Oldbury Farm

Oldbury Farm
Location of Oldbury Farm in New South Wales
Location Oldbury Road, Moss Vale, Wingecarribee Shire, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates 34°31′49″S 150°18′32″E / 34.5302°S 150.3088°E / -34.5302; 150.3088Coordinates: 34°31′49″S 150°18′32″E / 34.5302°S 150.3088°E / -34.5302; 150.3088
Built 1822–1828
Official name: Oldbury Farm
Type state heritage (landscape)
Designated 2 April 1999
Reference no. 488
Type Homestead Complex
Category Farming and Grazing

Oldbury Farm is a heritage-listed residence at Oldbury Road, Moss Vale, Wingecarribee Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1822 to 1828. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.[1]

History

James Atkinson ownership

Oldbury was established in 1822 by James Atkinson (1794-1834) on 3000 acres of land granted by Governor Macquarie.[1]

James Atkinson was born in 1794 in Oldbury, Kent and was a farmer. He arrived in NSW in 1820 as a free settler on the "Saracen". The land that would become Oldbury was granted by Macquarie, initially 800 acres, with conflicting sources as to whether it was in 1818 or 1821.[1]

In 1825 Atkinson returned to England and wrote "An Account of the State of Agriculture and Grazing in New South Wales". Maguire (2002) adds that Atkinson published several papers on agricultural matters between 1826 and 1829 - the best known of which is the one cited above, which was favourably reviewed by English author and polymath publisher, John Claudius Loudon.[1]

Returning to Australia in 1826 he married Charlotte Waring, the governess of Hannibal Macarthur's children, and applied to the Colonial Secretary for more land (1200 acres), which he received, and then proceeded to build Oldbury in 1828. He built the first windmill and evidently started milling flour on his property as well as dairy farming. He was a progressive man and encouraged activities such as ploughing matches. At Oldbury he created a model farm which won widespread admiration.[2][1]

James Atkinson died in 1834, "a gentleman of considerable literary attainments and as a practical agriculturist second to none in the colony" wrote the Sydney Gazette.[1]

His wife Charlotte wrote the first published childrens' book in Australia: 'A Mother's offering to her children'.[1]

Louisa Atkinson

His youngest daughter Caroline Louisa Waring Atkinson (1834-1872) was born just 8 weeks before James died. Always delicate, she spent her youth writing and collecting and drawing animals and botanical specimens near her home(s) - first at Oldbury and later at "Kurrajong" (Fernhurst) in the Blue Mountains and on the South Coast of NSW. A keen horse rider, she would set out on horseback to gain access to deep gullies and high ridges.[1]

At 23 she published her first novel, "Gertrude the Immigrant: a Tale of Colonial Life" which was to be followed by five more (some were serialised in the "Sydney Mail" (1861-72) and regular columns in the "Sydney News" (1853-55), "Sydney Morning Herald" and "The Sydney Mail" (1860-71), where her columns entitled "A Voice from the Country" were often accompanied by her own sketches. It was as a botanist however that her contributions were most valuable.[1]

She corresponded with the leading botanists of the day, including (making collections of botanical specimens for) The Rev. William Woolls (of Parramatta) and Baron Ferdinand von Mueller (Govt. Botanist of Victoria, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne), who named a species of mistletoe, Nuytsia (syn. Atkinsonia ligustrina) after her. Xanthosia atkinsoniana, Erechtites atkinsoniae (now Senecio bipinnatisectus) and the heath Epacris calvertiana also carry her name(s).[3][1]

Atkinson was as well as a botanist, a naturalist, artist and author of many books on native flora and fauna.[2][1]

Louisa Atkinson, her sisters and brother spent their earliest years in this house, garden, farm and surrounds. She became one of Australia's earliest botanical explorers. The first Australian native-born woman novelist (as E. Morris Miller's "Australian Literature" attests), Louisa was one of the earliest women journalists. She was also an artist of technical ability and great verve of expression.[4][1]

In 1869 Louisa married explorer and naturalist James Calvert (1825-84) who had accompanied Ludwig Leichhardt on his 1844-45 expedition. Always interested in horticulture, he won a medal at the 1862 International Exhibition in London for his entry on the possible commercial cultivation of native flax.[5][1]

