Silkstone

Silkstone, a residential suburb, is three km east of central Ipswich and immediately east of Newtown. It is thought that the name was inspired by the village of Silkstone near Penistone in Yorkshire, England.

The development of Silkstone followed on from the settlement of Newtown to the west and Booval (on the railway line) to the north. A postal receiving office was opened in 1889 and a Primitive Methodist church the next year. Children attended the Newtown primary school until the Silkstone-Booval, later known as the Newtown-Silkstone, school was opened in 1915. Set on a large site, the school building is of two-storey weatherboard with ten classrooms. A separate residence was included and extensive tree plantings complemented those in Cameron Park on the opposite side of Glebe Road.

Most houses are from the early 1900s and the interwar years, usually positioned on large sites. Good examples can be seen in Blackstone Road, between Cothill and Margaret Streets.

Shopping is found at Booval Fair, north of Glebe Road, and Bremer High School (1959) is in the west of Silkstone.

Silkstone's census populations have been: