Bridges family history

History Notes            by Julie Williams

When I was trawling through the riches of the Barraba Historical Museum and Barraba Friends facebook pages I was interested in the photo posted by Wayne Schmidt of the home of Frances Bridges (nee Hiscock) and her fourteen children.  I was looking for something to add variety to the 2024 Nandewar Historical Society Calendar.  This may not be the best of photos, but it gives a feel of what I suspect many family homes may have looked in the 1920s. 

It was on the corner of Queen and Savoy Streets, where the solicitor’s office is now.  I knew very little about this family and I wondered how they fitted in this house, how they made ends meet, and what happened to the father of these children.  Wayne clarified that Charles Bridges died from the effects of the Spanish Flu in 1919.  When Frances’s younger brother Henry Albert (Harry) Hiscock returned from WW1 he supported the family and filled the role of a father figure.

That’s Frances on the verandah, then her son Charles Bridges.  Harry Hiscock is on the far right. Barraba’s much-loved Peter Heywood is a great grandson of Frances Bridges. 

How did the family survive in one house?? Well, I doubt if each child had his or her own bedroom with ensuite! And, of course, the children weren’t all small children at the same time so the older ones would have helped run the household and care for their younger siblings. Might that have instilled a better sense of responsibility than if they lived in luxury?  Life could not have been easy…. Were these the “good old days”?

Thank you to Wayne Schmidt for this information.