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What do you know about the community?

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Bob Innes, Glenn Liebelt and Heather Little 

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Bob Innes, Glenn Liebelt and Heather Little 

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Visit Year 3 class

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Song about Captain Collet Barker

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Adrian Raison, Frank Jacob, Helen Pearce, Don Byrne and Dean Bolto

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Adrian Raison, Frank Jacob, Helen Pearce, Don Byrne and Dean Bolto

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Bob Innes, Glenn Liebelt and Heather Little

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Adrian Raison, Frank Jacob, Helen Pearce, Don Byrne and Dean Bolto

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Memories of Littlehampton

Local Legends

Date: 18/05/2021

Mr Glenn Liebelt, Mr Robert Innes, Mrs Heather Little

The Main street went through to Melbourne, very busy with big trucks and semi trailers. No freeway. It took 1 hour to get to Adelaide. There were accidents including an apple truck spilling the apples in the Main Street and death of some horses in an accident.

The original Post Office was near the service station, the current hairdresser was the Deli.

The Peace Hall had movies, library books and dances. We would cross the road to get treats.

The Great Eastern Hotel has stayed the same but with different owners now

Spring park farm was a big farm owned by the Nitschke family.  The farms stayed but businesses around have gone. OTR was once a service station, garage, bus depot,

The restaurant was a home originally. Once there was a Post office here.

Railway station was there and lots of trains took goods back and forth to Adelaide.  People travelled by train to town.

Transport in the olden days was by foot. Around 1840 bullocks and horses followed the trails left by the Peramangk People.  1883 railways. Trains could transport food and materials to Adelaide,

Cleggett Brothers had a daily truck which would  visit homes with fruit and veg There was a truck depot, then nursery, then fruit n ve.

The freeway made it safer - lots of accidents and 1 hour to Adelaide.  Now 35 minutes. The freeway stopped Littlehampton joining up with the sprawl of Mt Barker. We were able to keep our identity.

More people built modern houses and more cars on the road now. Train used to be quicker than car now other way around

Police used to sit inside Heather’s Father’s garage and catch people speeding!

For entertainment there was No TV, video games. We had dances, films in the Hall, a motocross up on the Hill, played cards at friends’ houses and we would play and talk and go on lots and lots of walks. People would know everyone and speak to everyone in the town, especially the Post Office. People don’t talk to each other so much now as they are glued to screens.

Special Xmas pageant, Littlehampton Football team won the Grand Final one year. Football club Heather’s husband played in the Grand Final 1968. Sky blue and red tops. Played at Langhorne Creek Oval  was in Mt Barker.  When playing you could smell the tannery ( yuk!). Tennis very popular.

Had good numbers for  tennis and netball, softball but football had few people for a team. 350 people in town so trying to get a team was hard and some went to Mt Barker.

Bob would get up early and shoot a rabbit, drop it back home to his mother and then go to school. His Mother would the cook it and they would eat rabbit pie for dinner!

Fireworks 5th November - Such exciting fun. You could buy fireworks from the shops and set them off at night. (Banned now because of bushfire risk in Summer and number of accidents)

Inside the house we had a radio and record player, no TV, later black and white TV on a big TV set then finally colour. We watched man land on the moon on a black and white television.

Glenn lived in his family’s 1885 house no power - kero lamps, now electricity

Nitschkes on the next farm long way away. Same family still lives here.

Glenn and Bob lived on farms.

Beautiful farmland everywhere and now houses. Heather had a neighbour, Mr Garwood who sold tractors.

Xmas cards made of tin given by businesses

School only the main building. Peter Miels teamed up with Wistow and LH won the footy.

1 teacher Mr Brokate  lived in the house with his family (Helen Raison daughter).

Heaps of fun - go down the creek to look for tadpoles, went off for the whole day, rode bikes, would wander through people’s property, collect mushrooms, shoot rabbits, play table tennis, walked miles. Heather as an adult walked everywhere with her baby in pram,  no driver’s licence

Foodland didn’t exist - Bell’s Store paid by counter in cage put money in a pod that was spring loaded and went to the back of the shop where it would be counted. It was called Serve Well with Mr Anderson. Pounds, shillings and pence. Credit only if well known. Shopping baskets, no plastic bags.

Playgrounds only at Mt Barker. Miels Park house was where the bakery is today, they donated land for a playground. First playground. School had iron caged monkey bars, hurdy gurdy. The “real” playground was a tree!

Littlehampton Primary one stone building 2 rooms. Music Room and office now.

