May's House 58 Lennox Street Richmond

Reference: 40360

Bernard May and his wife Rita (nee Parnell) who were married in 1938, took their house with them when they shifted from the family farm on Pitt Town Bottoms to 58 Lennox Street in Richmond town after living for 26 years of married life on the banks of the Hawkesbury River after the devastation caused by the 1964 flood.

A removalist was found and the house was cut in half (with furniture and fittings left still in place) in the hope that it would be able to fit across the several bridges between Pitt Town Bottoms and Richmond. The roof also had to be removed so as not to foul electricity wires along the way. It was found in due course that even in its bisected state the house would not fit across the bridge over McKenzies Creek, near Pitt Town and spent a week by the side of the road awaiting permission to amend the handrails to enable safe crossing of the bridge.

After several more difficulties involving roads and bridges, the two parts of the house were finally reunited on the block in Lennox Street. Bernard had second thoughts during that worrying week considering that they should have just built a new house on the block of ground in Lennox Street but Rita was steadfast in her resolve that ’no this is our home and when it is put together and painted it will be as good as new’. Bernard and Rita spent many happy years together in their ’new old’ home in Richmond.