Imagine time travelling back to the early 1900s in North Ryde. If you strolled down Cox’s Road from the school and turned right into Wicks Road you would have walked beside paddocks and orchards and had views across to the city. It is claimed that with binoculars you would have been able to read the […]
Last week the 1970s fluorescent lights in the museum’s 1910 room were replaced with twelve beautiful original school lights. This has been a project on the museum’s wish list for many years. Also installed were two heritage style fans centrally mounted in each room and next week the hall lights are to be replaced. When […]
State Records NSW has a comprehensive digital collection of early school photos which is being added to constantly. They are digitising images collected by the DEC’s former history unit. These images are a great primary source for class history studies, in preparation for a visit to the Schoolhouse Museum or for family history research. Photo […]
Did you know that when North Ryde PS was built in 1877 the area was orchards and farmland and contained several sandstone quarries? The stone footings were quarried locally for the single North Ryde PS schoolroom, now the NSW Schoolhouse Museum. An advertisement appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 30th November 1878 advertising […]
Fairfield Public School celebrates their 125 year anniversary on 25th February 2014. The image is picnic games held at the school, probably around 1900. Imagine running in those outfits! Image source: Government School of NSW from 1848 Image Gallery Search the history of your school at Government Schools of NSW from 1848 and State Records […]
At school in the 1880s, all students learnt Copperplate handwriting. Starting from their first day where they practised their alphabet on slates perched on their knees, students had writing instruction. Being the main form of communication at the time, it was considered to be of great importance. This page from an 1887 writing instruction book […]
Recently, we had a visit from ex-student Bill Dudley. Bill started school at North Ryde PS in 1954 and he would walk to school with bare feet and no uniform. Bill said he would often bring Strawberry the family cow with him across Lane Cove Road, which was a dirt road in those days, and […]
The new Museums and Galleries of NSW website brings together over 350 cultural venues across the state, so you can discover hundreds of museums, galleries and Aboriginal keeping places. The platform provides a ‘big picture’ of where to go and what to see in regional NSW. On the website you can plan trips, build trails, read […]
Fran and Ruth, two eldery cousins, recently visited in search of their parents who had attended North Ryde Public School in the early 1900s. They were very excited to find photos of their mother and father. Fran found her mother, Kathleen, in two photos, one dated 1918. These photos show her mother as a girl. […]
Portraits of our Kings and Queens were once commonplace in school classrooms. This photo is of Queen Elizabeth II when she was christened in 1926. At this time she was known as Princess Elizabeth and was third in line for the throne, just like the new Prince George. Prince George of Cambridge was named after […]