Three Photos of Port Link Five Generations of my Family

Whilst converting a terrace house in Bay Street to a photography studio in the 1970s, one of my memories of Port was the delicious smell of baking biscuits from the Swallows factory, not one you’d associate with an industrial area. Lydia, my paternal grandmother, had worked there back in the early 1900s.

I took this photo for inclusion in “The Borough and its People” to symbolise the transformation of the suburb from industrial to residential over the thirty years I worked here.

Just up Bay Street from the studio site is the Holy Trinity Church redevelopment. After joining the Society when I retired, I discovered that Lydia’s parents, James and Anna Elizabeth Pugsley, had been married in the earlier pre-fabricated iron church there back in 1882.

Anna Elizabeth Thorpe’s family lived in Ross Street. Her father, with the unusual name of Squire, is listed as being a candle maker and he likely worked for Kitchens, although 50 years before this photo of the Candle Room was taken. James’ family ran rendering works down the river end of Ingles Street. Kitchens would’ve been a likely customer and likely link for the families to come together.

John Kirby