Woodford Academy

Woodford Academy

[media]The Woodford Academy, a National Trust property, is the oldest surviving complex of colonial buildings in the Blue Mountains, and a rare treasure. Built originally as an inn in the 1830s, the academy has been expanded and adapted to changing lifestyle and building fashions. It has served as a gentleman's residence, a guesthouse, a boarding house and then, from 1907 to 1936, a private school called Woodford Academy, run by rector John McManamey. McManamey's daughters remained in the academy after his death, ensuring its survival until 1979 when Gertrude McManamey gave the property to the National Trust of Australia (NSW). It is now a museum that offers a rare and multi-faceted window on the heritage of the Blue Mountains and its highway.

The site

On the northern side of the academy in what is now a local council reserve, there is a ten-metre-long deeply engraved groove in the sandstone slab, believed to indicate ancient Aboriginal occupation and to represent a 'connection line' between one place and another. [1] Human occupation of the Blue Mountains goes back at least 22,000 years and the area's traditional custodians are the Dharug and the Gundungurra people. [2]

The 1813 route of the explorers Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson, and the 1814 road built by William Cox's convicts, passed by the academy site bringing Europeans, whose desperate search for pasture had a destructive impact on the traditional way of life of the Dharug and Gundungurra people and the Wiradjuri, custodians of the western plains. Finds of bottles and coins on the site, which contained water and native grasses, suggest it was used as a camping ground by European people in the 1820s. [3]

Days of isolation and desperation

In 1831 Woodford was known as 20 Mile Hollow and the only building there was an illegal sly-grog shop along the Cox's road, run by a William and Mary James. [4] In that year Governor Darling granted former convict Thomas Pembroke two acres (0.8 hectare) of well-watered, well-grassed flatland to establish an inn to the east, overlapping James' squat. [5]

[media]By 1834, having been granted a publican's licence, Pembroke had constructed 'a respectable inn…having stone masons, carpenters, splitters and fencers employed'. It was known as 'The Woodman'. [6] This appears to be the eastern wing of the main building, which has five bays and a typical pattern of rooms for the period consisting of two large rooms with three smaller ones on the north and with a detached kitchen. [7] In 1835, in recognition of this effort, Governor Darling granted Pembroke an additional 48 acres (19.4 hectares) of land north of the inn, the more southerly and flat part of which was used for livestock, sheep yards and a productive garden. [8]

Until the mid-1840s The Woodman was a day's travel from the nearest inns at Valley Heights and Wentworth Falls. Today these distances are traversed in just 20 minutes by car but in the nineteenth century they were a welcome sight for travellers undertaking the treacherous, bone-shattering trek through what was considered a forbidding and dangerous landscape.

It was a hard and isolated life for the publicans. James' wife Mary appears to have committed suicide (with a little help from her husband), saying she would be 'better off in a better world'. [9] Thomas Pembroke and his wife Frances also suffered. Thomas was gaoled in 1837 for theft and Frances appealed to the governor to release him as she was an 'unfortunate and destitute wife' with a 'young and helpless family of nine children'. In desperation she had sexual liaisons with coachmen in return for material support. [10] Pembroke was admitted to a mental asylum and Frances later remarried. [11] In 1839 a new owner, Michael Hogan, agreed to purchase the heavily mortgaged property and inn for £450. [12]

A reliable and prosperous inn

Clive Lucas has said Hogan was 'a man of some financial standing' and his property appears to have been managed as a landlord – the inn was leased to a succession of publicans. [13] It was renamed 'The King's Arms' by licensee Josiah Workman in 1840, perhaps because of a close connection with the road maintenance convicts and soldiers at 17 Mile Hollow (Linden) and 18 Mile Hollow (Bull's Camp), east of the inn. [14]

The presence of convicts brought a measure of prosperity, particularly during James Nairn's time as publican. In 1907, three tombstones dating from the early 1840s were discovered on the site. They suggest a connection between the inn and the 50 non-commissioned soldiers, their families and the convicts. Furthermore, Captain John Bull, magistrate and assistant engineer in charge of the maintenance of the road, and based at 18 Mile Hollow, resided with his family at the inn for some two years, and a child, Frederick, was born there to John and his wife Mary Bull there on 4 October 1843. [15]

Woodford during the gold rushes

The discovery of gold in the Bathurst district in May 1851 ended the isolation at 20 Mile Hollow. Thousands of people from all walks of life travelled along the Western Road from Sydney to Bathurst, keen to seek their fortune.

