Author: Rod Kemp

Please see the details below of our special ANZAC commemoration for this year.

Note that RSVPs are essential and that COVID rules applying to the Coventry Library at the time must be observed.

Members are invited to attend our Annual General Meeting where our Principal Researcher, Chris Chardon, will speak about the 100 year history of his family’s connection with the Stirling area.

Please RSVP if attending and remember to abide by the current COVID-19 rules for the venue.

Celebrating the launch of the book by Hamish Cooper about the History of the Aldgate CFS, is our current display in the History Centre at the Coventry Library in Stirling

Once again our volunteers continue to catalogue new donations to our archive. Click on the image for a glimpse of just some of the items registered this month to whet your appetite.

Our History Centre in the Coventry Library is open between 2 and 4 on all days that the Library is open, so come and visit us for more local and garden history.

And remember that we depend upon our community to think of us when historical items are discovered, so if you are taking the opportunity of holidays to have a clean out and you come across something you think may be of interest, don’t throw it out, but let us have the chance to see it first. (Unfortunately we don’t have the space for large objects, but any written information, books, letters, photographs, films, slides, articles, etc may be donated).

We wish our members and friends all the best for the festive season as we take a short break from staffing our History Centre and Archive at the Coventry Library ourselves.

We will be open again on the 18th January as usual from 2 – 4pm on all days that the Library is open. Please note that on extreme temperature days the History Centre will not be staffed and on declared Catastrophic days, the entire Library building will be closed.

Of course our facebook page and website will continue to keep us all in contact.

We thank The Hut for the photos on this page which were taken at the 2019 Stirling Christmas Pageant.

And you are invited to participate in our closing event for 2021

Please remember that the COVID rules of the day will apply and you must RSVP as requested.

If you have not visited our History Centre and Archive in the Coventry Library in recent times (and many haven’t for reasons we all know about), here is a quick glimpse of some of the new items which have arrived and been catalogued by our hard-working volunteers during September.

Many thanks to all of the people who donate the historical items which continue to expand our collection and provide a wonderful resource for historians, not just locally but worldwide via our digital presence.

New Acquisitions September 2021

A unique opportunity to hear from family historian Beth Robertson about the well-known local Stirling Family and their past connections to slavery.

This will be a popular event and is constrained in numbers by COVID restrictions, so book early to avoid disappointment.

Our History Centre and Archive in the Coventry Library is currently open again for visitors in compliance with the COVID-19 restrictions in place within the Adelaide Hills Council buildings.

Our volunteers will be available to assist you in your historical research, but you must comply with the COVID-19 restrictions in place within the Adelaide Hills Council buildings. This requires you to wear a mask at all times and to follow the QR code check-in procedure and any other rules in place at the time of your visit.

We hope this is a sign of more freedom to come, but we accept the need to be cautious at present.

We are open on all days that the library is open, between the times of 2 and 4pm

On the 1st September each year we celebrate “Wattle Day”.

The tradition was born many years ago and has unfortunately slowly faded away. Of course we all still see the many wattles in flower at this time of year but we may not take the time to reflect on their place in our history.

Liz Hansman has updated her article on Wattle Day to include the “Wattle and Daub” method of early house construction. You can read about all things wattle by clicking here.