Interviewer: Noelene Pullen

Date of Interview: January 2010

Transcription: Glenys Murray, January 2010

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My name is Jonathan Cannon and I came to Castle Hill in 1961 around Easter time. The reason why my parents moved to Castle Hill was that my father had grown up on the land. When he came to Sydney from Queensland he wanted to go to a property that would be as close as possible to his roots. So in 1961 they purchased a house in Crane Road which is approximately 250 metres from the centre of the township.

I went to school in 1964 (at Castle Hill Public School until 1970) and I would have been in several of the classrooms, including the classroom adjacent to the headmaster’s residence, Mr Bloomfield. In those days our school would have had a large number of students attending from several institutions locally.

In the sixties the district of Kellyville was the salad bowl for Sydney. There was a large number of Italians who lived in Kellyville. At Kellyville also was a mission which was called the Marella Mission Farm. They had a large number of Aboriginal children that they cared for and helped. They brought those children to Castle Hill Public School.

Also there were two other homes in the district. One was called the Charlton Boys Home and that was located on David Road beyond Rogans Hill and of course Castle Hill House, which was a boys home as well. So when I attended school all these children would have been in the classroom together. Whenever there was trouble unfortunately these children would have been blamed for what had gone on, even if they had had nothing to do with it. As a child I was brought up to do whatever I could to care for these children who most probably for no reason of their own had landed in an institution. I remember one afternoon going up to the newsagents with my mother to buy some marbles to give to one of the boys who had been falsely accused of stealing marbles, and making a statement to the class of not just immediately judging them.

Restoring the enclosed verandah

With the Aboriginal kids in the class it was very difficult for them. In hindsight I can remember them being placed in the seats near the windows. They were never really educated like we were and they would just sit there looking out the window with a vacant stare as if there was somewhere else they belonged. They were I believe cared for by the headmaster in a very generous way. The headmaster had gardening clubs and he got these children involved in those clubs. They really enjoyed doing that work.

Purchase by Redeemer Baptist Church

In 1993 as Castle Hill began to grow there was a property known as Castle Hill House that became available for sale. (On the Sunday of the week that the “For Sale” notice was put outside Castle Hill House on Old Northern Road, three of the church families came to the Elders of Redeemer Baptist Church independently and stated that they believed the Church should purchase the property and that they wanted to sell their homes to provide the funding required for the purchase. When the Church decided to purchase the property, our intention was simply that it would be used in the ministries of the Church. Within a short period of time we realised that this would be an ideal location for the vocational campus of Redeemer Baptist School). So we then took steps to put in a bid for Castle Hill House. On the 10th March 1993 we won that bid for the property and we were the proud owners of a building that had been totally gutted by a fire on the 1st January 1989.

We then began to look at the property. We were unaware of the things that were occurring at the property at that stage. It was being used we believe for drug distribution in the district. Vandals were coming in periodically and breaking into the property. So for the first three months we took steps to be vigilant to get a message out to the local people that were wanting to inappropriately use the property, that it had changed hands and that we were going to be taking steps to protect the history of the district.

Fire damage on the first floor

For the first three months we forensically went through the house. In hindsight we wished that we knew that we were going to be the owners when the house was burnt. Because immediately after it was gutted by the fire the government came in and removed everything that had been damaged by the fire and tried to clean it up. Unbeknownst to them they would have thrown out very important features of the property that we needed to be able to use in recording the history, as well as being able to construct the building consistent with the conservation management plan that we had been given. So we carefully tagged and identified all the items that were in the remnant of the fire torn building. We collected them, identified what rooms they came from and then we began to research the history of the building. At that time there was another local identity by the name of Marie Neil. She and her husband (David) had written a book on the house but had never published the book. We had at that time a very big challenge between the history that we understood and what was hearsay by people in the district or by families that were identified with the property. So we had to carefully and respectfully follow through to identify what we believed was the genuine history of Castle Hill House. So over the ten year period of the restoration including opening the building up for open days, we gathered the history as well as did our own research in the Mitchell Library as well as in other areas such as the historical society in Halifax in England. We drew all this information together and we had approximately forty volumes of the history in summary, as well as artifacts and photographs associated with the long history of the house. This has enabled us to identify and clarify a lot of the mystery in the history of the house, as well as to authenticate the significance of the building.