There is no evidence to suggest Hogan carried out any construction on his Woodford property. [16] Most historians cautiously opt for 1855 as the year the extensions were built and when Hogan sold the property. At that time the inn tripled in size. The main stone building was extended on the western side and a suite of rooms was added on a first floor on the west of the main building. These tiny, low, quaint rooms are rare surviving examples of mid-nineteenth century building and are little changed – one feels the history as one enters them. A large two-storey building – the dairy – was added to the western side of the courtyard, and a more substantial kitchen was added on the eastern side, incorporating or replacing the old one. The arched fireplace and stone sink were installed in the kitchen at this time as well as a separate stable farther north of the kitchen.

In 1855–1856, the police lockup and mounted patrol station was relocated from Wentworth Falls to 20 Mile Hollow, on a 10-acre (four hectare) site that impinged on the western side of the inn.

William Buss purchased the inn in 1855 for £1,040. A former convict, Buss was renowned as a colourful character, reportedly wearing a scarlet waistcoat to welcome guests at the front door. Although still licensed as The King’s Arms, the inn was known as 'Buss's Inn' until his death in 1867. [17] Buss prospered from the onslaught of hopeful gold diggers and hosted, as honoured guests, the soldiers tasked with escorting the gold safely back to Sydney. The fact that he attempted (unsuccessfully) to sell the property in 1863, the year of the railway survey, suggests he saw the writing on the wall for the future of his roadside inn. [18]

At this time the ground floor of the main building consisted of a large taproom, a ladies' parlour and self-contained quarters for Buss, his wife and their six children. Additional accommodation for guests or employees was provided in the first floor attic. The taproom, or the bar, was the busiest room of the inn and still features a cartouche of painted grapes, peaches and corn, representing the fruits that were fermented to make spirits. The dairy wing and the newly constructed wooden ballroom to the north closed off the courtyard. [19]

A gentleman's residence and guesthouse

In 1868 Sydney merchant Alfred Fairfax purchased the property for £450 as a country retreat, renaming it Woodford House and making it the first substantial private dwelling in the Blue Mountains. The construction of the main western railway from Penrith to Weatherboard (now Wentworth Falls) in 1867 might have influenced his decision to purchase the inn. By 1869 the property was serviced by a railway platform, called Buss's Platform, located slightly west of the inn. The railway platform was renamed Woodford in 1871. Fairfax expanded the property to a 90-acre (36 hectare) estate. [20] He bought portion 17 with the house, a 40-acre (around 16 hectare) block extending northwards to Mabel Falls and portion 24, a block of the same size that included an orchard. [21]

The use of the house as a retreat for Fairfax and his friends represents a significant change in perceptions of the Blue Mountains. No longer feared as a wild and threatening landscape, the mountains were now valued for their fresh, healthy, cool mountain air and for their waterfalls and broad vistas. Land grants released in the early 1870s were taken up by a number of wealthy Sydney businessmen, who built substantial mountain retreats.

John Shiels was the first manager in the Fairfax era, having formerly managed Regentville House near Mulgoa. At an 1868 inquest into the fire that had destroyed Regentville House, Shiels stated he had a mountains property '…which I keep as an accommodation house' and had taken 'the house so well-known as Buss's, on the Western Road, which will in future be called Woodford'. From this point, Shiels disappears and there is no knowledge of another caretaker/manager until 1876. [22]

