Prior to 1890 the Bolton family had an impressive two-storey house – really a three-storey as it had a cellar with a cooking room and a wash-up room underneath – in High Street.

Lace wrought iron adorned the front of the house and a long balcony and verandah. It had a large number of rooms with one particularly big area for entertaining. This had folding doors of cedar, also a marble
fireplace. There was a spacious vestibule with an expansive stairway of cedar.

The yard was bricked and had cow bails installed. A paddock extended from the yard to Flavelle Street, planted with lucerne. Alongside this paddock, in High Street, was a gas lamp. The Gas Lighter did daily
rounds.

There are now three homes in High Street and three in Flavelle Street on this paddock. The cows were kept on a paddock in Majors Bay Road, where the closed Ritz Picture Theatre now stands.

It would be rather hard to get the cows across Majors Bay Road in the late afternoon these days.

The dairy ceased to exist in the early 1900s. Mr. Bolton died about that time. The house remained and was occupied by Mrs. Bolton and her 3 sons and 4 daughters. Four daughters and one son married. The other two sons were single and went to World War I. One was killed in action and the other returned home and lived with his mother for a number of years.

A few years after Mrs. Bolton’s death the house was demolished (about 30 years ago).

A pair of semis now stand on the site of the house.

Nell Gavin
(undated)

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