The area known as the Penfield
district, bordered by the Adelaide long Plains railway, the Northern Railway to
Gawler , Angle Vale Road and Penfield road.
Farming began here in a very
small way, the settlers, owning small blocks and living off their land, as much
as possible. A few sheep, cows and pigs
were kept, but the main source of income was hay farming.
The land was farmed with horses
until 1920 when some farmers changed to tractors, and finally horses disappeared
completely.
Native grasses were largely
dominant until the introduction of super phosphate caused land use to spread
rapidly.
Earliest homesteads were roughly
made form readily available materials.
Nails were hand made and roofs were hatched.
Fences were made from native
timers until 1880, when the last of this was used up. Without the trees, the area became quite
dusty,
Most homesteads had underground
water storage tanks or wells since no reliable rivers ran through the area and
settlers had to rely on the rainfall.
Hand pumps were also used.
Roads were scarce and consisted
merely of dirt tracks.
Goods were transported to
Salisbury, the nearest town, by bullock dray.
The journey took a complete day due to the slowness of the bad roads.
An increase in population , the
building of the township of Penfield, which was founded by Mr William Penfold.
The tiny township consisted of only a few buildings such as a shop combined
with a small post office in a private house, a blacksmith and a school.
The village site is now within the boundaries
of the Edinburgh airfield. Penfield Road
became a perimeter road around the airfield.
From notes in local history collection probably compiled by Historian Gillian Pearson, post 1978.
