In 1907 a small shopfront was built in the main (Victoria) street for one of the "fathers of Hall" - bootmaker William 'Billy' Morris.

What Billy's shop lacked in size it made up for in activity, for he also operated a bicycle repair service from the premises and one of his daughters ran a dress-making business in the southern corner of the store. Oh, and a sweets counter. As if that wasn't enough to cram in a tiny space, in the 1910s, Billy also became the agent for a bank and although he admitted to being "no expert in the art of cutting hair" he was also the only barber within cooee. The barber's chair sat in the front right-hand corner of the shop. Gee, talk about a TARDIS.

Billy's old shop is now home to the JellyBug Treasures homeware store, but if you look closely, you can still see a piece of slate in the footpath which some locals claim formed the first step of the original bootmaker's shop which was demolished and rebuilt in a similar style the 1980s.

Opposite the garage-cum-mechanics is arguably the beating heart of Hall, the conspicuous Daughters of Hall café, which, outside of lockdowns, is usually abuzz with walkers and cyclists refuelling after tackling that track up One Tree Hill. This was the site of the longest-running general store (yes, they had more than one) but was demolished and rebuilt in 1982 using corrugated iron complete with replica facade.

Next door is Winarila, a restored 1901 pisé home, complete with hitching rail out the front. This is where Miss Jean Southwell lived while she ran the general store for 40 years from 1943. She was also the postmistress and Sunday School teacher. Check out the 1979 photo on the opposite page. 2c for a strap of liquorice. Ah, thems were the days.

Perched on the side of Palmer Street and within the grounds of the Hall School Museum & Heritage Centre is a rectangular concrete structure, the size of an over-sized bathtub. But no, contrary to what some locals at the nearby 1882 Bar and Grill tried to convince your akubra-clad columnist after a few beers, it's not a communal outdoor spa. It's actually a rare above-ground tanning pit salvaged from Dellwood, bootmaker Billy Morris's old digs.

Billy tanned all types of skins in this pit including cattle, sheep, goat, kangaroo, wallaby, rabbit, fox and possum (until protected by law), using the skins for shoe and boot uppers, as well as leather coats, hats, jackets, vests and furniture coverings.

The good folk of Hall must have been extra excited when, in April 1967, they finally received a reticulated water system for there's a water bubbler near the oval with a plaque on it celebrating the momentous occasion. Not that it works anymore. But what public bubbler does?

Until 1967, Hall had been reliant on rainwater tanks and three village wells. You can still see one of these in the park on the corner of Victoria and Gladstone streets. Don't fall in!

Snaking its way through the back of the park and behind the showground is Halls Creek. Prior to European settlement it was more a chain of ponds than a free-flowing creek and there is evidence of the extensive Indigenous use of the area, including stone artefacts and a scar tree.

The recently published memoirs of long-term Hall resident Claude Brown (1898-1990) outlines how in the early 1900s Claude and his mates built and sailed a boat on the creek. Really! My Early Hall Years is available at both the museum and post office. A good lockdown read.

Claude Brown's memoirs also document how after school he and his mates would often "get down on hands and knees" and sift through dirt outside the Cricketers Arms Hotel in search of teeth. And no, the out-of-place fangs weren't the result of pub brawls (this was Hall, not Queanbeyan), rather they were the discarded extractions undertaken by a visiting dentist who held monthly clinics at the pub. Ouch.

The site is marked by a sign and mature pine at the far southern end of Victoria St. Oh, and scavengers beware, I've already scoured the area for leftover teeth, but sadly report the tooth fairy won't be visiting my place anytime soon.

Squirrelled away in a small room at the museum is one of our region's most remarkable displays of indigenous artefacts. Hall School luminous alumnus and renowned local historian Lyall Gillespie (1919-2006) collected most of these historical treasures from his mother's nearby property "Reidsdale" in the 1950s and 60s. To properly curate and understand the significance of the collection, in preparing the display, the museum held regular days for members of representative Aboriginal organisations to inspect it and to provide advice. A must-see once lockdown is over.

It's all in a name: When the village was proclaimed on March 20, 1882, as "Ginninderra", its name was strongly opposed by old Ginninderrans who believed the original name of the adjoining village of Ginninderra (these days sometimes referred to as Gold Creek) should retain its name and that the new village be given a different name. The objections worked, because later that year, the name was changed to Hall, after early European settler Henry Hall.

Welsh Wonder: One of the more unexpected finds in Hall is Kynefin (a Welsh word meaning "a place where you feel at home" and pronounced 'kin-ev-an'), a cute country café where ex-Brit and master baker extraordinaire Geoff Whittall makes nearly everything in-house, including cakes, breads, and his famous gourmet bomboloni doughnuts (weekends only). If you want to indulge, guilt-free, in one of these irresistible treats I suggest you first burn off some calories by taking a brisk walk around some of the locations featured in today's column (after lockdown of course).

Show time: Between 1925 and 1963, The Canberra Show was held at Hall Showground after which it moved to its current location at the Canberra Showground (EPIC).

Where the bells toll: Hanging proudly in the grounds of the Church of St Michael and All Angels on the corner of Victoria and Loftus streets is the original bell from St John's church in Reid. The bell, originally cast in 1854, was donated in 1965 when St John's installed those new bells that recently featured in this column.

Pushing up Daisies: If, like me, you love Hall so much that you want to be buried in the bucolic Hall cemetery then you might be disappointed. Due to endangered plant species which grow in the cemetery, all available graves are fully-subscribed (either pre-reserved or to be re-opened for a second burial) and there are no plans to extend the cemetery. Bummer.

Clue: A loved church long gone

Degree of difficulty: Medium

Last week: Congratulations to Peter Nelson of Spence who was first to correctly identify last week's photo as the bridge across Halls Creek on Victoria Street in this column's favourite ACT village. Yes, you guessed it - Hall (It's ok Tharwa'ites - you come a close second). Peter just beat Chris Slotemaker de Bruine of Melba to the prize.

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and suburb to tym@iinet.net.au. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday August 21, 2021, wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.

Jane Goffman of Dickson is perplexed by this mile marker in a Lyneham front yard. "Given the location is very close to what used to be the Old Yass Rd", Jane wonders if it could be in its original location.

I doubt it, instead I suspect the BB stands for Batemans Bay and B for Bodalla and that a previous owner of the house somehow acquired the mile marker after a summer holiday to the beach. Does anyone want to confess?

On a trip to Victoria earlier this year, Anne Laisk of Weston spotted this "giant lizard" on a rock at Cape Schanck, Mornington Peninsula. "We spotted him while on a walk from the base of a long wooden staircase and boardwalk which leads from the Cape Schanck lighthouse car park down to the rocky sea-shore below," explains Anne. What a ripper.