George Menzies "borrowed" Woodley Cottage from his son-in-law
Did you know that “Woodley Cottage” in Maitland Street, Stockton, the celebrated home where our (great, great-great) grandparents were raised, was not owned by George Menzies? It was in fact leased by Ernest Woodley Warner in 1884 just before he married Annie Menzies but he never lived in it. He allowed his father-in-law, George Menzies and his family to occupy it while the Warners lived next door. Perhaps he felt sorry for Grandma Jeanetta who was raising 8 children. Ernest held a 50 year lease on the house plus a ground rental of £6/10/- to the Quigley Estate who owned all the best land in Stockton.
In 1896 Ernest sued the nearby Stockton Coal Company for £500 alleging damage to Woodley Cottage because of subsidence. He failed and had costs awarded against him of £205 pounds but when he couldn’t pay he was taken to the bankruptcy court.
A view of Stockton Coal Company's Pit from the tower of St Paul's Anglican Church built in 1890 on
the corner of Maitland and Church St's, 250m from Woodley Cottage. Nobby's Head is in the distance.
By this time Ernest was living with Annie and their family in a government cottage provided for pilots near Nobbys Beach in Newcastle (see photo to right, the houses below the cliff on the right hand side). The following year, realising that he stood to lose his job as a pilot if he remained bankrupt, the ever resourceful Ernest took action before the Bankruptcy Court to have himself discharged as a bankrupt. In the Newcastle Morning Herald The Official Assignee, a court officer, advertised an auction of Woodley Cottage and all Ernest’s furniture and household effects in his pilot’s cottage at Nobbys.
The cottages for pilots are below Fort Scratchley The newspaper announcement of the
on the right hand side of this photo. pending sale of Woodley Cottage
The household goods sold for £50 and after he called in all his creditors and sold his shares he was able to prove to the court that all he had was £80 to settle his debts. Apparently the sale of Woodley Cottage did not proceed. The Official Assignee even asked Ernest to prove his claim that he spent all that he earned viz his salary of £208/10/- pa. He had to produce household accounts for each of the preceding 6 months.
These showed that he spent £17/8/7 each month as follows in July 1897:
£ s d
Bread 14 9
Meat (to Tom Aubrey) 2 2 6
Tea and cocoa 15 0
Groceries 3 0 0
Milk 1 7 0
Fruit and Veg 2 0 0
Coal 11 0
Gas 6 10
Papers 5 0
Stockton Estate (1/2 year) 3 5 0
Life Assurance 1 4 6
Building Society (repay loan) 5 11
Boots 11 0
Ladies gloves 2 6
Rubber boots and oilskins 2 7 0
Building alterations 2 15 0
TOTAL £9 13 0
An approximate way to compare Ernest’s £s with today's prices is to multiply them by 100 to get todays prices. For example, Ernest (or Annie) spent about £10 on food each month which is equivalent to $1000 per month or $250 per week today. Annie bought a pair of ladies gloves for 2/6 or $10 and a pair of boots for 11 shillings or $55. They spent about $55 per month on coal for cooking and heating and $35 on gas for lighting, all this on Ernest’s net salary of about $21,000 pa. His rent of $100 per week had already been deducted by his employer.
Survivors of the 1896 Colliery disaster search party
Subsequently, on 22nd March 1898 the Supreme Court of NSW in Bankruptcy discharged Ernest giving judgment that a dividend of 4/5d in the pound would satisfy the court. Two years later Ernest took promotion to Sydney and quit Stockton once and for all. His father-in-law lived on in Woodley Cottage till he died in 1907 and his mother-in-law till she died in 1915, albeit she was staying with her daughter Annie Warner in Milsons Point in Sydney when she died.
