Eagle Foundry B&B

**Fast Facts**
Place type:	Building
Address:	23-25 King Street
Town or Locality:	Gawler
Year constructed:	c. 1870
Year demolished or re-purposed:	c. 1974
Built by:	David Thomson
Used for:	Foundry and now is a Bed & Breakfast

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The patterns for the detailed frieze work were made for the foundry by carving the design in lead or plaster of paris. No other mention is made of patternmaking facilities or machinery.

Ruth Thomson, widow of Hugh Gordon Thomson (known as Gordon), has said that as far as she can remember no patterns were made at the foundry. The foundry initially concentrated on the production of castings but machining facilities were added at a later date.

David Thomson died on January 22nd 1903 aged 82 and the business was continued by his sons, Daniel, David, Robert King and James Jack Thomson. David Thomson also had 3 other sons, Andrew, aged 2 when he died, Alexander aged 4 when he died and John, aged 2 when he died. There was also a daughter called Ellen who was born on 12-8-1854 and died on 4-10-1935. Davis Thomson’s wife, Elizabeth Thomson (nee Currie) passed away on May 2nd 1920 aged 92.

James Jack Thomson gradually purchased the shares of the other partners until he became the sole proprietor and remained so until he died in 1944. His son Hugh Gordon, returned in 1945 from war service with the A.I.F. and took over the management of the business.

By this time the amount of work passing through the foundry had reduced and only 2 or 3 moulders were employed. Some of the customers for castings were Kaesler Brothers of Hahndorf, the Woods and Forest Department, Hallett Brick Co and numerous bakeries. The foundry and machine shop catered mainly for spare parts for machinery which had been out of production for some time and replacement parts had to be manufactured. Pig troughs were also a steady product for this foundry.

Ruth Thomson, recalled the activities of the foundry during the years after world war 11 and remembers seeing the ‘four seasons’ seat being cast in the foundry but only a small number of people could afford them because of the increasing cost. When the foundry finally closed Mrs Thomson donated the patterns to the Gawler National Trust who had them put together as a seat.

After 1946 Ruth Thomson did all the office work for the business. This remarkable woman also put on overalls on cast days and assisted in the pouring operations, skimming the slag from the ladles of molten cast iron and shifting the weights used to hold down the moulding boxes while the metal was entering the mould. She delivered castings in the firms truck, often commencing at 5.00am to drive to Hahndorf, then on to the gasworks at Brompton to pick up a load of coke.

In 1952 Frank Burnett commenced his apprenticeship as a moulder at Eagle Foundry and was the last apprentice to serve his time there, finishing in 1956.

In 1955 Gordon Thomson was badly burned in a foundry accident and on returning to the works some months later, looked after the machine shop and ran the Shearer agency.

The foundry ceased operating in 1964 and the property was sold in November 1972.