confirmed the strategic nature of his purchase. In the 1830s there was a long-established cattle drovers' camp and a "bullock wharf" nearby on the river, at the head of navigation. The creation of the small grid pattern township of St Albans in the 1840s brought more population, much of it Catholic and Anglican, purchasing town allotments in 1842 and thereafter. The Anglican church was opened in 1843, in the township, the Settlers Arms in 1848. A Methodist church was finally built in 1853. By 1844 Price and Mary Morris had eleven children, establishing a network of interrelationships with other valley families, but both then returned to England and never returned to Australia. Price died in 1867 and Mary in 1888. Price, Jr. is presumably the Price Morris who was buried in St Albans cemetery in the year of his father's death, 1867. Margaret, one of the daughters-in-law of Price senior, was "Mag the Midwife" (b. 1839) whose business brought many visitors to the Morris cottage until her death in 1907. The third generation included William Price Morris (1874-1957), a grandson of Price and Mary; his memories of nineteenth-century St Albans were extensively used by Mrs Hutton Neve in her history of the valley. After William Price Morris died in 1957, the land remained in Morris hands but the original cottage was occupied by Beatrice Rose, a member of a very early Hawkesbury and Webbs Creek family. In Rose's time a fibro addition was made to the house, to serve as a dining-room, while she used both the huge indoor fireplace in winter and an outdoor fireplace in summer. Rose died in the 1970s and the cottage remained unoccupied. Linton Morris and his wife, the owners of portion 26, occupied a modern house on the north end of the land. After Mr Morris' death, his widow continued to own and occupy the land, assisted by her children. The property is now owned by her daughter, Mrs Joyce Stepto and her husband Doug. The cottage has subsequently been restored and now operates as a bed and breakfast. Description Price Morris Cottage is a slab cottage with weatherboard extrusion on a levelled area supported by stone walling. There are five rooms with verandahs on three sides and a detached fibro-clad kitchen. The main house has one large external stone chimney which has structural defects. There is a surrounding farm complex of stables, dairy