Historical information

This letter book contains letters, sketch maps and plans and dates from 1920 to 1923. It came from the office of John William Crawley Junior, an engineer, architect and surveyor in private practice in Warrnambool and also the engineer for the Shire of Warrnambool from 1895 to 1935. His father, brother and son were also engineers and worked in that capacity or as the Shire Secretary for the Shire of Warrnambool, with the Crawley family recording a total of 132 years of service to the Shire. The letter book was passed onto John Crawley’s son, Rolf, the engineer for the Shire of Warrnambool from 1935 to 1968. It then came into the possession of Michael Hand who took over the private surveying business on Rolf Crawley in Warrnambool. The Warrnambool and District Historical Society acquired the letter book, along with several other Crawley ledgers, from the estate of Michael Hand.

Significance

This letter book is of considerable significance as it contains letters and maps drawn up by John William Crawley, an engineer in the Shire of Warrnambool for 40 years. It will be very useful for researchers.

Physical description

This is a dark red hard- cover letter book of 1001 pages. The book has brown binding on the corners of the cover and on the spine. There is gold lettering on the spine. The inside of the cover is lined with a multi-coloured mottled pattern. The cover is stained and scuffed. The pages contain handwritten letters, sketch maps and plans and an alphabetical index at the front. There are three loose pages. There is a mauve stamp on the first page.

Inscriptions & markings

‘Letter Book 1920 to 1923’
‘Rolf. L. Crawley Civil Engineer, Drainage and Water Supply Engineer, Licensed Surveyor, Registered Architect, Warrnambool’