IntervieweeNancy HorneInterviewerKaren RichardsonRecorderMary RyderDescriptionNancy Irene Oakley Horne (nee Armstrong) was born in 1925 in Albany, Western Australia. She was the daughter of Wilfred and Fanny Armstrong and grew up on their sheep farm, ‘Woolonga’, 11 miles out of the West Australian town of Cranbrook. It is in her early years where she forms a lifelong love of the land and farming.
Nan was educated in the small Yarralena bush primary school with 13 other pupils and later was awarded a scholarship to attend Albany High School. Once leaving school in 1942 she fulfilled her dream of becoming a school teacher after completing a year of teaching while being monitored in the classroom and then studied at Claremont Teachers College. She taught in WA during the war years until regulation meant she had to leave teaching once she married Ray Horne at the age of 21.
After starting their married life and a family in Perth, Nan and Ray Horne moved to New South Wales where Ray’s family lived. It is in New South Wales where they started poultry farming, first in Quaker’s Hill then later in Cherrybrook which was then known as West Pennant Hills.
During the half hour interview, Nan went into some detail about her husband’s connection to Samuel Henry Horne, the ex-convict turned hero policeman, from whom Hornsby gets its name. Nan also describes the changes she has witnessed to the once isolated town of West Pennant Hills/Cherrybrook, with its dirt roads, farming culture and green-belt status, as well as her feelings about the urbanisation she has witnessed in her 55 years of living in the district.
Nan was 93 years of age at the time of the interview. She speaks clearly and confidently during the interview and had a brilliant memory of names, places and dates. She became quite animated while talking about her late husband’s family connection to Samuel Horne. Nan communicated the interesting story well and in great detail. The quality of the recording is good, with very little extraneous noise apart from the occasional faint bird call sounds and passing aeroplanes overhead.
The strength of this interview is Nan Horne’s detailed articulation of her life and thoughts which gives a wonderful insight of a wife, mother of five, poultry farmer, Sunday school superintendent and school teacher in the period before serving 21 years in local politics with Hornsby Shire Council. DateFebruary 9 2018LocationCherrybrookKeywordsNancy HorneWest Pennant HillsCherrybrookHorne, Samuel Henry Hornsby Shire CouncilCouncillors
