Other bits around Clarendon
Sep. 3rd, 2006 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithToday, a mixture of photos taken from around Clarendon.
If you do a web search, this seems to be the most common view of the house. Step back a bit!
Much better. Right, Clarendon House was built in 1838,for James Cox, Esq, second son of William Cox who built the road across the Blue Mountains. The portico is very unusual for an Australian house of that era. It was removed in the early 20th because it was too heavy. The basement was also filled in at the same time.
It's a very big house too. Standard Georgian layout -- a central hall with rooms of each side. That hall is about 5 paces across, the same as my lounge room, which is not the smallest lounge room I've had. You could fit a house into the hall. Then there's a second hall that cuts across the first, forming a +. At each end of this hall is a staircase, one of which has small, worn steps that are very difficult to use wearing high heeled boats, not to mention noisy; the other is bigger and has a carpet runner up the middle.
Upstairs, there is a single hall, running from one staircase to other other, with 5 rooms on each side (one per window).
By the time this house was built, Cox had owned the property for a good twenty years. There was another house before this one, but I haven't come across anything about that. There doesn't seem to be much around on the interesting stuff. I found one publication in the Oak Room, where we sit in front of the fire to drink tea & coffee, that had a little bit on the out buildings. It said that the workers' quarters, behind the coach house, were two storey, with a bedroom above a living room.
Of course, I had to go and look.
So they are.
This one even has a ceiling. Yes that's a ceiling. That's as interesting as they get though.
I thought. Although I walked past this one first, I looked in last. The other doors have bolts on top & bottom. The top bolts are easy enough to open to look in, the bottom bolts are stuck. This door though, only has a bolt on the top door. That's because inside the door, it's been joined together so it opens as one and quite easily too. But this post is going to be long, so I'll put the inside photos in a separate post.
Instead we'll go this way.
The Northern Midlands is flat. Most of the island is hilly, but this bit is flat. It makes it hard to take photos, because everything is at the same level. You can see across to the Western Tiers though.
This little grey building was the gardener's cottage. A short gardener, I think, or one who slept standing up. Maybe it was just a daytime cottage. There's a display inside about its restoration. I should see if it was supposed to hold a bed and other furniture.
It is quite the fanciest outhouse I have seen. A distance from the main house too.
Certainly a room with a view though, of the river, mountains etc
Windows only on one side. More private? Good view?
Going around to the other side of the house, you can see a basement window (lower left) and the service wing (right).
The basement had the kitchen and living areas for the servants (male & female dormitory & a living area). About the same time, the portico was removed, the basement was also filled in. It was only cleared out a few years ago. We visited the house soon after that. The basement was open to the public but it was dark, dusty and mostly empty. Now, it has displays about the house & family and some furniture down there.
I can't remember what is along here . Dairy.... similar service rooms. Not the kitchen though, that was in the basement & later in the house.
Still got photos of the woolshed & barn. I have to take some of the gardens too, but there are workmen replacing the brick wall so there's lot of colourful equipment lying in just the right place to ruin an otherwise good photo.
If you do a web search, this seems to be the most common view of the house. Step back a bit!
Much better. Right, Clarendon House was built in 1838,for James Cox, Esq, second son of William Cox who built the road across the Blue Mountains. The portico is very unusual for an Australian house of that era. It was removed in the early 20th because it was too heavy. The basement was also filled in at the same time.
It's a very big house too. Standard Georgian layout -- a central hall with rooms of each side. That hall is about 5 paces across, the same as my lounge room, which is not the smallest lounge room I've had. You could fit a house into the hall. Then there's a second hall that cuts across the first, forming a +. At each end of this hall is a staircase, one of which has small, worn steps that are very difficult to use wearing high heeled boats, not to mention noisy; the other is bigger and has a carpet runner up the middle.
Upstairs, there is a single hall, running from one staircase to other other, with 5 rooms on each side (one per window).
By the time this house was built, Cox had owned the property for a good twenty years. There was another house before this one, but I haven't come across anything about that. There doesn't seem to be much around on the interesting stuff. I found one publication in the Oak Room, where we sit in front of the fire to drink tea & coffee, that had a little bit on the out buildings. It said that the workers' quarters, behind the coach house, were two storey, with a bedroom above a living room.
Of course, I had to go and look.
So they are.
This one even has a ceiling. Yes that's a ceiling. That's as interesting as they get though.
I thought. Although I walked past this one first, I looked in last. The other doors have bolts on top & bottom. The top bolts are easy enough to open to look in, the bottom bolts are stuck. This door though, only has a bolt on the top door. That's because inside the door, it's been joined together so it opens as one and quite easily too. But this post is going to be long, so I'll put the inside photos in a separate post.
Instead we'll go this way.
The Northern Midlands is flat. Most of the island is hilly, but this bit is flat. It makes it hard to take photos, because everything is at the same level. You can see across to the Western Tiers though.
This little grey building was the gardener's cottage. A short gardener, I think, or one who slept standing up. Maybe it was just a daytime cottage. There's a display inside about its restoration. I should see if it was supposed to hold a bed and other furniture.
It is quite the fanciest outhouse I have seen. A distance from the main house too.
Certainly a room with a view though, of the river, mountains etc
Windows only on one side. More private? Good view?
Going around to the other side of the house, you can see a basement window (lower left) and the service wing (right).
The basement had the kitchen and living areas for the servants (male & female dormitory & a living area). About the same time, the portico was removed, the basement was also filled in. It was only cleared out a few years ago. We visited the house soon after that. The basement was open to the public but it was dark, dusty and mostly empty. Now, it has displays about the house & family and some furniture down there.
I can't remember what is along here . Dairy.... similar service rooms. Not the kitchen though, that was in the basement & later in the house.
Still got photos of the woolshed & barn. I have to take some of the gardens too, but there are workmen replacing the brick wall so there's lot of colourful equipment lying in just the right place to ruin an otherwise good photo.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-05 01:28 am (UTC)It is. It's labelled on the map in the visitors' guide as "Gothic Building".