I do not know why the two houses on the southern side of Northwood Road, identical with each other, are different to the style of the other houses in Catherine Hill Bay. They are known locally as the gun barrel houses. There is a hallway running the length of the house opening into the kitchen. At the front there is a verandah, a bedroom with a second bedroom behind then a living room and behind that a kitchen.
Mr Benny Bridge and Mrs Arlie Bridge lived here with their four daughters. Vennie, Joan, Millie and Colleen. Mr Bridge was the fireman at the mine. Arlie Bridge was a local girl, a Wheatley. Her father had been married twice with a boy and girl from each marriage. Mrs Bridge and Mick Flarty were half-sisters. The parents lived their adult lives in this house and their daughter Millie was living in the house when it was sold in the mid to late1990s. The Bridge girls all attended the Bay school with Vennie enrolled August 1930, Joan February 1931, Millie September 1935 and Colleen November 1938. Benny and Arlie may have been the first occupants of this house.
A humorous story is told of Mr Bridge. Apparently he didn’t like the dark and one night he had been fishing at Middle Camp beach and was coming home past the cemetery. Apparently the grave digger had been at work (some miners had a second job) and fell asleep in the grave .As Benny came past he popped his head up out of the grave to ask Benny the time. This scared the life out of poor Benny who took off in great haste calling out “It’s time I wasn’t here”
The house has been sold.