Clydesdale

Clydesdale is a heritage-listed homestead and former seminary and missionary school (1859–71) and wartime hospital (1942–44) at 1270 Richmond Road, Marsden Park, City of Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia.

Clydesdale is a heritage-listed homestead and former seminary and missionary school (1859–71) and wartime hospital (1942–44) at 1270 Richmond Road, Marsden Park, City of Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1823 to 1885. It is also known as Lang's Farm; the northern half is also known as Echovale. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

The area was traditionally occupied by the Darug people prior to the arrival of Europeans. The Warrawarry clan in were recorded around the Eastern Creek district and are likely to have occupied the Marsden Park area. Prior to European settlement the area was thickly forested with creeks and waterways intersecting the area.Roads through the area were developed by the 1790s and between 1792 and 1860 clearing for agricultural purposes transformed the woodland landscape of the Blacktown area. The soils of the area did not support grain crops but they were found to be successful for supporting fruit trees and vineyards, and the area became well known for its orchards. Prior to 1816 Richmond Road was mainly an unformed track linking Richmond to Prospect, Parramatta and Sydney. The road was improved in 1816 and again in 1822.Clydesdale is situated on 700 acres of land granted to Walter Lang, businessman and India trader, in the Parish of Rooty Hill in September 1813. Initially it was known as Lang's Farm. Lang leased the land to William Walker for 91 years on his return to London in 1814. Lang died in 1815 and the land was sold to Charles Tompson in 1819. Although only working as a clerk in Sydney, he appears to have been engaged in trading, having worked as a merchant prior to his transportation to Australia for stealing two books. He also appeared to have the respect of prominent free settlers such as Reverend Thomas Hassall, Captain John Piper and Governor MacquarieTompson arrived in the colony in 1804 as a convict on board the Coromandel. He enlarged the estate to 865 acres by purchasing two adjacent farms. By 1822 Tompson had built a "good dwelling house safe from inundation" which he was offering for lease together with 25-50 acres. In 1825 a commodious two storey brick dwelling with large barn, shed, stables, outhouse, dwelling for servants and stockyards with garden and orchard was described as being on the site. 1827 there was a Georgian style brick, two storey dwelling built upon an 1822 homestead. Tompson resided there with his wife and nine children. The ground floor of the homestead orientated north-west toward a tributary of South Creek which ran through the property, has been attributed to this 1820 period.Charles Tompson jnr, who had attended the Rev. Fulton's school at Castlereagh prior to his father's purchase of Clydesdale, dedicated "Wild Notes, from the Lyre of a Native Minstrel", the first published book of Australian poetry at Clydesdale on 1 March 1826.When the 1828 census was taken, Clydesdale was a thriving community. Personnel employed by Tompson and residing on the property included an overseer, teacher, cook, shoemaker, stableman, two shepherds, two labourers, a hut keeper, herdsmen, ploughman, carpenter and a house servant. George Bennett, medical practitioner and naturalist, later well known for his involvement with the Australian Museum, stayed at Clydesdale in 1832. He observed that the cultivated land on local farms was generally located near the houses. Around Clydesdale were patches of "fine red clay soil, which has been found very productive when laid out as vineyards."Records of the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney show that Tompson was sent ornamental shrubs in 1835. In the 1840s Tompson donated land for a church to be built on the property. The construction on St Phillip's Church of England began in 1845 and was consecrated on 21 September 1846. The church was erected on ground on the eastern side of the bank of South Creek on an area which flooded from time to time.The 1840s was also a period of financial trouble for Tompson which saw him lose Clydesdale in 1850. A lease advertisement in 1848 describes Clydesdale as an almost complete estate, including church and a two-storey brick house with 9 foot verandah on most sides. The house included six ground floor rooms, a kitchen, laundry, washhouse and two sleeping rooms for servants. The upper floor contained eleven bedrooms. The brick outbuildings consisted of a six stall stable and coach house with extensive lofts over the top, bakehouse and rooms for the residence of several labouring families. Slab outbuildings included two stores, an office, granary over the stores, garden hut and other huts, barn and very extensive sheds for carts etc. All buildings were shingled. The estate, totalling about 900 acres, was fenced in and divided into securely enclosed paddocks. Approximately 500 acres was cleared and fit for cultivation. Three acres of gardens were well stocked with fruit trees.Clydesdale was purchased by Edward and John Lamb in 1851 and by 1853 the Plunkett family and R. Fawcett (who built a racecourse before 1853) had occupied the site. In 1859 the Marist Fathers purchased Clydesdale to replace their Hunters Hill property Villa Maria as a Marist seminary. The Marist Fathers trained South Sea Island students at the site until c.?1870. The first six boys arrived towards the end of 1861. The students came mainly from Wallis and Futuna, Samoa and Tonga. During the period of Marist ownership, the Hawkesbury River flooded 16 times, continuing to affect the property and strain resources. The Great Flood of 1867 caused the most damage to the church and crops and came within two metres of the Clydesdale Homestead. The Marists had sold Clydesdale to the Hassall family by 1870. The Hassalls also owned the adjoining property.During the 1870s the house was occupied by James and Andrew Broad, followed by William Kempton Smith. By 1880 the property was undergoing vast improvements following its purchase as a country residence by John Hardie, Mayor of Sydney and lawyer. On 18 October 1884, 250 acres of the 1,000 acre property was depicted in Town and Country Journal as being "under cultivation and the whole area divided into almost two equal portions by the main road. The church was still located on the property during this period, but constant flooding saw the church closed in 1887 and allowed to fall into ruin. Hardie was using the farm principally as a stock farm containing about 40 drought and blood horses. The house was approached by a long drive which the writer considered would eventually form a "handsome avenue" and included a broad verandah with ample lunges for relaxing. The interior was comfortable and useful rather than ornamental. It included dining, drawing and other rooms as well as a cool dairy.By 1903 Clydesdale was owned by George Grierson Kiss who was also breeding horses and sent 125 to Java. Kiss was a well known bloodstock dealer with a stand at Randwick and a horse bazaar in Sydney.Kiss sold the property to J. A. Buckland in 1919, grazier. A 1919 sale advertisement noted: "large and choice orchard, extensive and artistic shrubberies, a tennis court, lawns and gardens".Buckland moved to Clydesdale with his family and remained until his unexpected death in 1932.The property was subsequently sold to George Pottie and Bruce Pottie - a veterinary surgeon, who onsold it to Joseph Earnest James in the mid 1930s. This coincided with the subdivision of Clydesdale in 1933, creating Echovale on the northern side of Richmond Road. The remaining 548 acres continued as Clydesdale.By late 1935, Joseph James, a stock and station agent from Windsor had purchased the Clydesdale property which he ran as a dairy farm until the Royal Australian Air Force took over the estate in 1942. Forty patients were admitted and the property operated as a mixed farm.During the Second World War years, the house was partitioned as patients and doctors quarters. It was used until 1944

