Sorell Rose Shows

Miss W. General information , , , ,

Thanks to Dawn Gatehouse for writing this post and providing the photos for this #OnePlaceShows

History of Sorell Rose Show

The late Keith Ward lived at Dunalley then moved to Sorell and was on the Sorell Council for a time. Keith joined the Sorell and Districts Garden Club. He had a dream to see a Rose Show held in the St Georges Hall and Rose Garden and after a few years of persuasion, some of the Garden Club members took on the challenge and held the first Rose Show in 2009 in St Georges Hall and surrounds.

In the second year the Rose Show moved to the supper room at the Memorial Hall while renovations were carried out in the St Georges Hall. The Rose Show returned to the St Georges Hall for a number of years. The show included classes for specimen roses, containers of roses and other flowers, fruit and vegetables. Floral Art was on display and the Rose was celebrated in other ways through photography and art and craftwork. In the early days there were also classes for children.

Roses in beer bottles

Example of schedule

Section A – Roses

  1. 1 Bloom – Red/Crimson
  2. 1 Bloom –  White/Cream
  3. 1 Bloom – Pink/Rose
  4. 1 Bloom – Yellow/Apricot
  5. 1 Bloom – Bi-colour/tricolour rose
  6. 1 Bloom – Any other colour rose
  7. 1 Bloom – Full blown rose, stamens must show 
  8. 1 Bloom – Single flowered rose (no more than 7 petals)
  9. 1 Bloom – David Austin/old fashioned rose
  10. 1 Stem – Cluster-flowered roses
  11. 1 Container – David Austin Roses
  12. 1 Container – Cluster-flowered Roses
  13. 1 Container – Miniature Roses
  14. 1 container – Roses of mixed Variety

Containers for specimen roses supplied by Committee.  All other containers to be supplied by the Exhibitor.

Other blooms

Section B – Other

  1. 1 Container – Irises
  2. 1 Container – any other flower variety
  3. 1 Container of one variety of fruit or vegetables –at least 3 pieces
  4. Box or basket of mixed home-grown fruit, vegetables, nuts or herbs.
  5. Collection of herbs.

All flowers or produce in Sections A & B to be grown by the exhibitor.

Fruit and vegetables

Section C – Floral Art

  1. Arrangement using 1 Rose Bloom and other plant material
  2. Mantel arrangement  frontal effect
  3. Floral design suitable for a table centrepiece
  4. Miniature Arrangement (under 10 cm any direction)
  5. Arrangement in unusual container.

Flowers in Section C need not be grown by the exhibitor.

Section D – Photography, Art and Craft.

    1. 1 Photo of a rose or roses postcard size ( 15cmx10cm)
    2. Set of 3 separate rose studies post card size (15cmx10cm)
    3. Photo of a garden scene with roses.
  • Any article of art or craft featuring a rose or roses ( Could be painting, embroidery, crochet, sculpture, gift card)          Exhibits to be no more than 2 years old.

           Photos to be mounted on card with 2.5cm edging. 

Visitors at the show

After a number of years, the Rose Show ceased to happen and the garden club disbanded.

In 2018 the Lions Club took on the request to revive the Sorell Rose Show. It was necessary to stage this event in the Lions Clubrooms as it was not viable to pay to hire another facility. Since then the Sorell Rose Show has been a successful small one-day event. Garden stalls are held outside, light luncheon is served, a prize is given for each section although there is no prize money for each class. It is free to enter and admission is at a small cost.

The Sorell Rose Show has become a colourful, pleasant and friendly event.

My Family and Agricultural Shows

Miss W. 1821-1850, 1851-1880, Early families , , , , , ,

Thanks to Helen White for this post as part of the #OnePlaceShows

When an application addressed to the Lieutenant Governor and signed by Mr Edward Lord and others, to hold a public meeting with the intention of forming an Agricultural Society, was published in the Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen’s Land Advertiser on Saturday 8 December 1821, the signature of my 3 x great grandfather, Horatio Mason, was affixed to it.

Horatio William Mason arrived in Van Diemen’s Land aboard “Saracen” on 25 April 1820. He was not a farmer, although he had applied for and was granted land at Pittwater; 2000 acres between the Coal River and Orielton Rivulet, he was a trader and soon divest himself of the property.

