Sydney Ernest Hope

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Sydney Hope was the manager of the Clarencetown Blockwood Mill. He was a saw doctor by trade and the family lived in the manager's house. The mill was run by a steam engine and Sydney ingeniously ran pipes from the steam engine to the house so there was hot water on tap. Sydney was thinker and a tinker!

Five of the children were born in this house - Donald, Cecil, Phyllis, Betty and Raymond.

The mill was owned by Jim and David Jones. The mill supplied blockwood for the wood stoves and other heating in every house in Sydney at that time as there was no electricity yet. The blocks of wood were sent along a conveyor belt to the dock where barges were loaded. The barges transported the blockwood to Sydney via the Williams River, just up from Williamstown and Raymond Terrace.

The owners sold the mill and that meant Sydney and his family had to move out. The owners promised jobs to all the Hope children in Sydney. Only Bert and Phyllis took up the offer.

Sydney and Nina moved to 33 Borea Street, Blacktown where they spent their retirement. Sydney was still a Thinker and a Tinker and made wooden toys for children int he local orphanage. Nina went tot he orphanage and mended the children's clothes once a fortnight.

Sidney was the second child of William Hope and Clara Blissett. He was born at Leichhardt N.S.W.

He was born Sidney Ernest Blissett but was known at Hope after being baptised on 31st March 1897 at the Magdalene Church of Englan in St Marys. His mother took the name of Hope from that date and is shown as Clara Hope on her birth certificate even though there is no record of any marriage to William Hope.

Sidney was raised by his Uncle (Jack) John and his wife and his Aunt Louisa (Aunty Lib) as their own child.

Sidney and Rachel were married on 28th December 1910 at St Marys and had eight children:-

Ernest Sidney - born 13/1/1912 (weighing 14 pounds!!!)

Ronald George - born 2/11/1913

Bertie William Shadlow - born 28/10/1915

Cecli Darcy - born 15/4/1918

Phylis Nina - born 21/1/1921

Donald Lees - born 1/6/1923

Raymond - born 24/6/1925

Betty Henrietta - 7/9/1928

The Blissett family were very good craftsmen with timber, from harvesting to manufacturing furniture. Sidney in his early teens bought a pony stallion and had a cart made to suit it, built by Bennet Brothers. With this horse and card he earned his first money by chopping down dead trees for fire wood and splitting the wood ready for the stoves. He delivered this around St Marys at the age of 13 years. Ray Hope has a horseshoe chromed and mounted as a trophy which is the smallest horseshoe he has ever seen.

His first first job as an apprentice was at Bennett's Carriage works in St Marys. as a carriage builder, saw doctor. It is believed that all of the Blissetts were saw doctors. Sidney was offen called De Sid.

After his marriage to Rachel (Nina) Shadlow in 1910, Sidney had to travel up to Dorrigo to get work as the work became very scarce at that time. He was never out of work. He took up wood chopping in Coffs Harbour area. Then he obtained a position with David and Jimmy Jones, later to trade as David Jones in Sydney. The mill was run by a stationary steam engine. After starting the boiler each morning, the saw started cutting block wood or baker's wood for Sydney. Then the engine driven by belts to a blowe, collected the sawdust and fed it to the boiler as a blast furnace. This did not have to be stoked whilst the saw was working. From the mill, hot water from a cooling system fed by steam was pumped to our house by a two inch pipe to a tank on a stand. They had more hot water than they could possibly use. The block wood was stacked automatically by a tall elevator from the saw to a height sufficient to hold a thousand tons of block wood. (see photo). A conveyor belt was below this stack covered over by sawn sleepers on a wharf. Under the sleepers as a rubber conveyor belt. On loading the ship the men would pull these sleepers out with hooks; the wood falling onto the belt using the minimum of labour.

A ship of 1000 tons load capacity came from Sydney once a month to collect block wood and baker's wood. When it was loading the work never ceased. It was all steam driven. The ship supplied electricity to fixed light on the wharf. This was a draw card to the loacl inhabitants as electricity was at least 20 years off at this time. The ship would deliver at least 1 ton of fruit as the Sydney depot was next to the fruit markets and the Captain got the fruit which was to be dumped in glut supply. This was part of the barter system used around the depression days. The ship would come up on the hight tide one day and return to Sydney the next day on the hight tide. The wood was carted from the nearby forest in all types of transport. One of the Bullock wagon drivers was actually responsible for Ray Hope's first taste of soap and water, when he made the terrible mistake of repeating what he heard him call his bullocks in front of his mother.