This story is told by Harry Owen, local history buff, and he starts the Scholefield Road story as really beginning in 1343 in the north of England with the first recorded use of the name Scholefeld. This is an example of a locational name, that is the last name (family) is used to identify an individual by a geographical feature near where they lived and is a corruption of the Old English words Schole which means a hut and Feld which means a meadow or pasture. Since then there have been many spellings of the name including Schofield and Scholefield.
In 1905 The Register reported that the SA Portland Cement Company had appointed Frank Sykes Scholefield to manage the Brighton Cement Works in Marino. At this time the cement was transported by road and it was hoped it would be transported by rail when the line to Marino was constructed. Indeed the business case for the railway was based on the income for the “freight from the cement works being a substantial item”. Unfortunately the Rail Commissioners and the Company couldn’t agree on funding for a private siding and in January 1913 The Register reported that there would be no siding from the Cement Works. At some stage a road was made to connect the works to Marino station and this road became what we now know as Scholefield Road.
On Tuesday 19 January 1915 an article on page 6 of The Advertiser under the headline WILLUNGA RAILWAY – THE FIRST PASSENGER TRAIN reported that:
When the proposal for building the railway was being considered the Brighton Cement Company wanted the line to pass near the works so that the output of the establishment could be put into trucks with one handling, or that a siding should be run into the property, but the cost of both schemes was prohibitive. The company has to cart its product about a quarter of a mile by motor trains, but probably some more speedy and effective method will be devised later on.
The article also observed that:
After Brighton come Seacliff (10½ miles), Marino (11½), Marino Rocks (11¾) and Hallett’s Cove (12¼). These are merely suburbs in the embryo. The through trains will stop at there, but whether stops will be justified for some time remains to be seen. At present the prospects are not in favor of big traffic from either of the places.
In 1909 a fire thought to have started in the powerhouse destroyed a significant part of the Brighton Cement Works at Marino. The photograph above is of the new powerhouse taken in 1913 is dominated by the 480 BHPsteam-engine. The three men are, l-r: William Austin, engine driver; Frank Scholefield, works manager and Frank Dinning, fireman.
Frank Scholefield married Muriel Effie Plummer, a nurse, in 1909 and the next year they had a daughter who they called Shirley. In 1937 The News reported:
We shall not be seeing that promising young Adelaide artist, Miss Shirley Scholefield, for some time now. For instead of returning from England with her mother, Mrs FS Scholefield, in the Ormonde next month, she is remaining abroad to continue her art studies in London. In the meantime she is breaking–off for a quick visit to Ireland. Mrs. and Miss Scholefield have just returned, I hear, from a three weeks’ visit to the Continent, during which time they managed to visit such fascinating cities as Paris, Munich. Vienna, Heidelberg (sacred to Student Prince memories), Budapest, Venice, and Geneva. home of the League of Nations. One of their happiest memories was a day spent on the River Danube. the “beautiful, blue Danube,” of which so many poets have sung and so many composers have written. On their return journey they paid a visit to the spectacular Paris Exhibition.
Muriel and Frank died within months of each other in 1950.
If anybody has any memories of or information on Frank, Muriel or Shirley it would be appreciated if they could send it in. The pillar memorial at the junction of Scholefield Road and Brighton Road was erected by the Brighton Cement Company in honour of thirty enlisted employees, seven of whom were killed in action during World War 1.
References.
- A Dictionary of English Surnames (2006)
- Brighton Cement Works in The Register (Adelaide) 1905.November 28th p9. 3. Willunga Railway Hitch in The Register (Adelaide) January 30th 1913 p2
- Willunga Railway in The Advertiser (Adelaide) 1913.
- The News (Adelaide) August 26th 1937. Special Women’s Section p2. To Continue Art Studies.
- The Brighton Cement Works, a Flying Fox and the Linwood Quarry by Sharon Collins and Natalie Wood in Smith, P.A., Piddock, S. and Pate, F.D. editors. 2005 Historic Sites and Landscapes: The Southern Hills – Marion, Onkaparinga and Willunga. Hills Face Zone Cultural Heritage Project Reports, Department of Archaelology, Flinders University. Volume IV. Kopi Books, Adelaide
Note: many old newspapers can be searched and read at the National Library of Australia at www.trove.nla.gov.au