Taylor and Forgie Funeral Directors

**Fast Facts**
Type of organisation:	Business
Street number:	15
Street name:	Cowan
Street suffix:	Street
Town or locality:	Gawler
Date established:	1855
Established by:	WS Taylor
Business or purpose:	Carpenters, builders and undertakers

http://www.taylorandforgie.com.au/

The business of Taylor & Forgie has not always borne that name and they were not always funeral directors.

William Stephen Taylor was about thirty years of age in 1855 when he began the business Taylor & Ponder, carpenters and builders, in partnership with John Ponder. In 1865, Ponder moved to Kapunda and a new partnership between Taylor and Alexander Forgie was formed. This is when the business known as Taylor & Forgie was founded. Some time after this (possibly in the early 1870s), Taylor and Forgie extended their business to include undertaking in addition to carpentry and building.

After the retirement of W S Taylor in 1882, he was replaced in the business by his brother Henry Charles Taylor. The partnership between Taylor and Forgie was dissolved in 1901 after the death of Alexander Forgie and at that time his two sons, Alexander Philip Forgie and James Forgie took over the operation of the business. The Taylor and Forgie horse drawn hearse was made by Blake Coach-builders in Balaklava.

Taylor & Forgie were the most active builders and carpenters in Gawler during the latter half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. They built numerous houses in Gawler and were responsible for substantial additions to the Gawler Institute, the Police Station, the Old Spot Hotel, Taylor Brothers Butter factory and Sheard's Drapers (Essex House). As undertakers, Taylor & Forgie were responsible for the burial of many of Gawler's prominent residents such as James Martin (1899), James Pile (1885), David Fotheringham (1898) and Thomas Mankey (1872).

Taylor & Forgie's first premises were located in Tod Street, Gawler.

Please click here for photos relating to Taylor and Forgie.
Please Click Here to read Max Fatchen's tribute to Taylor and Forgie. Please <click here> to view slides used by Mark Forgie in his presentation "History of Cremation and Funerals in Gawler".

Please <click here> to read a Bunyip newspaper story featuring Claire Forgie and the Light Square Christmas Tree (16/12/2020).

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