Her regular popular natural history columns in the "Sydney Morning Herald" were re-published by Victor Crittenden in two volumes through his Mulini Press in 1978 as "A Voice from the Country" (the pseudonym Atkinson used for the articles - it was not common for authors to sign their work in those days) and as "Excursions from Berrima and a Trip to Manaro and Molonglo in the 1870s", which was articles about her travels and botanical searches on the Southern Tablelands of NSW.[4][1]

Louisa's first novels originally appeared as serials in The Sydney Mail and only her first two novels, "Gertrude the Emigrant" and "Cowanda, the Veteran's Grant" were published as books in her lifetime. "Myra", "The Debatable Ground" and 'Tom Hellicar's Children' were re-published by Mulini Press. 'Tom Hellicar's Children' paints a picture of childhood in the Berrima district and recalled her own memories of life at Oldbury. The novel recounts the cruel treatment of three children by their guardian uncle. They are dispossessed of their idealistic home as Louisa was when her father died and the whole family fled from their brutal alcoholic stepfather.[4][1]

Elizabeth Lawson's book "The Distant Sound of Native Voices" focused on Atkinson's writings on Aboriginals - some of Louisa's earliest published illustrations were of Aboriginal remains near Oldbury. Lawson's 1995 book "The Natural Art of Louisa Atkinson" Louisa's writings and artwork. Louisa was trained in art by her mother Charlotte, who had in turn received lessons from John Glover. Louisa prepared a book of her own artwork for publication, which has never been traced. It was to include the botanical and flower paintings, birds and animals of NSW. Ferdinand von Muller, with whom she had corresponded on botany over the years, had sent the book to Germany to have the illustrations engraved by experts. The book was never published as she died while it was in preparation and it disappeared. It may have been burnt in the great bonfires at Oldbury when the house was sold some years after her death. She died tragically in 1872.[6] She died tragically just 18 days after giving birth to her only child, a daughter, Louise Snowden Calvert.[7][1]

The avenue of English (European) elms was planted by James Atkinson, his idea being to continue them to Mereworth, as a link to his brother John's property, Mereworth. John's property, Mereworth is situated on the western side of the (present) Hume Highway from Oldbury and the two were connected by an unsealed road (now bissected by the realigned Hume Highway).[1]

Post-1834

Following James Atkinson's death in 1834, his executors decided to lease the property and sell the stock, providing his widow an income to allow her to live in Sydney. His widow, son (also James Atkinson) and daughter Louisa later returned to the property. Louisa's marriage to Calvert was held in the sitting room at Oldbury Farm in 1870. James Atkinson junior and then Louisa Atkinson inherited the property in turn.[8]

The roof was altered in form and materials in the 1920s.[1]

It was owned by Montague Nicholson in the 1940s, who referred to the farm as "Swanton".[8]

The house was reportedly untenanted for long periods until its restoration c. 1960s by J. McDonald.[9] The house had a corrugated iron in the 1960s.[1]

In 1983, the house underwent a total restoration by Clive Lucas & Partners, including putting the roof back to its original 1920s form, reshingling the roof, and reconstructing the portico and front steps, based on measured drawings by William Hardy Wilson in the 1910s-20s.[1]

In the 1970s, it was owned by prominent advertising agency figure Elizabeth Dangar, who was married there in 1979.[10]

A program in recent years of rejuvenation, replanting and revival of layed hawthorn hedges on the farm has been implemented. Hedge laying is an old European practice which produces stock-proof farm hedges. A similar program of rejuvenation of the garden has been underway in recent years.[2][1]

Description

The historic group consists of the Oldbury house, the garden, service yards and outbuildings and the surrounding farming property. The property also contains a swimming pool, tennis court and pavilion.[1]

Setting

Oldbury Farm is set on a rise at the north-western footslopes of Mt. Gingenbullen, situated at the end of hawthorn-hedge (Crataegus oxycantha) and European elm tree (Ulmus procera)-copse-enclosed road (some Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) and some Arizona cypress (Cupressus glabra) flank Oldbury Road.[1]

Surrounding paddocks are edged with hawthorn hedges, many of these re-layed in recent years in the traditional English / European manner, cutting their trunks almost through, laying vertical trunks and branches down horizontally or on an angle, pinning these to vertical stakes and encouraging coppicing shoots from the base, to keep the hedges stock-proof and dense right to the base[1]

Oldbury Creek winds through the property, crossing Oldbury Road which is unsealed. Copses of willow (Salix sp., likely crack willow, Salix fragilis) line the creek, along with hawthorn seedlings (from former hedges on the property)[1]

