DID YOU KNOW?

 

THAT the City of Goulburn in Australia was named after the Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Goulburn of Betchworth in 1820?  He was Under Secretary of State for Colonies and War between 1812 and 1821. Australia was then being colonised, following the arrival of the first shipment of convicts to Sydney, on 26th January 1788. In fact Australians still delight in tracing their ancestry back to the 717 convicts who were aboard the eleven ships of the “First Fleet”, commanded by Arthur Phillip, who was later to become the First Governor of Australia.

 

Initially settlements sprang up along the Australian coast where there were natural harbours and fresh water springs, but by 1798 an ex-convict explorer named John Wilson had managed to set eyes on the Goulburn Downs. Governor Macquarie explored the area in 1820 and formally named it after Sir Henry. In 1823 just two houses existed, and it took another ten years for the plans for the town to be completed. However by 1848 it had 1200 residents, and on 14th March 1863 Queen Victoria proclaimed it a City!

 

Needless to say the plans included a Cathedral, St Saviour’s,  complete with spire and 12 bells hung for full circle ringing, plus an extra bell, the Flat 6th, to facilitate the ringing of the lightest eight bells in a alternative key. However like many projects this proved to be overambitious and the money ran out long before the tower and bells could be provided.

 

The tower (less the spire) was finally constructed in 1988 as part of the Australian Bicentenary Celebrations, and 8 redundant bells from St Mark’s Leicester installed. Major benefactors for this work are recorded on a plaque at the bottom of the Tower and include inter alia Brigadier Cuthbert Goulburn, and the Estate of the Late Major General Edward Goulburn.

 

Two further bells were donated in memoriam in 1994, and after much fundraising a further two bells were installed in June 2005. Eleven bells carry the name of the ships of the First Fleet and the twelfth, the name of Captain Cooke’s ship Endeavour. This was how I found them when I visited recently and learnt that they had recently confirmed their order for the final 13th bell, and agreed to name it after Arthur Phillip, having run out of ships!

 

However the ringers expressed their sadness that they had failed to make contact with the Goulburn family, and had therefore settled reluctantly, that very afternoon, on an inscription which didn’t link together the origins of the City, with the First Fleet and the Goulburn Family, as they had earnestly wished. Needless to say it wasn’t long before they discovered my links with Betchworth, and were asking if there was anything I could do to expedite matters.

 

They apparently still had 5 days left before the inscription would have to be pressed into the mould!  I pondered this for a moment or two realising that this would be very difficult, as in those five days, I would be travelling back round the world, and  would arrive in England just as the moulder got to work.! Nevertheless I acknowledged how the finger of fate had somehow contrived to send me to Goulburn at precisely this moment, and agreed to see what I could do.

 

A telephone call to England set the wheels in motion, whilst details were emailed to me for forwarding. Discussions took place in Betchworth and were relayed to me in Singapore. E–mails were flying in all directions. New inscriptions were drafted and revised and not received at Singapore airport due to hardware problems.  Queries were finally answered on return to England, and because of good progress a hold put on the Bell Foundry for 48 hours to allow for further amendments.  The Foundry then declared we had too many lines, and we revised it all over again, and then finally it was all agreed just four hours short of the deadline!  Six days later, and we had the pleasure of seeing this final bell cast at John Taylor’s Bell Foundry in Loughborough.

 

So now you know what Parish Clerk’s get up to on their holidays, and I am delighted that with Lord and Lady Hamilton’s generous assistance a new bell will appear next year in Goulburn carrying the following inscription.

 

DEDICATED TO

ARTHUR PHILLIP

AND ALL WHO SAILED

WITH THE FIRST FLEET

13TH MAY 1787

*                      *                      *

TO MARK THE HISTORIC LINKS

BETWEEN THE GOULBURN FAMILY

OF   BETCHWORTH,   ENGLAND,  THE

CITY OF GOULBURN AND PEOPLE OF MULWAREE   

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

 

The Casting Party at John Taylor’s Foundry Loughborough with the new bell in front of them, but buried in sand to ensure slow and even cooling.