Bagots Gap. Fords. Near the Light River. The old railway station goods shed now a dilapidated farm barn. Railway reached here in 1860. This rail shed erected about 1870.Ruins of the railway station platform. : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Bagots Gap. Fords. Near the Light River. The old railway station goods shed now a dilapidated farm barn. Railway reached here in 1860. This rail shed erected about 1870.Ruins of the railway station platform. / denisbin
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示-改変禁止 2.1 |
|---|---|
| 説明 | Bagot’s Gap or Fords. Originally this area was known as Bagot’s Gap as he was the main landowner and main investor in the Kapunda Cooper Mines. The gap is where the Light River forms a small gorge through the ranges. He bought out the Duttons from the mine. This rail stopping point of 1860 and the locality was named after John Ford who held land in this area from before 1860 when the train line reached here. John Ford was born in Scotland in 1830 and arrived in Melbourne in 1851 and married in Gawler in 1855. Two years earlier in 1853 he took up 240 acres of land along the Light River (1853) where there was an easy crossing point. The district name was thus a pun of his name and the river crossing but apart from the railway station the area was still known as Bagot’s Gap. The 1878 railway timetable mentions Fords but not Bagot’s Gap. Ford grew wheat here with a plough made by the James Martin blacksmith of Gawler and by 1863 he had 640 acres at Fords. Most of his six sons were born here starting with John junior in 1856. Ford also ran sheep on his land there as he also had a 30 square mile pastoral lease land north of Port Augusta. After the droughts of the mid 1860s he got rid of that leased land and purchased the hotel near the Kapunda railway station but soon leased it to another to obtain the weekly rental. In the late 1860s he rented an 11,000 acre farm near Anlaby where he again grew wheat. He later moved to Eyre Peninsula to try wheat farming there and he ended up spending most of the rest of his life there as a successful farmer. John Ford died in 1914 but his son Robert Ford continued farming in the Fords district until his death in 1927. The impressive railway goods shed appears to have been erected around 1870. A major train derailment occurred here in 1912. A small school operated here from 1863 although a building was not erected until 1866. The school changed its name from Bagot’s Gap School to Fords School in 1912 and it finally closed in 1944 only to reopen in 1948 for a short period only. A Catholic school opened in 1870 and the Catholic Bishop Shiel excommunicated Mary Mackillop when she refused to go to Bagot’s Gap as requested in 1871. Bishop Mayer of Port Augusta visited the convent school in 1874 but it appears to have closed not long after that. In the 1860s Mr Linfoot also ran a public house at Bagot’s Gap or Fords. It was called the Cross Keys Inn and it closed in 1870. The tiny settlement on the rail line was important as it had a good road to Greenock and on to Sheoak Log hence the need for the massive railways goods shed. There is no evidence of the structures of Bagot’s Gap/Fords left today. The settlement had a good road into Kapunda which is very picturesque for dirt road travellers. |
| 撮影日 | 2015-06-15 12:27:58 |
| 撮影者 | denisbin |
| タグ | |
| 撮影地 | |
| カメラ | DSC-HX30V , SONY |
| 露出 | 0.005 sec (1/200) |
| 開放F値 | f/4.0 |