The homestead complex is protected by shelter belts of hawthorns and Bhutan cypresses (Cupressus torulosa). Some old and tall Monterey pines (Pinus radiata) to the house's southwest frame the garden and shelter it from westerly winds (strong in this area).[1]

The homestead itself is approached by a single gravel drive, with a large carriage loop directly in front of the house. The drive divides and a rear drive winds around the eastern side of house and garden to a range of outbuildings and service yards and the rear garden and paddocks.[1]

To Oldbury Farm's south-east and slightly uphill on Oldbury Road is Oldbury Cottage, a (at times) separately-held property on Oldbury Road, historically part of the broader Oldbury Farm estate. This comprises a stone cottage and outbuildings, with garden and surrounded by protective Monterey pines and hawthorn hedging.[1]

The homestead complex is surrounded by large exotic trees and lawns.[11][1]

House

Oldbury is a simple, two-storey, Colonial, Georgian house which retains its original joinery. The roof has a single pitch with a longer slope at the rear, covering rooms in which the floor level is lower than those in front of the house. At each end of the stone flagged verandah at the rear of the house there is a separate stone building - one previously a kitchen, and the other one a dairy. It has a separate kitchen, eight rooms, a hall, passages, offices and cellar beneath. It is built of stone, with a (non original) timber shingle roof and has a simple, Doric, timber portico. It has small paned casement windows and six panelled doors set in panelled jambs with elaborate architraves. The entrance door is a wide pair of French windows with Georgian glazing. The wide entrance hall with a timber, cantilevered stair, beneath which a door with a semi-circular fanlight leads to the rear of the house, is particularly fine. In the living room, to the left of the hall on entering, is a cedar fireplace of unusual design and good craftsmanship. The cellars are formed by the deep foundations and paved with brick and stone. Its ceilings are lined with lathe and plaster. The house is in good condition.[1]

Garden

From the gates (modern) a short straight section of drive leads into a large circular carriage loop. A level, approximately semi circular area before the house is raised above the carriage drive and approached from it by stone steps from which a straight central stone flagged path leads to the house.[1]

Old illustrations suggest that this garden before the house was formerly hedged and there is evidence of a gate being set at the top of the steps. The eastern side of this terrace has been roughly stone flagged in recent years.[1]

The garden was sheltered on the west by a border planting of old and tall Monterey pines (Pinus radiata); however, all but one has been removed in recent years. It retains a Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodara) to the house's southwest. Some older oaks (Quercus sp.) in front and east of the house and old Mediterranean cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) to the house's rear/south.[1]

A modern drive branches off the carriage loop near (south-east of) the house to lead to the garages converted from outbuildings to the house's south-east and replacing the older service drive to the east which was separate to the main drive.[1]

Although the terrace and carriage circle appear to be of mid nineteenth century form, it is possible that they are not contemporary.[12][1]

One large old Monterey pine to the east of the house and side drive remains and other younger Monterey pines to the house's east. Otherwise apart from the many old elms on the garden's edges, the road and paddocks, some very old shrubs, such as common lilac (Syringa vulgaris cv.), Cotoneaster sp., fruit trees such as plum (Prunus domestica cv.), apple (Malus sylvestris cv.) at the rear, there is little more old planting.[1]

A range of modern planting has been added since the 1990s including an extent of Leyland cypress (x Cuprocypatis leylandii 'Leighton's Green') hedging to the house's rear, compartmentalising the rear garden and "home paddock".[1]

To the house's south-west are a vegetable garden area and beyond that, a line of Monterey cypress and another of Leyland cypress have been added to on the east by another of sweet gums (Liquidambar styraciflua). The space between the two cypress rows has been converted into a "native walk" or garden, with topiary shaping of native species since April 2013. It is intended to extend this up the slope of Mount Gingenbullen through native corridors in the farm's paddocks.[1]

In particular since c. 2013 a programme of rejuvenation of the garden and farm has been underway. Old flagged paths have been relaid in sandstone. Adjoining areas of farm paddock have been incorporated into the garden as "nature garden", magnolia walk, prairie garden and arboretum (tree collection). The aim is to surround the historic core with parkland lawns and extend towards Oldbury Cottage garden, without disturbing the historic character of Oldbury. Landscape designers Chris and Charlotte Webb advised on design and plant selection to the two gardeners on site.[2][1]

