Old Mans Valley - Hornsby's Historic Precinct.

Old Mans Valley Cemetery

Old Mans Valley Cemetery is located off Dural Street Hornsby. The cemetery has considerable social importance and is listed as a place of local heritage significance by Hornsby Shire Council. In 2006 the cemetery was approved by the State Heritage Register to be an item of heritage significance to the people of New South Wales for its rarity as one of the few fully conserved family cemeteries in the state. The cemetery contains typical examples of late nineteenth and early twentieth century monumental masonry, and so provides a record of the design and skills of that era. The inscriptions and motifs recorded on the monuments are also good examples of the traditions for cemetery and monuments during this period.

Thomas Edward Higgins (1800-1865) was the earliest known pioneer settler in the vicinity of modern Hornsby. He was granted land in Old Mans Valley in 1824, with the grant confirmed in 1836. The valley was originally a timber collecting and orchard area and other families such as the Harrington family soon joined the Higgins family. The cemetery was consecrated on an acre of the Higgins grant with the first recorded burial of a Higgins child dated in 1879. The cemetery was established due to the difficulty of transporting the dead from the isolated valley to existing formal burial grounds. From 1879 to 1931 twenty five people were buried there and it is also believed that a number of stillborn infants are buried in unmarked graves.

Ted Angelo

Ted Angelo is a local historian, author and a sixth generation Australian descended from a convict heritage.

Old Mans Valley, Hornsby, is an area of approximately 11 ha adjacent to the Hornsby Quarry. In 1836 Thomas Edward Higgins, son of two Second Fleet convicts, received a land grant from Governor Brisbane in Old Man Valley, thereby becoming the first permanent European settler in Hornsby. Ted Angelo is a descendant of the Higgins family. He grew up in the area and has tried to record and preserve much of the history of the site. Artefacts and relics remain in the area such as sandstone stairs constructed by the Higgins family and a family cemetery. Ted believes it is very important to preserve and promote the history of Old Mans Valley and as such is always happy to share his vast knowledge of the area.

He is the author of Memories of Old Mans Valley and also later created and compiled a DVD Memories of Old Mans Valley Revisited.

Ted Angelo passed away in March 2022. He will be sadly missed.