Grades 1-2 345 stone 6-7 Mrs Praeter musical,  Riding down to Bungoor. Building

Bert Hill would empty toilet long drop toilet at the back of the school. Now proper toilets.

Classrooms very bare and stark. Sat in rows. Children had to sit up straight, prepare ink wells and nib, slate boards and chalk. Teacher very strict, never smiling and you would get the cane if naughty.

Senior Girls would prepare  morning tea for teachers. Some people would smoke cigarettes back then. Teacher wrote on a Blackboard with chalk. Yard stick 3 foot (90 cm) if naughty you would put your hands out for a “big whack” on the hands.

Walked to school - Glenn’s father and Heather rode a horse to school. We walked a long way to school about 1 hour  - creeks were found on the way to play in . Teachers were strict, some horrible, definitely not friendly like today. One new Headmaster made an example of his discipline and used a cane on a boy in front of everyone.

Heather had a mother who was a teacher and very hard on her. Tests on Friday - spelling, maths, no NAPLAN. We could do Maths in our heads with a calculator. If we didn’t get a spelling word right we would write it out on paper 50 and sometimes 100 times! Some teachers really made us try hard and that made a difference. We still can do Maths in our heads.

Every morning we would meet at the flagpole near the school bell for a short Assembly and say, “I am an Australian... I honour her Queen….” Every single morning for 5 minutes then we raised the Australian flag, and to the sound of the kettle drum, we marched to the classroom.

Guetsetner to copy material. No photocopying. No computers. No iPads. No whiteboards.

Farms everywhere. Just main street. 5 schools in the town Shady Grove, St James, LH, private schools.  Locals really valued education and fought hard to get the school and keep it open when numbers dropped. Families respected the teachers and wanted their children to get a good education for their future.

The pool was shut after the War WWII. The ruins are still there. Glenn’s Grandma said she got in at the end of the pool one day. It was freezing creek water and a mix of artesian water. She slipped and landed on the slimy bottom and gnarly drowned. The walls were later dug out and they removed the willows when Mt Barker opened the new Mountain Pool.

Photos were black and white. No colour in film. Had to make a negative, use a developer chemical the a fixing chemical to prevent fading, Black and white

Littlehampton offered lots of jobs at the Brickworks, Foggart and Jones meatworks - sausage, fritz, ham, Milk factory, hotel and shops. Train meant men would work for the railways.

Special occasions. A big Fibre glass cow and pull out tray of roast beef was a special feature of the Swagman Restaurant. Now a school

Everything today is rush rush rush - we had lots of time to explore and talk to people after jobs were done.

Wish we could change all the houses back into farmland….

Heather cleaned the school for 25 years. Liked smaller schools. We knew everyone and they knew who you belonged to. Family and community important Didn’t get away with things as someone would know something and tell your parents. Simple life but better in a way.

Yes, sad about changes in some ways.  Everyone looked out for each other. But now it is easy to shop.  Sleepers town we call Littlehampton where people work in town, shop out of the area and just sleep here.  The Hills are beautiful,  Built houses on rich farming land which makes us sad.  The freeway has helped keep LH identity.  Otherwise we would be a just a suburb of Mt Barker.

We hope the students love Littlehampton like we do.

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Littlehampton was once called Andrewville. Old map from the State Library Archives

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Littlehampton was once called Andrewville. Old map from the State Library Archives

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Memories - Littlehampton

Local Legends

Date : 20/05/21

Dean Bolto, Franck Jacob, Don Byrne, Adrian Raison and Helen Pearce

Notes

Before 2021 Littlehampton - 1946 - only two rooms in the school Years 1-3, and Yrs 4-7, both in the Music Room - about 50 children, school nearly closed when it got down to 38 kids.

Name - Littlehampton ? - named after the town in England but was - Little  Hampton

Littlehampton land like ? - We would catch rabbits with lots of dairy cows and potatoes growing right next to the main street. Traffic lights on the main road - all open paddocks with tractors working and animals feeding.

Glebe land belonged to St James church - purpose for the church minister to raise some money - grow potatoes or raise animals to earn his wages. Now an open space for the community to use and enjoy.

Milkman would deliver milk with his horse and cart and leave the milk into a billy. Butcher would deliver meat also.

First building in Littlehampton ? - Great Eastern Hotel possibly, house on the corner opposite brickworks, wattle and daub hut behind William Street with a dirt floor.