Staircase after the fire

Social History of Castle Hill House

The earliest date that is known for a building on the property is circa 1840. In our research and in terms of the restoration we would believe that the building that is existing today could be dated even as early as 1820 to 1825. The property was granted to Thomas McDougall. The grant consisted of three hundred acres and Thomas McDougall called the property Lorne Farm. After Thomas McDougall had owned the property it then fell into the hands of Dr Thomas Berdmore Allen in 1825. Then a few years later after the death of Dr Allen, James Bowman who was married to Mary Isabella Macarthur bought the property in 1828. It’s interesting to know that Mary Isabella Macarthur’s parents who were the ones responsible for Elizabeth Farm used the master builder of Elizabeth Farm by the name of James Houison. Forty years after this property was owned by James Bowman and his wife Isabella, James Houison was the master builder involved in putting the extensions on Castle Hill House.

So James Bowman owned it in 1828. At that time it is recorded that the property had sun dried bricks stored on the property. To put the house into the context of the history of the district at that time, the house is located on Old Northern Road, which was originally called the Great North Road. This road or track in those days wound its way up to Wisemans Ferry and beyond to the Hunter Valley (built 1826 to 1832). James Bowman owned large portions of land in the Hunter Valley. If you remember that the Macarthurs owned the properties down at Camden and farmed down at Camden, one would assume that they would have brought their cattle from Camden up the Great North Road past this house and beyond up to the Hunter Valley. So they most probably would have used the property as a staging post for the transfer of their cattle and used it in that way. It’s interesting to note that when we were doing our research we went out to Wisemans Ferry to the inn. The construction of the verandah of that inn is identical to the construction of Castle Hill House. So in 1831 Christopher Crane then took out a licence on the property for the Leather Bottle Inn. He held that licence until 1843.

In 1835 a gentleman by the name of Mauser(?) bought the property. It was leased out a couple of years later. Then in 1838 Christopher Crane purchased the property and so Crane Road was the extremity of the boundary at that stage. He owned the property and it was during the time of his ownership that we have known of a building being on the property.

In 1844 they changed the name of the house to the New Inn. In 1853 Christopher Crane sold the property to a gentleman by the name of Richard Greenup. In 1850 three years earlier Dr Richard Greenup sailed to Australia with his family. On the travel out they brought I believe six oak trees on the ship. We understand that the English oak trees that are planted on the property are the trees that he brought out from England, although we have no proof of this. When he came out on the ship they lost one of their ten children to disease. In Sydney in 1851 Dr Richard Greenup was appointed the secretary, treasurer and registrar of the University of Sydney. The University of Sydney was designed by Edmund Blacket. So one would assume that Dr Richard Greenup would have had a very close association with Edmund Blacket as they were developing the University of Sydney in those days. Edmund Blacket was responsible for extensions to Castle Hill House when the new owner purchased the property. So in 1851 he was secretary, treasurer and registrar of the University of Sydney and the following year Dr Richard Greenup was appointed the superintendent for the lunatic and invalid establishment at Parramatta.

Dr Greenup's desk

Dr Richard Greenup had a very clear philosophy of care for the children and for those that were in the institution. In those days they treated people with mental disorders like animals and caged them and herded them up. Dr Richard Greenup wanted to treat them as humans and wanted to help them. He would conduct church services in the evenings on Sundays for the patients. He would do very unusual things to try and help these patients. It is also important to note that in 1853 when he bought the property he excised a small portion on Old Northern Road and donated it to the Anglican Church. They then proceeded to build the church for the district on that property.

By 1858 he was now appointed also the examiner in medicine, chemistry and experimental physics at the University of Sydney. In 1861 the St Paul’s Church was completed in its construction. Such was his heart for people in need Dr Richard Greenup because of his role as the superintendent of the hospital was also granted accommodation there. So he then allowed his property at Castle Hill to be used by people that were sick, exhausted or needed assistance. History records people coming up here and spending time being restored and then going back into the work that they were involved in. One of the things that is interesting about Dr Richard Greenup is that in 1865 he purchased additional property surrounding Castle Hill House. He then had 245 acres of the original 300 acres that was granted to Thomas McDougall. Dr Richard Greenup called Castle Hill House Darcy Hey. It is very important to remember that this property has had, I think, about six or seven different names. But Darcy Hey is the name that he gave to the property in 1853. That was where he came from in Halifax and that was the name of their home in Halifax.

