Beacroft’s Corner

From 1885 to 1980 this site was known to be changing hands to local butchers.

Download the Beacroft's Butchers poster (pdf 323kb)

Walter “Wally” Williams’ “Newmarket Butchery” Shop opened in 1908 and closed in 1913.The location was most notably known as “Beacroft’s Corner” by George Beacroft whose famous butchery was open between 1923 and 1925.

Walter “Wally” Williams’ “Newmarket Butchery” Shop in 1908
Estimated taken 1908
Unknown source 

Butcher Shops in St Marys

An early 1885 map showed a weatherboard dwelling on this site occupied by a butcher. In 1903, James Hope bought the property and for two years John Giles a St Marys’ builder built a brick shop.

The shop was leased to Walter Williams who in 1908 opened “Newmarket Butchery” naming it after the nearby cattle saleyards out along the Mamre Road.

From the day it opened until the day it closed it was always a butcher’s shop for 75 years and was the only business in St Marys to have had the distinction of serving continuously to over three generations of St Marys citizens, a record for what was for a very long time just a small country town. 

Williams remained for five years. Charles Adams took over for a year, then Timmins’ Butchers in 1923, George Beacroft until 1925, Fred Bull until 1926, William Everingham until 1928 and Charles Unicombe until 1936 when it was sold back to family Beacroft who became longest serving butcher of 38 years after closing in June 1980 after the eight shops in this block were modernised.

Beacroft’s Butchers Shop in 1970’s
Unknown photograph
Source: Late Bert Evans family photographic collection, the first St Marys Historical Society, Penrith City Library photographic collection

Interview with Lyn Forde

Researcher: Lyn Forde St Marys & District Historical Society Research Officer

Lyn Forde is 56% English/Scottish, 19% Irish and 25% European. She is a 7th generation Australian with two First Fleeters connected to Ropes Crossing. Lyn was born in Penrith, lived in St Marys, Kingswood and now lives in Werrington. She went to St Marys Public School, St Marys High School and Penrith Business College. Lyn retired in 2005 working in administration. 

Lyn is divorced and a great grandmother of four. She has researched local history since the 1970’s and she is a contributor of the History Page in the local Nepean News. Lyn was a Secretary of the first St Marys Historical Society and currently a Research Officer & Vice-President. She is also a member of Encore Historical Sewing Group at St Marys Corner. Lyn has researched and self-published several books on local history, it is the area where she feels at home and where she can research her earlier family and community connections.