Letters

More news from ‘Down Under’

Brenda Fallon wrote from Forrestfield in West Australia. She is one of the many descendants of Henry Blinco, the prison warder who emigrated from Hedgerley to Fremantle in 1864. Visiting Cossack in ‘the North Country’ she spotted a Blinco Road and was able to discover that it had been named for her grandfather John Blinco who was Head of Customs in Fremantle.

A few months ago a cousin gave her a piece of wood about the size of a house brick. It appears that in 1871 Henry invented an oscillating cross-cut sawing machine; so, instead of convicts cutting out one at a time, they could cut seventy. He patented the machine which displeased some of the other warders.

The blocks were used for making roads here and also shipped to England*. Brenda added “Now I know where he got the money from to build a house for each of his children, of which three are still being used!”

On 12 September the Blinco Family are getting together to celebrate Uncle Gerrard and Aunt Bette Blinco's Diamond Wedding Anniversary.

*That brings back a slightly painful memory. The blocks were used to pave busy streets in major cities where they reduced traffic noise, especially before pneumatic tyres were invented. However, with a film of oil and light rain the surface was treacherous. In 1951, in the Tottenham Court Road, I just touched the brakes on my motorbike, the bike went from under me and I was deposited hard on my rear end! [J.B.]