RUTH Cotton had never harboured a particular interest in local history until she moved to Hamilton in retirement three years ago to be nearer to family.
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“I became fascinated by the visible remnants of the past I saw around Newcastle,” she said. “I wondered about the history of the old buildings and I wanted to know where all the mines used to be.”
Finding answers to those questions in libraries and books was not as easy as she thought, so Ms Cotton started asking around, and as she did, some very interesting stories began to unravel.
Three short years later, she has just published her second history book about Hamilton and is the author of an avidly followed blog and Facebook page on the same subject.
More Hidden Hamilton is a collection of photographs and stories about the suburb and its people, as told to Ms Cotton. Copies of the first Hidden Hamilton, published in 2014, were quickly snapped up, and publisher Hunter Press expects the latest edition to be in high demand also.
Intermingled with stories and pictures of mines, trams and old buildings are tales about iconic businesses, like the Pina Deli, Deitz Hardware and the Michelangelo Centre, as well as suburban identities such as radio doyenne Elma Gibbs and stationmaster Harry Nesbitt. The postwar migration experience of the many families who settled in Hamilton is also richly represented.
“It really does show that when you delve into a suburb, what a rich vein of stories you can get. It’s all about what makes a suburb,” Ms Cotton said. “The first book sold out very quickly and people then began inundating me with more stories. I realised after only about six months I would have enough for a second book.”
Her Hamilton stories have even spread internationally. When she wrote on her blog – hiddenhamilton.blogspot.com.au/ – about the suburb’s strong Lettesi community, who fled from the Italian village of Lettopalena after it was devastated in the second world war, the posts went viral.
“When I put them on Facebook they would get reach of 13,000 and 14,000, amazing for a little local story – they went all over the world because their community is spread all over the world,” she said.
Ms Cotton will be signing copies of More Hidden Hamilton at Beaumont Street Newsagency from 9am-10am on Saturday, July 9. The books are available at local bookstores and newsagencies and the Newcastle Museum.
Ms Cotton has worked with the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and local businesses to have 16 history plaques made and mounted on buildings of historical interest.
A walking tour taking in the sites has been mapped out in a brochure.
“I wanted to get some of the history integrated into the street, so I put up a proposal and we now have 16 heritage plaques,” she said.
“My intention is that they provide incidental learning, so that as someone is walking into the dining room of the Northern Star Hotel, or wherever, they will see the plaque on the wall and they may remember one quirky thing from what they read.”