The transit of Venus at Woodford

In 1874 Fairfax gained fame for hosting the observation of the transit of Venus on the former police lockup land, immediately northwest of Woodford House. Woodford was chosen because of its clear steady atmosphere and proximity to the rail and electric telegraph, enabling connection to Sydney Observatory. Fairfax was an amateur astronomer who was willing to open up his property to the observers, and owned a 4.75-inch (120-millimetre) refracting telescope, considered one of the finest in his day. [23]

Refinancing and reconfiguration

From 1876 Fairfax was heavily indebted, owing to failing investments in mining ventures at Hill End. He transferred the management of Woodford House to his business associate and brother-in-law Hague-Smith to run the inn as a paying concern. The property was listed for sale in 1876, mortgaged to the Australian Mutual Provident Society in 1877 and then in 1878 to CH Myles, who appears to have been a well-off fellow Congregationalist. [24]

The 1879 railway guide of New South Wales records that 'Alfred Fairfax has a commodious residence and large gardens named Woodford'. Around this time Hague-Smith constructed a second storey on the northern wing above the kitchen and replaced a wooden dining room between the kitchen and the stables with the present substantial brick room.

In 1880, main rooms of the building were organized into two sitting rooms with three smaller bedrooms, a drawing room with two smaller bedrooms and a large bedroom with a hall and linen room. The southwest wing had a large smoking room and two smaller bedrooms. On the first floor on the western side were servants' quarters. The two-storey building west of the courtyard had a meat room, servants' dining hall, tool room and stores. The two-storey building east of the courtyard had a pantry, kitchen, cooks' pantry, the new large dining room and two bedrooms on the ground floor, with new guest bedrooms and a sitting room on the first floor. The courtyard was enclosed on the north by the wooden ballroom. [25]An 1889 painting in the London Illustrated News shows the large two-storey block.

In 1884 the Evening News advertised Woodford House for sale, apparently unsuccessfully. [26] The property appears to have passed through a succession of managers. John Robert Place applied for a publican's licence in 1886. [27] In 1889, a Mrs Farr had her licence withdrawn because there was no liquor on the premises and by October, Woodford House was under the management of Mrs Margaret Shiels, widow of John Shiels. [28] In 1893–1894 the property was leased to Mrs Shiels who had tenancy to 1 March 1896. For a year from 25 January 1896, Mrs Shiels held a colonial wine licence.

An 1890 Woodford House accommodation receipt book shows that accommodation at Woodford was expensive for the time – two weeks' board for one person for 30 December 1890 was £4/4, equivalent to a fortnight’s pay for a skilled worker.

In 1895 the guesthouse had been mortgaged to the Hon Sir William Manning and Charles George Shaw. [29] The property, comprising portion 1 of 50 acres (20 hectares) and portion 17 of 40 acres (16 hectares), was placed on the market in June 1897. It was promoted as having 'superior accommodation,' providing a 'change of air & mountain scenery' and having 'a capital tennis court on the grounds'. [30] The property was sold to David Flannery and mortgaged back to Sir William Manning who retained his suite of rooms. Flannery continued to run it as a guesthouse, leasing it to a succession of tenants.

Woodford Academy

[media]In the early twentieth century small private boarding schools proliferated in the formerly grand estates of the Blue Mountains. The appeal for those families wealthy enough to afford the fees was the fresh mountain air and bracing climate that were perceived as beneficial to both children's constitutions and academic performance.

In 1907 a distinguished scholar, John McManamey, leased Woodford House from Sir William Manning, establishing the Woodford Academy for Boys and taking the title of rector. [31] In its first year the school had 28 pupils – 15 of them boarders, ranging in age from nine to 21 – and quickly achieved academic success. In 1914, as World War I began, McManamey bought 12.5-acres (five hectares) from his neighbour Mary Jane Waterhouse, which he immediately mortgaged back to her and paid off over the next few years.

There was no structural expansion of the academy in the McManamey period. The main four rooms of the main building were, working east to west, two classrooms and the McManamey private rooms, which were the library and main bedroom. The southwest section was a McManamey family area. Upstairs on the west were the staffrooms. In the dairy wing on the west of the courtyard working north there was the dairy itself, staff dining, store and chemistry rooms and further storage upstairs. Working north on the ground floor of the wing east of the courtyard were the kitchen/washroom, pantry, dining/assembly/chapel room and staff sitting room and bedroom, while upstairs were the student dormitories. The wooden ballroom, enclosing the courtyard on the north, blew down in 1910.

