Estancia Las Cortaderas

Saga of a Family
and a Farm

Compiled and Edited by
Sheila Wright

   This fascinating history of the Bridger/Austin families spans over a century. It is told in the words of folk who lived on “Las Cortaderas” or enjoyed holidays there.

   It was notoriously difficult to farm that light dry land in the Argentine Pampa profitably, but these indomitable families were never faint-hearted. They persisted, against drought, hailstorms, grass fires, locusts, rustlers, robbers, diseases of crop of beast, accidents and illness.

    Then there were always the adventurous impetuous children to contend with - always disappearing over the horizon on half-tamed horses, or digging dangerous hidey-holes in the sandy cliffs. For the young the place could seem a wonderland of delights.

 

   In the early 1920s when the families acquired the land, there was no electricity, no piped water, no radio or telephones – no homestead even. It was completely virgin land where everything had to be done from scratch – fences, buildings, wells, the lot. Phyllis Bridger (nee Austin) wrote “there were some bushes in the Camp, and a willow in one corner where there were the remains of a shack. But no-one had really occupied the place since the Indians fifty years before.”

   Even in more recent times, living at Las Cortaderas was no ordinary experience. A visitor in 1971 remarked “it is so extraordinary to find this community miles away from anywhere – no other estancias in sight, and one-and-a-half hours’ fast driving from the nearest town.”

   The book is illustrated with many photos, some dating back to the 1880s. The cover was created from beautiful oil paintings by Rosalind Bridger.

   To order write to Sheila Wright at Kisumu, The Street, Wickham Skeith, Eye, Suffolk, IP23 8LP, U.K. enclosing your own address plus a cheque/money order made out to Sheila Wright please.
P & P is £1.50 for U.K. addresses, or £4 within Europe (surface mail) or £7 worldwide by Airmail (see below for other options*).

   
For those not wishing to pay by cheque, Bank details are as follows –

IBAN GB51 BARC 20 26 3470 9942 78 SWIFTBIC BARCGB 22

You may also contact Sheila by e-mail on sheronkis@hotmail.co.uk or by phone on 01449 766392.

• Sheila has written three family history books. The others are “One Family’s War” and “A Zest for Life” (biography of her brother David B. Jones, an adventurous Third-World economist). If you decide to buy two or more different family history titles the cost of each book is reduced to £12.
• Postage of course remains the same, and for “One Family’s War” and “A Zest for Life” postage for each is £2  UK/ £5 Europe / £8 Airmail worldwide.
  
  

ISBN 978-0-9555417-6-6    Price £14.50 Sterling (UK) (plus p & p)   Tel: 01449 766392

 

Home     Sheila Wright     Alistair Jones     Coming Through - the Long Journey    Drinkstone Revisited    
A Zest for Life    One Family's War    Guhreten    Estancia Las Cortaderas    Drinkstone School & Village     
Bon Courage, Mes Amis!    Murder in Meadowford Magna   Mischief in Meadowford   Contact