Under the elms at the front gate and drive thousands of European bluebells (Endymion non-scriptus) have been planted for their blue spring flowers. Benches and a small bridge over the new stream or prairie garden have been added. The latter is planted with perennials and decorative grasses in 2013. This creek flows when there is enough rain to overflow the large farm dam above (south-east of the house).[1]

To the northeast of the dam and house garden a new 5 acre arboretum with a loop walk has been created since 2013, in converted farm paddocks. A pinetum (collection of pine species), native garden, firepit and lookout on the top of the spur to the north-east have been added. At the top end of the loop walk is a new hedge of hawthorn, as part of an ongoing program of farm hawthorn hedge relaying and replanting. At the bottom near the dam is a very old hedge relayed in 2012.[1]

On the western side of the house, broadleaf trees have been planted. On the east side, the Chinese pistachio (Pistacia chinensis) and golden elm (Ulmus x hollandica 'Lutescens'). Hybrid plane trees (Platanus x hybrida) flank the side drive to the house's east.[1]

Heritage listing

Oldbury Farm Group is significant as one of the earliest farms in the area and because of the quality and high degree of intactness of the main homestead. The significance of the site is further enhanced by its large and attractively landscaped grounds - which include numerous mature early 19th century trees - and through its association with James and Caroline Louisa Atkinson.[1]

Oldbury is significant as an early and stylistically rare representative of Colonial Georgian country house (its lack of a verandah making it a reasonable contemporary English Georgian farmhouse). The building's significance is further enhanced by its extensive and attractively landscaped setting with mature 19th century trees, the quality of its original craftsmanship and detailing, its aesthetic integrity and the high degree of intactness of original features and fabric (assisted by careful and appropriate conservation). Oldbury resembles a small English farmhouse, particularly in its setting of English trees which do well in this locality. Its style is unusual in Australia, and it is an interesting example of the good building craftsmanship of the time, in what was in 1828 quite a remote area of settlement (National Trust of Australia (NSW), 1981).[1]

The importance of the garden relies solely on its rare surviving layout - the rare combination of a small, formerly enclosed, "cottage" garden before the house, giving onto an impressively scaled carriage circle.[1]

The use of small enclosed gardens before homesteads appears to have been quite common once but few are now intact, their boundaries having been extended. Few appear to have been raised and as carefully formed as that at Oldbury, or formed in conjunction with a carriage loop. A similar raised garden but without a carriage loop survives at Meadowvale, Appin. There is no planting of special interest [13][1]

Oldbury Farm was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 "Oldbury Farm, New South Wales State Heritage Register (NSW SHR) Number H00488". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Office of Environment and Heritage. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Oldbury Farm, 2014
  3. ↑ Maguire, 2002, 34-35
  4. 1 2 3 Crittendon, 1996, 18-19
  5. ↑ Maguire, 2002, 35
  6. ↑ Crittenden, 1996, 18-19
  7. ↑ Maguire, 2000, 35
  8. 1 2 "Early History of Moss Vale". The Southern Mail. New South Wales, Australia. 24 December 1948. p. 10. Retrieved 3 September 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ "A Gallery of Historic Houses". The Australian Women's Weekly. 32, (20). Australia, Australia. 14 October 1964. p. 23. Retrieved 3 September 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "Here, there & everywhere". The Australian Women's Weekly. 47, (30). Australia, Australia. 26 December 1979. p. 14. Retrieved 3 September 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ↑ Stuart Read, pers.comm., 30/8/13 // ibid, 30/8/13
  12. ↑ NTA, 1981
  13. ↑ (Survey of Gardens in NSW - National Trust of Australia (NSW), 1981)

Bibliography

  • Crittendon, Victor (1996). ‘Louisa Atkinson as Dianella – Louisa Atkinson’s Art, Botany and Writings’, in Australian Garden History, vol.7 no. 6, May/June 1996, 18-19.
  • Maguire, Moira (2002). 'Atkinson, (Caroline) Louisa Waring (1834-72) entry.
  • National Trust of Australia (NSW) (James Broadbent for) (1981). Survey of Gardens in NSW.
  • Oldbury Farm (unattributed) (2014). Oldbury Farm.
  • unattributed (David & Jane Newby) (2016). Oldbury Farm.
  • JRC Planning Services (1991). Wingecarribee Heritage Survey.

Attribution

This Wikipedia article was originally based on Oldbury Farm, entry number 00488 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales and Office of Environment and Heritage 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 1 June 2018.

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