It was just another grab in time from the pages of everyday history.
A photograph of a family, their pet dog, and some workers taking a breather from the slog of picking, packing, and hauling grapes up and down the hills of Glen Osmond. The caption said “Woodley Wines, grape picking, 1906“… nothing else.
I knew the location from researching a story for SALife TV on the suburb of Woodley that existed in the 1920s in the wedge where Portrush Road meets the South Eastern Freeway. But who were these people and what was their story7
l can now tell you the man in the shirt holding the hat is Horace Pridmore, owner of Woodley Wines, and the woman in white with the two small children is his wife, Amy. She, it turns out, is one of the pioneering women of the South Australian wine industry but one whose significance and story seems to have been glossed over. The search for more on Amy Pridmore led me to her great granddaughter, Diana Genders (opposite page), herself a woman making wine in a family business down at Mclaren Vale. For years she’s been the keeper of Amy’s flame in an effort to get recognition for a woman she believes has been “airbrushed out of history”.
This is a woman who ran a home, a mixed farm and vineyard, developed a reputation for one of the best nose and palates of her time and never took a step back from an challenge,” Diana says. “What she did to keep Woodley goin when Horace died was nothing short of heroic.“
Horace Pridmore came from a wealthy Coventry family and was sent here with fond farewells and pockets full of pounds.
He bought Woodley in 1892. In 1898 he married Amy Bowen, the youngest daughter of the woman who ran the Glen Osmond Post Office and they had two boys, Hugh and Roy ... they‘re the little ones in the picture.
Our first colonial treasurer, Osmond Gilles, created the winery in the late 1850s and also built a very handsome home nearby called Glen Osmond Villa. When “O. G.” died, his brother Lewis moved in and re-named the home and property Woodley to honour his wife‘s family.
Perhaps it was Horace Pridmore‘s prominence in the fledgling wine industry that relegated his wife to the cast of extras. He was president of the Vigneron‘s Association from 1899 to 1902 and a key player in breaking down interstate trade barriers and developing markets.
The year the picture was taken, May Vivienne, an opera singer turned travel writer, described Woodley as “one of the most beautiful vineyards in the state“.
That would have been little consolation for Amy Pridmore when Horace died a year later.
She was just 29, with two small boys and a caveat on the property that left her no option but to keep it going until Hugh turned 21. Diana Genders describes it as “less of an inheritance and more of a life sentence“.
“Horace was obviously concerned that some marauding second husband would come along and his offspring would inherit the legacy that he built for his own sons, and Amy was literally imprisoned with that,” Diana says.
“She couldn‘t sell it she couldn‘t leave it – not that she ever wanted to – and because she didn‘t own it she couldn‘t raise any capital to expand the business so Amy had no choice but to roll up her sleeves and get on with the job – and she didn‘t get electricity to Woodley until 1921!“
For the next 14 years, Amy ran the home, the mixed farm, and the winery with the help of a vineyard manager and a small staff, but every decision ultimately flopped back into her lap. Records from local building company, J Langley and Son, show them charging Amy seven shillings for “a seven foot pole with squared tin iron foot for mixing wine and spirits in a vat” along with hitting her up for three pence to “solder the milk strainer” and one shilling for a “new lid for kettle“.
By 1914 there were the added pressures of drought, war, and the Temperance Movement. That movement had become so influential Roy Pridmore is recorded as remembering his mother stating very publicly that she only tasted wine in the winery and never, ever drank it in the house.
In 1916 Amy married journalist and wine writer Ernest Whitington, and Diana thinks this may be another reason why Amy has been pushed sideways. “It seems people assumed because he wrote about wine and moved onto a winery that he took control of things, but records show that wasn’t the case,” she said
“The whole process of winemaking at that time was records of Amy designing and repairing all sorts of equipment and by this time, her skills as a winemaker are also highly regarded. You can‘t do that from a distance; you have to be in there, hands–on. Amy Pridmore did that for Woodley Wines, not Ernest Whitington.“
In 1922, life changed significantly. Oldest son Hugh turned 21 and Amy could finally sell some property to raise funds; that was where and when the suburb of Woodley appeared. It was also the year her kidneys started to fail after years of trying to fight off ferocious migraines with aspirin. Horace‘s sons weren‘t interested in running the winery, so she sold it in 1924. Two years later, Amy Pridmore died. She was 47.
So, how would Diana Genders like history to remember her great grandmother? “Beautiful, talented, extraordinarily brave, and a wonderful winemaker.“
“Her obituary mentioned her highly developed nose and palate which was regarded as being without equal, so naturally, Amy Pridmore deserves more recognition for her role in the history of Woodley and the wine industry in South Australia.”
