Margery & James Anderson. 1944.

In 1944 Yester Grange was purchased by Margery and James Anderson - it had been vacant since 1938. Margery was an Alderman of the Blue Mountains City Council for sixteen years and was the founder of the Pioneer Way Association. A small park in Scott Avenue at the entrance to Leura commemorates her name.

Their daughter Joy later continued this tradition of service to the community when she became an Alderman and Mayor of the Blue Mountains Council.

During these years the Coach House, which had eight rooms and a Pigeon Loft, burned down while Margery and Jim were away on business in Lithgow and was replaced by a large shed. Writing in the 1980's of those years Jim reminisced 'There was a red-painted picket fence along the 500ft frontage to Yester Road with lots of climbing and bush roses.'

'South of this was the Home Orchard with about 250 trees planted in the late 1800's. There were lots of cherries, many varieties of apples and pears, a few plums and one solitary quince. Mr Dickenson the caretaker, who lived with his wife in the cottage, looked after it all'

'In the Coach House there were stables for two horses and one cow and the apple room. What wonderful memories 1 have of hundreds of newly picked apples on the racks for sorting. The store was filled with chaff, lucerne, poultry food, tools, harness, pitch, oil of peppermint, fruit cases, fertilisers and, of course, the Pigeon Loft. All this next to the Coachman's little bed-sitter with the open hearth offering a warm welcome.'

What a wonderful picture Jim paints of a time when the world was not so frantic. Margery died in 1973 and Jim lived in the Gatehouse for some time before selling Yester Grange and moving to a house he had built nearby. Jim died in 1990.

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Blue Mountains 1788 | Charles Darwin 1836 | The Yester Grange Estate 1878
John Charles Smith 1888 | Sir John See 1902 | Biography of Sir John See
Gil & Elizabeth Clarke 1975 | The Crockett Group 1999

Yester Grange Historic House & Estate
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