The Priory, Gladesville

About

The Priory is a heritage-listed former farm, mental health facility, convent and homestead and now building, vacant building and proposed community arts uses at Manning Road, Gladesville in the Municipality of Hunter's Hill local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The main part of The Priory was designed by William Weaver and Henry Hardie Kemp, and built from 1847 to 1874 by Thomas Stubbs, The Marist Fathers in Australia, and Thomas Salter. It is also known as Gladesville Hospital, Gladesville Asylum and The Priory and curtilage. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 3 December 2004.

At the time of European contact the Kelly's bush area was inhabited by the Wal Umedegal Clan who spoke the Guringai language. They lived primarily on fish and shellfish, supplementing their diet when necessary with vegetables, marsupials, birds and grubs. They were also frequently observed firing the scrub both to facilitate access to the foreshore and to flush out game. Very little is known of their social structure and religious beliefs.

Captain John Hunter (1737–1821) of the Sirius, charted Sydney Harbour in 1788. On 28 January 1788 he wrote in his journal: "A few days after my arrival with the transports in Port Jackson, I set off with a six-oared boat and a small boat, intending to make as good a survey of the harbour as circumstances would admit: I took to my assistance Mr Bradley, the first lieutenant, Mr Keltie, the master, and a young gentleman of the quarter-deck (midshipman Henry Waterhouse )." Hunter's meticulous chart shows 30 depth soundings around the peninsula bounded by the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers. Hunter was Governor of the Colony from 1795–1800. He is commemorated in the name of Hunters Hill.

In 1855 a speculative housing venture of erecting four prefabricated Swiss Cottages at Hunters Hill was underway. In this period Hunters Hill was an established French enclave, with the residence of the French consul located there at "Passy", and much of its early development was constructed by men of French descent. The prefabricated houses were advertised as "four splendid family residences, standing in their own grounds, of about 1 acres each", with "wood and water in abundance".

Beverley Sherry in her study of Hunter Hill notes that this was the first planned group of houses to be built in the municipality, marking the beginning of the garden suburb character of Australia's oldest Garden Suburb. The subdivision and garden suburb development occurred in the mid to late nineteenth century, predating the formation of the Garden Suburb movement. The historic development at Hunters Hill was consistently speculative, although some of the subdivisions were undertaken to provide residences for family members.

Thomas Stubbs purchased two allotments of land at the head of Tarban Creek in 1835. This land adjoined the first land grants, part of the Eastern Farms, towards the western end of the present Municipality of Hunters Hill. Stubbs built a sandstone far, house, outbuildings and began farming his seven point three hectares (eighteen acres), now called 'the Stubbs Wing'.

The Marists had arrived in Australia in December 1837, after establishing mission stations on two South-west Pacific islands, Wallis and Futuna.

In 1847 Stubbs sold his two blocks to Fr. Jean-Louis Rocher of the Marist Fathers who were looking to establish a base for missionaries in the South Pacific. The Fathers built a new building on the site in 1857 which they called "Villa Maria", moving in immediately and this forming the base for the Marist Pacific Missions which incorporated part of and extended Stubbs original sandstone farmhouse. The new building was designed by architect-engineer, William Weaver in a Palladian or Old Colonial Regency style.

Weaver worked in New South Wales from 1851 to 1864. He served as Colonial Architect from 1855–56, then set up in private practice, aged 28, at 25 Pitt Street, Sydney. The colonial economy was prospering, the new Sydney Railway was running as far as Liverpool and suburban development encouraged speculative building. Villa Maria (now known as the Priory) is one surviving example of Weaver's first year in private practice. It was commenced in February 1857, completed that November at a cost of 1685 pounds and built by local stonemasons. The long eastern front with stone flagged verandah has a fine and unaltered Georgian symmetry favoured by Weaver for his residence designs. Another of his favourite features evident in Villa Maria is the extension of the sides to the back of the building creating a courtyard. The plan incorporated a pre-1847 cottage as a northern wing. Accounts signed by Weaver indicate a smooth and rapid progress of construction.

The renamed Villa Maria reorientated the original farmhouse towards the harbour, taking full advantage of the site and view. The Marist Fathers continued to farm the land and, amongst numerous other activities, extended Stubb's vineyards.

The property contained vast orchards, vineyards and gardens and provided rest and recuperation for the Marist Fathers' South Pacific missionaries. Goods and materials were bought and stored here to supply the Pacific Island mission stations. The house was also used for rest and recuperation for missionaries exhausted from their work on the island mission stations.

During its period as "Villa Maria", a wooden chapel on the site was the resting place of the body of St Peter Chanel, Proto-martyr of Oceania from 7 May 1849 till some time before February 1850 when it was taken to France. Fr Peter (Pierre) Chanel met his martyrdom on the island of Futuna, on 28 April 1841; he was canonised in 1954. It was also the residence of Blessed Giovanni Mazzucconi on his arrival in the region in 1852 and again immediately before his martyrdom, by New Guinea Islanders, in 1855. These associations make the Priory a place of exceptional importance both for Australian Catholics and for Australians of French or Italian background.

The establishment of the South Sea mission house by the Marist Fathers was the first presence of French settlers in the Municipality of Hunters Hill. From 1853, however, the Fathers began acquiring land on the other side of Tarban Creek.

The small size of available dwellings on the property, and large numbers of people sometimes accommodated there, made some kind of expansion essential. There was sandstone on the property, which could be quarried and one of the Marist Brothers, Gennade Rolland was an able stonemason and iron worker, which would make the work economical. An impressive two-storey stone structure was built in 1857, the architects being Weaver and Henry Hardie Kemp (1859–1946). This stands at right angles to the original dwelling.

It appears that the Marist fathers had moved to another newly constructed "Villa Maria" (in Hunters Hill) by 1864 and that site remains in their ownership to the present day.

In 1862 an attempt had been made to sell the original Villa Maria to the government for the (Gladesville) Mental Hospital, which failed. It was interesting as an attempt, because the property was eventually sold to the state for this purpose many years later, and not by the Marists. They retained the property for some years, using it as a convent. Finally they sold it to Thomas Salter in 1874, rather cheaply.

Although the Brothers were unable to immediately sell the old mission house upon their removal, by 1874 Thomas Salter had acquired the house and farmland for A£ 2,000. He renamed the house "The Priory" and added his own L-shaped, picturesque gothic extension, now called 'the Salter Wing', added c. 1875, behind Weaver's Palladian front on the north west. A map of 1885 shows the layout of Salter's land. It addition to the original kitchen, the Old Mission House and extensive stone terracing, the map shows the footprint of a shed, bush house, latrines, out house, tennis court, stables and coach houses. The position of the garden, poultry yard and cultivation paddock are clearly marked.

Main article: Gladesville Mental Hospital When Thomas Salter moved from The Priory to Brynault in Mount Street in 1887 he sold the land to Gladesville Mental Hospital, the earliest psychiatric hospital on the Australian mainland.

The Priory became the first hospital building to be utilised on the Riverglade Campus, the area of the hospital on the northern side of Victoria Road. For more than 60 years the surrounding land was farmed by patients for the production of fruit and vegetables for hospital use. Land reclaimed along the Tarban Creek shoreline extended the arable area. A Metropolitan Sewerage & Drainage Board map of 1928 shows, in addition to the kitchen, shed, latrines, out house and Old Mission House identified on the map of 1885, a new large stables building to the west at the rear of the house and the cow bails building alongside the kitchen. The Priory is labelled the dairy on this map.

1887–1947: the surrounding land was farmed by patients for the production of fruit and vegetables for hospital use. Land reclaimed along Tarban Creek shoreline extended the arable area.