Woodford Academy schooldays

Each morning, at 7.00am the boarders would come downstairs from their dormitories and run 1.5 kilometres north to Mabel Falls where they would swim before running back – hopefully a practice that did not apply in winter! They would then wash in the scullery/washroom where there was a long bench with holes to hold tin washbasins. They would dress, breakfast in the dining room at 8.00am and at 9.00am assemble, entering via the locker room from the door opposite the steps to the dormitories. They sat in the classrooms for prayers, scripture reading and classes until 12.30pm when they would adjourn for dinner. Classes resumed at 1.45pm and tea would be served at 3.45pm. There would be lesson preparation for two hours from 7.00pm and then bed for the night.

The curriculum consisted of English, History, Mathematics, Science, Latin and one modern language, as well as bookkeeping, music, dancing and, on occasions, Greek. Religious instruction was non-sectarian but the boys were taught the catechism of their respective churches. The rector did not believe in punishing with the cane, and thought lines a waste of time, preferring to impose extra study and manual work on the wayward. Sport, particularly Rugby Union and cricket, played a big role. There was participation in such events as the 1913 centenary of the mountains crossing, World War I support efforts, concerts and dramatics. Neryl Medcalf writes:

In spite of the Spartan and rigorous life…letters, cards, and visits by ex-pupils and later on, by their descendants, all point to John McManamey being a good and fair 'Boss' and the school a happy place. Mr McManamey's wife and his two young daughters, Jessie and Gertrude and the small number of students would have contributed to an atmosphere more of a large country family than a very strict boys' boarding school. [32]

Over 300 students were educated at the Woodford Academy between 1907 and 1925, the largest enrolment being 37 boys in 1921. [33] McManamey's distinguished academic career in the classics (ancient greek and latin) was an attraction as latin was necessary for university admission in arts, medicine, law and dentistry at the time.

Believing his fine students would 'make their mark' in history, John McManamey encouraged them to engrave their initials on the desks, window frames, and outside on the rocks in the playing fields (now the Woodford Reserve and the Presbyterian Church). [34] Many of them did indeed make their mark, becoming university-trained professionals and distinguished servicemen in both world wars. [35]

In 1925 the school closed. It reopened in 1929 as a local day school for boys and girls, with 31 students in 1935, but closed permanently in May 1936. Mary Campbell, a student at this time, has 'many lovely memories' of the school and of the McManamey daughters, Gertrude and Jessie, who taught drawing and sewing respectively. Mary recalled walking each day to and from her home in neighbouring Hazelbrook; the cows and the old bull called Theseus that were herded into the property each day; the children; and the kindness and eccentricities of John McManamey. Mary revisited the academy in the 1980s to see Gertrude McManamey, for whom she retained affection. [36]

Private residence

John McManamey continued [media]to tutor private students in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He died in 1946 after being hit by a car as he crossed the highway outside the academy. His two spinster daughters, Jessie and Gertrude, lived on in the building, taking in boarders and selling off property as sources of income. From 1945 to 1965, there were at least ten long-term boarders at various times. [37] In 1972, Jessie died and in 1979, McManamey's sole surviving daughter, Gertrude, bequeathed the property to the National Trust on condition she would retain lifetime residency. Gertrude lived on in the house until 1986 when she required better care and went to Queen Victoria Hospital at Wentworth Falls, where she died in 1988. [38]

A National Trust property

Once again, the property was reinvented to suit the times. It now occupied modest grounds, surrounded by private residences. The National Trust improved the eastern wing of the main building for occupation by Gertrude. Between May 1979 and November 1982 the roofing, drainage, plumbing, windows, verandah, chimney, flagging and stone walls – including buttressing – received emergency repairs. [39]

