The Preston area from today’s Dundas Street north to the borders of today’s City of Whittlesea was divided by the New South Wales Government into 12 estates ranging from 312 to 1065 acres and sold at auctions on 12 September, 1838, and 1 August and 3 October, 1839, bringing prices ranging between 8/3d (83 cents) to £2.1.6d ($4.15) per acre, on average about 18 shillings, or $1.80 per acre.
At the original sales, the nine acres in Lot 144 that were to become Preston and Gowerville Park (now City Oval) would have cost £11/14/-, or $23.40 in today’s terms.
The first white permanent settler in the Preston district was Samuel Jeffrey, formerly of Tykernaughton in Ireland, who in 1850 purchased 40 acres from Major Webb, who in turn had bought 327 acres from Thomas Walker, one of the purchasers of the original 12 estates. Jeffrey’s land stretched from Epping-road east along the northern side of what became Tyler Street, the area later known as the Oakhill Estate.
One account of Jeffrey’s life suggests that he first established a residence in what was to become Preston in 1846 after arriving from Ireland on the Coromandel in 1841 and originally farming in Yan Yean, the account suggesting “that between his house and Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne, there was not another place of domestic abode“.
Many of the early settlers were also fellow Irishmen, which led to the area at the time being known as Irishtown. The report also suggests that at the time, there was an aboriginal population very much in evidence, and “Chinamen and bullock drays laden with wool passed through Irishtown en-route to the city“.
Although Irish, Jeffrey was raised a Presbyterian, although he later adopted the Methodist faith and his basalt and bluestone barn was used in 1852 for the first Methodist Church service in the district, stones from the barn now forming a small monument to Jeffrey outside the Uniting Church on the corner of High and Tyler Street, close by the original farm.
The area also attracted a number of followers of the Baptist Church in England, many of whom originated from Brighton in Sussex.
Among the more influential were William Tyler and Edward Wood, founding members of the local Baptist Church in 1859.
In 1850, Wood opened a store at the corner of High and Wood Streets (originally Mill Lane) which attracted the Cobb and Co. coaches of the day, and he was awarded the contract in 1854 to conduct a Post Office. Wood objected to the name Irishtown, and he, Tyler and other members of the Baptist gathering met at the store to formalize a name for the district.
Their preferred name, Brighton, was already established south of Melbourne, so they opted to name the area after Preston Park, a manor and parklands close to their home town located on the River Tees in Preston-on-Tees which they had regularly visited on church outings, our area thus having no connection with the city of Preston in Lancashire, England as some believe.
That village was also the birthplace of John Charles Clinch, later to become a prominent local official who instigated the move in 1875 to set aside land in Cramer Street for the establishment of a sporting venue to be known as Preston and Gowerville Park.
Clinch, just before his passing in 1904, recalled that one of his fondest memories was “sitting with some others in Edward Woods’ parlor and renaming Irishtown to Preston“.
“Preston”, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Place Names, is Old English for “Town of Priests”, the oldest usage noted as being in the year 1163.
Jeffrey, who supplemented his farming with some carting, refused to acknowledge the new name and continued to use Irishtown, both on his carriages and as his postal address.
“It is not generally known that Preston was once called Irishtown. A man called Jeffrey (I think Samuel was his Christian name), who came from the north of Ireland, was about the first settler in the locality and gave it that name. Later a crowd of settlers, among them the Woods, Tylers and Clinchs, arrived from England and were instrumental in having the name changed to Preston. However, Jeffrey, who was a farmer, refused to acknowledge the new name and and I can clearly recollect as a boy that his cart always had “S. Jeffrey, Irishtown” on the side”. (Interview with Alfred James Hurlstone, Preston Leader, 27 May, 1922)
The area around the Rose, Shamrock and Thistle hotel (constructed around 1854) was still known by Jeffrey’s original designation in 1865 when a race meeting advertised as the “Irishtown Grand National” with later legal repercussions was held, the-then licensee James Smith claiming “he was the only Englishman living in Irishtown”.
Prior to 1871, Preston and Northcote had been administered through the Epping Roads Board, but the size proved too much and thus the Shire of Jika Jika was created with three Ridings – Northcote, Gowerville and Preston, each represented by three councillors.
In May, 1883, representatives from the Northcote Riding (which had around two-thirds of the ratepayers) moved to create a separate Borough.
In 1885, the remaining Shire of Jika voted to change their name to Preston, concerns being expressed that “Jika” was also the name of a Parish which extended from Footscray to Thomastown, leaving those unfamiliar with the municipality uncertain as to exactly where it was.
(A report on the public meeting in the Collingwood Mercury suggested Gowerville had also been under consideration until someone claimed that literally translated into the ancient Irish, the word meant “pigtown” – perhaps appropriate as Watson & Paterson’s and J. C. Hutton’s ham and bacon factories were the two largest employers in the Shire)!
The Real Preston Park
While John C. Clinch and his fellow councillor’s efforts were to provide a lasting legacy for the future citizens of the growing village, the Baptist’s original picnic site in Sussex is commemorated by a much grander Preston Park, a 117 acre (400,000 square meters) public park (ours is just nine acres) owned by Stockton Borough Council and located next to the River Tees in Preston-on-Tees./span>
The current English Preston Park owes its existence to legendary English bookmaker, William “Billy” Davies, who bequeathed £70,000 to the Stockton Council in 1879 to purchase the original 67 acres.
The holding was subsequently added to several times, the last in 1947 when the Council acquired the neighboring Preston Hall, opened in 1953 as a museum
Wikipedia entry for Preston Park :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Park,_Brighton.
