One of Millicent’s most elegant houses was built from the proceeds of trapping rabbits.


So goes the family folklore of the late Lawrie Ransom who built his family home almost a century ago.


The much-admired stone symmetrical cottage was erected in Alexander Square in 1927 and it has only had two owners in all that time.


Lawrie died in 1975 and his maternal grandson Peter Holland and his wife Xenia purchased it from his estate the following year.


It has been their family home ever since.


The Hollands opened their doors recently to 40 people who were on a tour of historic properties of Millicent and district.


The tour was arranged by the South East Family History Group and its research coordinator Colleen Hammat.


Access was not granted at every property and the tour ended with afternoon tea at Thyme Cottage at Hatherleigh.


The Hollands are keen on family history and Xenia joined the SEFHG committee earlier this year.


As well as the house, tour participants could also view table clothes and other items used in the bakery and tearooms operated by the Ransoms in Millicent last century.


Lawrie was the grandson of Hannah and George Ransom who arrived in South Australia in 1851.


The youngest of their six children was Arthur Ransom, father of Lawrie.


Arthur worked in a bakery in Adelaide and came to Millicent to continue this line of work in 1904.


As was commonplace in Millicent for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the family home was attached to their business premises.


Until his death in 1953, George was active in such organisations as the Millicent Show Society and the bowling, gun and cricket clubs.


He also bred and exhibited birds.


Lawrie worked in the Ransom Bakery in George Street until the late 1960s.


He had married Ellen Battye and they had three daughters.


They, in turn, had one child each.


Peter Holland is the only child of the youngest daughter Betty Irene.