In 2000, the National Trust received a Federation Cultural and Heritage Projects Program grant of $1 million for the restoration of the property, which was completed by October 2001. The Federal Minister for the Environment and Heritage at the time, Senator Robert Hill, stated:

The Commonwealth Government is now pleased to have played its part in the property's colourful history by supporting the trust in its valuable restoration work. The work has included work on the east wing stairs, interiors and verandah. It has also involved conserving the McManamey collection and having the principal rooms of the main house interpreted. [40]

Works also included repair of flooring and joists, plaster and skirtings, windows, wiring and electrical items, wallpaper, woodwork and architraves and roofing, as well as plumbing and toilets, fencing, polishing, conservation of the collection, security, storage and landscaping. [41]

The Friends of Woodford Academy was set up at this time. On behalf of the National Trust, this group of volunteers, numbering as many as 130, handled exhibitions, open days and events, and group visits, until February 2008. [42] Since 2008, day-to-day administration has been the responsibility of the Woodford Academy management committee.

Woodford Academy today

Today, the academy is set up as a museum of this significant building's past. The modern entrance faces the southern verandah and is on the southwest wing of the main building. The first room, originally the William Buss sitting room, is now the reception/office space. The next major room on the western end of the west wing is set up as the ladies' parlour of the Fairfax guest era, with its double doors on the west side leading to what had been the Victorian pleasure garden. The steep stairway in the northeast corner of the ladies' parlour leads to the attic rooms – left much as they were when constructed in 1855 and one of the most historically atmospheric parts of the building. Farther east is the 1855 taproom with its evidence of liquor shelving and the cartouche, afterwards the academy library, with some of John McManamey's books displayed. Beyond the hallway moving east is the original part of the building, the east wing, the western room of which, a hundred years ago, was a classroom of the academy and today set up with McManamey-era memorabilia. To the north of this room is the academy locker room with its original school lockers. At the eastern end of the building is the other classroom set up as it was 100 years ago, with the original desks scored with student initials and other memorabilia. A display of school memorabilia is in the small room north of the classroom.

The northern two-storey wing of the building, also called (somewhat confusingly) the east wing, is set up very much as it was in academy times and contains the washroom and the kitchen. The latter is perhaps the most historically significant part of the building, with its archway fireplace and stone sink. The adjacent dining room has been set up as a Fairfax-era guesthouse room, though it was a chapel in academy times and hosted Presbyterian church services from 1908 to 1965.

Significant sites in the surrounding property are the underground tank under the courtyard, which is four metres deep with a steady two metres' depth of water and may date from the 1840s; the Aboriginal groove; an 1860s china pear tree (that still bears abundantly); and rocks on site carved with 100-year-old initials inscribed by students.

There is a lot more to be unearthed about the Woodford Academy in the still not completely explored archives on site, in the property around, and in information constantly coming to light in the National Archives, on Trove, in libraries around the state, and through descendants of the academy's many past inhabitants.

The author wishes to acknowledge the support of Woodford Academy colleague Elizabeth Burgess in contributing substantially in the early stages of preparing this essay.

Further reading

Goodlet, Ken. 'Hazelbrook and Woodford: A Story of Two Blue Mountains Towns'. Hazelbrook: self-published, reprint 2012.

Johnston, Colin. History of Woodford Academy, 1980. Unpublished research paper, National Trust of Australia NSW Archives.

Lucas, Clive, Stapleton & Partners Pty Ltd. Conservation and Analysis Guidelines of Woodford Academy Arising out of the Statement of Cultural Significance (Sydney: The National Trust of Australia, NSW, 1984).

Nanette, Leary and Neryl Medcalf. 'Woodford Academy 'Time Travellers' Teachers Kit.' National Trust Australia (NSW). http://www.nationaltrust.com.au/schoolsprogram/educationkits/woodford.pdf. Viewed 6 May 2015

Searle, Allan. The History of Faulconbridge, Linden and Woodford. Springwood: Springwood Historical Society, 1977.

Searle, Allan. Historic Woodford and Linden. Springwood: Springwood Historical Society, 1980.

Notes

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