Because Dr Richard Greenup had a very caring view of his patients it was also one of the unfortunate reasons that he had an early death. On the 17th July 1866 Dr Greenup went in to see one of his patients and the patient lunged forward with a pair of scissors and stabbed him in the abdomen. He died two days later of peritonitis. The stature of the man was such that upon his death the district of Parramatta came to a standstill. There were special trains put on between Sydney and Parramatta and the amount of traffic that entered Parramatta for the funeral was enormous. In those days obviously we’re talking of horses and carts. So after he passed away his wife and children moved from Parramatta at the asylum and resided up at Darcy Hey.

George Thorne

Dr Richard Greenup’s son ran the property and cared for his mother. In 1877 they then decided to move to Stanthorpe on the Darling Downs in Queensland. History records that the Greenup family were one of the very strong families in terms of the show grounds and the running of the district in Stanthorpe.

In 1877 George Thorne purchased the property from the Greenups. The reason that George Thorne bought the property was that he had a very sick son by the name of Theodore. Theodore was suffering from breathing disorders. It was believed that by coming out to Castle Hill his lungs would dry up and he would be able to get better. George Thorne came and began to plant commercially mulberry trees to produce silk. The silk that was produced on the property won major awards around the world. It was also used for royal occasions and medals that have been won are located with the Thorne Family. These have been presented to us for recording and photographs. So the Thornes owned the property in 1877 but one of their daughters Rose Thorne was an artist who drew and sketched. George Thorne’s daughter would have sketched Castle Hill House. There are two sketches, one which has the date of 1873 which we need to remember is four years prior to them owning the property and 1877. These sketches have been vital in the reconstruction and restoration of Castle Hill House. They identify the original verandahs, dairy, kitchens and trees that were planted on the property which are still there today.

When the Thornes came out in 1877 it was only one year later that Theodore their son passed away. George himself died in 1891 and his wife passed away in 1910. George Thorne was the first director of the Sydney Stock Exchange. He engaged the Blacket brothers in 1882 to provide extensions to the property and to be able to remodel the original building. Those drawings are held as part of the Blacket Collection in the Mitchell Library today. We used those drawings as well as part of the reconstruction as they had vital information that enabled us to do that. Also in our research we found a letter that was written in 1869 by James Houison who was the master builder to Jane Greenup, Dr Richard Greenup’s wife. He wrote this letter because like so many in the district who had held Dr Richard Greenup in high esteem he wanted to express his gratitude. So he donated the drawings of the extensions for 1869 to Jane Greenup. But in the letter he wrote saying that he wanted to make it very clear that if another builder who was in the district by the name of McDougall had anything to do with the extensions that he would cease forthwith to have anything to do with the property. The letter was written in such a way that he wrote things that he was regretting and he scribbled out. But this letter also had the specification of the verandah. No one had found this letter until we began our research. We were able to locate it in the Mitchell Library. That letter provided us with vital clues as well as information that helped to reconstruct the verandah exactly to Houison’s specification.

Medals received by George Thorne for Silk and for bravery

This included Blackbutt timber, tongue and groove five inches wide as well as the handrail details and the posts. Again all this detail is exactly the same as the Wisemans Ferry Inn. So that information granted us the ability to reconstruct the verandah. As we were reconstructing the verandah we found the original holes for the bearers that the verandah went into. So not only did we build it according to the letter but also placed the bearers back in their original holes.

So George Thorne commissioned the Blacket brothers for these extensions. These extensions initially were very expensive. So the Blacket brother’s first drawings of the property were rejected. Another proposal which was more modified and simplistic was agreed upon and this was the one that was used for the building extensions of 1882. That extension included a wing at the back of the house with a verandah connecting the wing which held the servants quarters and the kitchen to the original circa 1840 property.

