sussex near Horsham so named and this is about 20 miles west of Tunbridge Wells where my grandfather John Delves lived having been born in London, so there may have been some association with that town to give my parents reason for so naming their first house.