What were buildings made from ? some brick from the brickworks, cut stone, wattle and daub

Littlehampton has always been known for its bricks, Coppins brickworks, Childs brickworks, Littlehampton Bricks.

Clay bricks don’t go sloppy when it rains because they cook them at very very high heat to turn the clay into brick, the heat was so high it could melt any metal in the clay. Over 100 people worked at the brickworks at its most busy.

People shopped ? - many groceries, milk, meat would be delivered. Hawkers would go from house to house to sell clothes. Mount Barker was there and people would walk to Mount Barker to shops that were there.

The best buildings in town were the churches and the hall. There was a cheese factory and milk factory, Amscol, Foggart and Jones [meat factory].

My house was made of - local stone and local bricks, often had a sleepout/extra room added. All horse transport in those days.

Do you still live in Littlehampton ? - Yes Mr Adrian Raison in his grandparents house in the main street, over 100 years old.

At school we used ink and pen to write with - one classroom job was to fill up the ink wells. Breaking rules at school would result in getting the “cane”

Peace Hall - activities - lots of concerts for the community/entertainment, Thursday night pictures [movies], Debutante Balls were held there, dances, school concerts, one section of the Hall was a library which operated one night a week Hall was 100 yo in 2019.

Transport different ? - Horse and cart, horse, walking, bicycles, train going to Adelaide with a railway station down behind the main road. Stockyards behind the brick kiln and stock would be loaded onto the train, some were even walked up the main road to the train

Slit trenches were built in the school yard [WW2]in case bomber planes came, filled with water, we went in them to play and shouldn’t have - got the ruler smacks on the back of the legs. House and shop windows had to “blackout” the lights.

Change ? - lot more houses now, no running water [rain water and pump or bore water only]

Freeway changes ? - lot more people came, some left because they were not used to living in the Hills, main street was the highway to Melbourne

Entertainment? - Dean used to use staves from kegs and polishthem and then slide down the Hill behind the railway line, go-kart races in go-karts made by the kids themselves, football, cricket, tennis [fun games with friends not competition], kids had lots of jobs/chores to do too, look after pets

Life like ? - happy, really happy, we knew everybody in Littlehampton, all friends, we would shoot rabbits about the age of 7 or 8, milk cows/separate milk and feed cows before school

Old fashioned clothes worn ? - many of the clothes were hand made/sewn and lots were handed down from brothers and sisters.

Toys ? - mostly golden syrup or treacle tins tie a piece of wire to it and drag it around, go kart, buggy, make our own swords/bows and arrows, shang-hies/slingshots, dolls and prams, Helen Pearce would dress her cat upin doll clothes and pushed it around in the doll pram

School look like ? - 1 stone building and a shelter shed out the back, no play equipment we had swings, climbing bars, a herdy-girdy, play hoppo bumpo [hopping at each other and knock each other over], we would exchange with Nairne and play interschool sports with them - there was a fierce rivalry with them.

School uniform ? - ordinary clothes, no uniform, boys wore boots, girls would wear lace up shoes with skirts and dresses only

Cars were motorised by petrol, lots of people rode motor bikes.

Did you get the cane ? - Yes, the head teacher would order a good one with other orders

What did you do during the holidays ? lots of work at home, would also leave after breakfast and roam around anywhere having fun and had to be back home before dark, fishing down in the creek

Favourite school room ? - the outside, the shelter shed - it meant you were outside !

Did people learn lots at school ? Reading, Writing, Arithmetic - would have to write out the mistakes 50 or 100 times. School work today is so much more interesting.

Photo of a young Mr Henry Brokate (Principal 1937 - 1952)

As a young man Mr Brokate travelled by horse and cart to the East End market in Adelaide to deliver vegetables from Springton. After unloading the vegetables the horse led the way back home through the Adelaide Hills while a young Henry Arthur Brokate studied to be a teacher. He was Helen Raison’s Father and Grandfather of Adrian Raison here today.

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Littlehampton is a village in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia, approximately 35 minutes from the CBD via the South Eastern Freeway (previously on the Princes Highway).

At the time of the 2016 Australian census, Littlehampton had a population of 3,522.

Littlehampton was laid out in 1849 by Benjamin Gray, who named it after his native town in Sussex.

By 1890, the village had become a busy industrial centre with five brick works. Littlehampton Bricks was established in 1913, developing from another brickyard-Coppins-on the opposite side of the main road into Littlehampton. There were also a sawmill, brewery and various manufacturers producing jams, sauces, bacon, wattle extract.

Littlehampton Bricks and Pavers continues to operate today, manufacturing high-quality clay bricks and pavers.