So in 1913 the property was divided into thirty lots. Then between 1913 and 1914 those lots were sold off. The lot which included Castle Hill House or Darcy Hey was then purchased by a Frederick Vale(?) Fitzroy. Fitzroy was a very significant character in the history of New South Wales being the governor of New South Wales and Frederick Fitzroy was one of his very close relatives. He owned the property for six years and then Stanley Speers who was a farmer used it as a timber mill for his property. The Depression came along and from this time until 1932 the house was effectively deserted. In 1934 a lady by the name of Thelma Wild was living in Pennant Hills with her parents. They came out to Old Northern Road and went to go and look at a house down the road which is directly opposite Castle Hill House. When they went to go and look at the house, Thelma stayed at Old Northern Road. While she was waiting she looked across and saw this old derelict run down house. She went home, and even she could not believe it, talked her parents into buying this totally run down building. It had been totally eaten out inside by white ants (termites) you couldn’t stand on the floor boards. They prepared one room at the back of the house. They all lived in that house in that one room and slowly renovated the building. You have to remember that in the 1930’s restoration and the skill of caring for a building and the knowledge that we would have today was not available to them. Things were done during this period of ownership that in hindsight would not necessarily be considered.

Restoration work to remove the concrete floor

She removed the verandah that had collapsed and put an extension on the front akin to government house in Parramatta Park. She also rendered the brick work and inside changed a lot of the plaster walls and rendered them with concrete or cement render. All these features including putting a concrete floor in and removing the timber floor were elements that were causing the building to further decay. They were trapping the water in the brickwork. Bearing in mind these were sun dried bricks not kiln dried. It meant that by rendering the walls inside and out, by putting cement floors in, that the only place for any water was to wick up the sun dried bricks and start to come out three metres above the ground. So rising damp was a very big problem that was occurring in the building. Not only that, in the extensions of the Blacket brothers of 1882 they built a wall that went straight onto the topsoil. So there was no foundation underneath, no footing and also there was no damp proof causing. Thelma Wild sold the property in 1939 but while she owned the property she called the property Parklands.

In 1939 the Rev. George Herbert Palmer on behalf of Camden Grammar School bought the property and renamed it Castle Hill House. This is the first time that we have known the property and the building by the name of Castle Hill House.

The war had broken out in 1939. So with the concern of the welfare of the children they decided that Castle Hill was too close to Sydney and that if there was going to be an invasion the children would be vulnerable. So after only four years Camden Grammar School moved on and they sold the property. During the ownership of Camden Grammar School they added one room to the side of the 1882 extension. They used this as their classroom. In 1943 the Department of Child Welfare then bought the property and then used it for a boys home right up until 1982.

Original sun-dried bricks beneath the staircase

The late 1970’s, early 1980’s was a period when the philosophy of caring for children was changing. People were moving away from institutional care. So there were large portions of buildings throughout Sydney where institutional care had been occurring that were no longer used in this way. The school currently owns a portion of the original Burnside Homes and it became available for the very same reason. That as institutional care was moving out towards foster care, that homes were becoming available and as they became available at Burnside the school leased these buildings one by one, until there was the opportunity of buying the whole property of the Redeemer Baptist School.

In 1983 after it was discontinued as a boys home the Youth and Community Services then used it as their regional offices. Then in 1987 consistent again with the view of governments around the world of disposing of excess properties the government chose to look at a way of disposing of this property. So the State Government Administrative Services started to take steps to sell Castle Hill House. Over the next two years the government would have had a number of interested parties and people wanting to obtain this land. To use it for town houses, for residential, but there was a very strong feeling within the community at large to not dispose of a very significant historic building to the district. As the government was working through these issues, on the 1st January 1989 vandals broke into the building. The building was loaded with excess furniture and the vandals lit the fire in the bottom of the stairs. The locals saw what happened and they rang the fire brigade and they came and put it out. But the vandals returned a number of hours later relit the fire and on the 1st January 1989 all that was left of the building was a burnt out shell. The district was in shock and very significant remnants of the history of the district had been lost. Whilst this was occurring the government sought the services of a conservation architect to prepare a conservation management plan. When they went to sell the property, the condition of buying the property was that the owners would restore the building in accordance with this Conservation Management Plan.

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