Clydesdale was used as a horse stud for many years. A 1942 topographical map of the area shows a well-defined trotting track with access roads to the north-east of the homestead.After the war, the property was returned to the James family who sold in mid 1945 to Miss Evelyn Williams of Elizabeth Bay. The property remained in her possession until her death.Associated Dairies Pty Ltd purchased the property in 1963 and was used for dairy herds and growing feed crops. A new, traditional dairy with 16 stalls in a straight line was installed at Clydesdale in 1973. Gradually less feed was grown and beef cattle were fattened on those parts of the property not used for the dairy cows. In 1987 a Rotalactor Dairy was installed.In 2001 Clydesdale was sold and continued to be used for cattle grazing and a free range egg farm.

Sketches of the house and garden in the above journal show and note many ornamental garden walks, one of them almost encircling the house. The principal walk, axial to the front door, was edged with garden bed edging tiles. Fine umbrageous trees were noted to shade this and other walks. Another sketch showed a scene at the back of the homestead, the stables and outbuildings and noted cattle grazing in the paddocks.An aerial photograph from 1947 indicates that some of the avenue planting on the approach had survived.

The Clydesdale House is one example of few remaining early colonial houses in Sydney's west. These places form a rough arc commencing at Bella Vista at Kellyville, past Rouse Hill House (c. 1818) at Rouse Hill, Tebbutt's farm, Hobartville and St. Mathew's Rectory (c.1825) at Windsor, Rutherglen (c.1830) at Richmond, and Mamre (c.1828) at St. Mary's. Hadley Park (c.1830) in Castlereagh, now demolished, would also have complemented this list. They each share a common architecture of Georgian style, with two storeys built close to the ground and with a hip roof. However, whilst the more popular form of the Georgian house has four windows and a door at ground level, and five windows above placed symmetrically, Clydesdale had only two windows and a door on ground level, with three windows above. A central lower hall extending through the building is also characteristic of the style together with a grand staircase to the upper level. Initial roof cladding would have been shingle, later replaced by slate, iron or tiles.