Another 3-x great grandfather, George Marshall arrived in Hobart Town aboard the brig “Thalia” on 22 April 1822, twelve months after the formation of the Van Diemen’s Land Agricultural Association in 1821 and just days after the meeting on 15 April 1822, which resolved to hold the first Annual Show.

Read newspaper article for further information.

The intention to hold the first Annual Show of the Van Diemen’s Land Agricultural Society might have been the ‘talk of the town’ when he first arrived the week after that meeting. It may have been then that he resolved to participate as an exhibitor at his first opportunity.

Mr. Marshall immediately set about applying for grant of land, but there was some delay in his grant being approved. While awaiting the results of his application he took up a lease on “Noble Farm”, at Pittwater (now Sorell).

The Annual Show to be held on 10 January 1824, gave George Marshall his first opportunity to exhibit and he did so and won the medal for the best boar bred in Van Diemen’s Land. I am unaware if the medal survived in the family, the desire to exhibit certainly did.

Click article to read rest of results

To the best of my knowledge this was his only entry in an Agricultural Show in Hobart Town, but George Marshall was one of the group of farmers in the Richmond/Pittwater District to establish the Richmond Agricultural Society in December 1835, later to become the Southern Tasmanian Agricultural Association. While I have found no record of him exhibiting himself, he remained on the Committee for many years and judged occasionally, but his sons competed regularly entering prime stock and horses in the competitions.

My 2-x great grandfather Thomas Marshall (“Noble Farm”, Sorell) had some success exhibiting draught horses. His brothers, George Marshall Jnr (“Sunnyside”, Sorell) and Edward Marshall (“Cornhill”, Sorell) both exhibited and won prime cattle classes. Thomas’s principal interest was the breeding of draught animals and in order to promote the sires he used and the sale of horses he bred, he travelled to and exhibited at the first Melton Mowbray Agricultural Association Exhibition in December 1864.

Thomas Marshall – click to read rest of article

The family involvement with shows has continued to the present day with Life Member Paul Marshall and his family, who stewarded the Commercial Lamb Section of the Royal Hobart Show for many years.

My grandfather, Joel Harvey (he married Kathleen Letitia Marshall) exhibited ‘Fat Lambs’ for many years during the 1930’s and won 3 Jubilee Cups (one for each son). It is quite possible that a relative of mine has been a member of an Agricultural Society in Tasmania since the formation of the Richmond Agricultural Society in 1835, there is certainly been Marshall’s farming in Tasmania since the arrival of George Marshall Snr in 1822.

Readers: Have any of your ancestors been mentioned in results from Agricultural Shows in the district?

Children in the district

Miss W. General information , , , ,
NS1553-1-10 Children in field

The One Place Studies blogging prompt for the month of May is  Children

A few hints for what to research are included:

  • Are there any patterns to fertility or infant mortality in our places?
  • Did the first child tend to arrive ‘prematurely’?
  • How were children educated in our places?
  • What were the modes of entertainment for children?
  • What were the patterns of child employment?

For this post, I decided to check out the births and deaths of children using the Tasmanian names index filtered for Sorell as the registration district. The early data may also include what we now call Richmond.

Between 1806 and 1835

There were 266 children born/baptized in the district and amazingly it was equal numbers of male and female.

I then looked at the deaths and recorded the number of males and females dying under the headings of days, weeks, months and under 5 years.

  • Days: 6 males, 2 females – two males were twins
  • Weeks: 2 male, 2 female
  • Months: 6 male, 8 female
  • Under 5: 2 male, 4 female – one male was through burning accident

This gave a total of 16 males and 16 females.

The death records up to 1835 don’t mention the cause of death.

But once I started looking at further years, I found there was missing data.

Births none for 1841-1855, deaths none for 1841-1847 and marriages none for 1839-1848 and none 1851-1855

I did find some mentioned under the registration district of Richmond and some at Prossers Plains. I could assume some might also be under Port Sorell registration area.

I have just sent a request to Libraries Tasmania to see if I can get a spreadsheet of BDMs of Sorell (all years), Richmond, Prossers Plains and Port Sorell for those years that are missing from the Sorell registration district.

If I do get that spreadsheet, I will then need to look at each individual to find out if the informant lives in the Sorell municipality or if it is a family I recognize as being in the district.

Looks like a lot of work ahead of me to be able to answer the prompt for this month.