Land Titles.

l spent a large portion of today in a rather fruitless endeavour  to try and find out a little bit of history about this house! l took myself off to the Lands Titles Office in Hobart as l was assured that records went back to 1820 regarding all sales and transfers of titles to all houses in Tasmania. The idea was to get some sort of picture of who lived here and for how long. Unfortunately records for the sale of this property only went as far back as 1946 which was a bit disappointing. l knew that it was a Soldier Settlement and l had presumed it  was allocated after the First World War but apparently it was designated as one after the Second!

When l explained to the lady that the house on the property was built around 1895  and the Walnut Tree was thought to be older and surely there were some records to show any transfers since that time she was quite mystified but still the results came up zero. The only possible explanation is that it was owned by the Crown and always had been and didn't emerge into the Record books until it was given BY the Crown to ex soldier Richard Sidney George Bratt in 1946.

 

The only interesting thing to come out of my hours of searching was that in 1958 it was purchased by H.Jones Company Proprietary Limited which l can only assume is The Henry Jones of IXL Jam Fame!

http://www.thehenryjones.com/abouthenryjones/historyoftheharbourside/thejammakingera

Maybe this place was awash with blackcurrants and  raspberries in the early 1900's and not apples as we had originally believed! Hopefully further enquires and more sitting in basements amidst dingy but fascinating micro films and ancient tomes will reveal all!