The 1862 church on Main Street-North Tce and now Princes Hwy-was one of the oldest functioning Churches in South Australia until 2020. This United Church ceased services due to the COVID19 pandemic.

The first commercial collection in the world of any pasture legume seed was done by Amos Howard about two kilometres east of Littlehampton. This was of Trifolium subterraneum (Subterranean Clover). This cultivar was later named 'Mount Barker' and is still commercially available.

The Littlehampton Country Fire Service (CFS) is the volunteer fire service of Littlehampton. They are part of the Heysen group.

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Littlehampton, South Australia - Wikipedia

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Littlehampton is a village in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia, approximately 35 minutes from the CBD via the South Eastern Freeway (previously on the Princes Highway). At the time of the 2016 Australian census, Littlehampton had a population of 3,522. Littlehampton was laid out in 1849 by Benjamin Gray, who named it after his native town in Sussex.

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History of the Littlehampton Primary School

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History of the Littlehampton Primary School

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The history of Littlehampton Primary School stretches back to 1892, when it was first opened in the Primitive Methodist Meeting Room (located on North Terrace, Littlehampton) with 21 students. At the turn of the century, the school was moved to its current location, where it has grown and continues to serve the Littlehampton community.

One of the school's earliest and most influential head teachers, Miss Catherine Fawcett, served from 1898 to 1928. Her caring nature set the standard for the way we like our teachers and students to conduct themselves at Littlehampton Primary School. We like to think she was an early pioneer for our wellbeing program. Recently a poem penned by Miss Fawcett was presented to the school. She had written it to encourage one of her students, a young lad who had been suffering from illness. The poem now sits proudly amongst a small archival collection which includes school photos, samples of student reports and student work.

The school is also fortunate to have student registers dating back to 1892.

We take great pride in celebrating our school's history and regularly offer history tours of Littlehampton for staff and community members to maintain a connection to our beginnings.

Please take a look at our Centenary Booklet, published in 2000 to celebrate 100 years of schooling at Littlehampton.

Take a History Tour
Glenn & Karen Liebelt
P: 8391 2696

Garth Boomer Memorial

We're proud to list Garth Boomer, past Deputy Director of Education for South Australia, as a former student of Littlehampton Primary School. Garth was an educator with a national and international reputation whose educational ideas are still used today.

The Garth Boomer Trust Fund was originally established in 1998 to fund high quality literature for the library which proudly bears his name. Later, with a grant from the Minister of Education, the Trust was used to fund the "Boomerimba" - a river red gum bench in the shape of a boomerang, which is actually a tuned musical instrument and joyfully played by our students each day.

We also recognise Garth with our Annual Garth Boomer Literacy Prize - our highest achievement award - which is sponsored by Littlehampton Community Association and awarded to the Year 7 student with the best portfolio of writing.

Former students and scholars

If you're a former student of Littlehampton Primary School, you might like to:

Receive information on school events, including history days

Visit the school for a school tour or event

Keep in touch with other old scholars

Donate old photos, report cards, exercise books, projects, or write down your stories and memories of the school

Old Scholar Registration Form

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History of Littlehampton Primary School | Founded 1892

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The history of Littlehampton Primary School stretches back to 1892, when it was first opened in the Primitive Methodist Meeting Room (located on North Terrace, Littlehampton) with 21 students. At the turn of the century, the school was moved to its current location, where it has grown and continues to serve the Littlehampton community.

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Littlehampton was laid out in 1849 by Benjamin Gray who named it after his native town in Sussex. By 1890 Littlehampton had become a busy industrial area. There were factories producing bricks, jam, sauces, bacon, wattle extract, a brewery and a sawmill.

Today Littlehampton Bricks continues operation, manufacturing high quality clay building bricks and pavers, as well as a range of refractory and insulating bricks. It was established in 1913 developing from another brickyard Coppins which was on the other side of the road.

You will also find one of SA's oldest churches on the main street of Littlehampton (built 1862) that is still being used today.

Littlehampton today is a thriving community, and providing a wonderful lifestyle for the many residents who live there.

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Littlehampton Tourism Information Section by Adelaide Hills On-Line.
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History of Littlehampton, Adelaide Hills On-Line

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Littlehampton was laid out in 1849 by Benjamin Gray who named it after his native town in Sussex. By 1890 Littlehampton had become a busy industrial area. There were factories producing bricks, jam, sauces, bacon, wattle extract, a brewery and a sawmill.