Bramcote was the original name of a subdivision in Barnsley to the west of Slatey Creek.
The Bramcote township was advertised from 8 July 1882 through to 19 August 1882, when an auction was to be held. Rain delayed the auction until 2 September 1882.
The advertisement spruiks the transport amenity of Bramcote, having frontages to the Cooranbong and Wallsend roads and being at the junction of the Minmi road.
The advertisement also states that Bramcote is close to “the deep waters of Cockle Creek” which is “navigable for steamers.” Measurement in Google Earth shows that Bramcote would have been about half a mile from Cockle Creek.
The third transport feature spruiked in the advertisement was that Bramcote “is within four hundred yards of the proposed Railway Connecting Waratah with Sydney.” This claim was a highly questionable one to make at this time. A number of trial surveys of different routes and various deviations for the Sydney to Newcastle railway had been made in 1879 and 1880. An 1881 map for the neighbouring Highgate subdivision shows a railway route beside Cockle Creek. However even by early 1881 it appears that the Government had settled on a more easterly route that came through the Tickhole tunnel, Cardiff and then Teralba. This led to much dissatisfaction from some, who wanted the rail line to pass through the mining townships of Lambton and Wallsend. A municipal conference was held in April 1881 to agitate for their preferred route. Despite the protestations, the Government decided on the final (current) route in May 1883, and Bramcote and Highgate lost their railway.
This page is part of the collection of Newcastle’s Obsolete Place Names.