Woodford Academy

About

Woodford Academy is a heritage-listed former academy school, inn, private residence and boarding house and now a museum, and tourist attraction at 90–92 Great Western Highway, Woodford in the City of Blue Mountains local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1828 to 1835 by Thomas Michael Pembroke. It is also known as Woodman's Inn, King's Arms Inn, Buss's Inn, Woodford House and Woodford Academy. The property is owned by the National Trust of Australia (NSW). It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 1 March 2002.

The site was erroneously described as a that of an early road gang's encampment because of its proximity to Bulls Camp.

In November 1824 Thomas Michael Pembroke was promised a land grant of 20 hectares (50 acres). In the late 1820s the site was occupied by William James. By 1830 James had erected improvements on the land.

In November 1830 Pembroke was promised 0.81 hectares (2 acres) of land. c. 1830 he applied for his land at Twenty Mile Hollow (Woodford). By 1831 Pembroke had made a selection of land at the site partly including James' improvements. By September 1832 Pembroke was given possession of the land. By 1833 Pembroke's hut existed (on the right-hand (north) side of the road adjacent to James' improvements. His stone and weatherboard 'Woodman's Inn' possibly existed by 1833; it definitely existed by 1835 (Licensee Michael Pembroke) when described by Messrs. Backhouse and Walker as "a miserable hovel adjoining a public house which we declined entering some weeks before from the wretched appearance of the place".

On 28 October 1835 Pembroke was granted 20 hectares (50 acres) of land. By 1835 Woodman's Inn (in weatherboard) existed on the site of the early road gangs' encampment at Twenty Mile Hollow. In 1836 William James stood trial for the murder of his wife. Pembroke called it "The Woodman Inn" and he lived there with his wife and 6 children. The inn provided food and lodgings for travellers from Sydney on their way to Bathurst and the Western Plains. Soldiers and colonial officials were some of their guests. Pembroke was granted a further 19 hectares (48 acres) at what was then known as "Twenty Mile Hollow". He fell on hard times, heavily mortgaging the property and being sentenced to two years on a road gang for stealing slabs of wood at Springwood. His sentence was later reduced to one year but forced him to sell "The Woodman Inn" in 1839. In 1839 his debtors sold it to Michael Hogan. At the time it was leased by G. K. Bryant.

In 1841 the grant measured 1,510 by 1,550 metres (4,950 ft × 5,100 ft). An 1842 sketch of the "Inn at Twenty Mile Hollow" shows a building unlike the present buildings. From 1842–44 Col. John Edward Bull had a camp for a road gang nearby. It is possible families stayed at the Inn. In 1843 James Nairn was licensee of the King's Arms Hotel, succeeded in 1846 by William Barton, 1847 by John Cobcroft and 1854 by Thomas James. In 1855 Hogan sold the property to William Buss. From 1856–57 Buss held the license of 'The King's Arms' Hotel. The inn was more popularly known as "Buss" Inn'. c. 1856 a Police Lock Up was built to the inn's west (now demolished).

By 1862, during William Buss's occupancy, the west wing was added. In 1863 a railway plan denotes the buildings as the 'King's Arms Inn' showing the main building and dairy building in their existing form. The kitchen building is in three parts. Nearby there are a number of other timber buildings, now demolished. From 1867 until 1879 it was a private country retreat, owned by Alfred Fairfax, and from 1880 to 1907 it was a salubrious guesthouse house. In 1867 Buss left a life interest in the property to his wife, Bridget Buss. In 1868 the railway line reached the Weatherboard Inn at Wentworth Falls. In August 1868 the widow Mrs Buss sold the property to Alfred Fairfax. A March 1869 sketch of "Buss's" by John Vine Hall shows the present complex. In October 1869 it was advertised as 'Mountain air Woodford (late Buss's) Apartments vacant J.Sheils'.

In 1869 to 1870 Woodford House was opened as the first guesthouse in the Blue Mountains managed by John Shiels. The property was then 36 hectares (90 acres). An 1869 drawing by Vine Hall shows the main and dairy buildings in their present form. The dairy has a shingled roof and green-painted shutters. A picket fence had been built.

A pear tree ( Pyrus communis cv.) has been identified on a (now) adjacent block of land that appears to date directly from the Fairfax period of ownership of the property (1860/70), suggests local horticulturist teacher with TAFE, Doug Knowles. The tree is most likely to be the last remnant of an orchard and garden planted for Fairfax, who developed the property as a gentleman's residence. Fairfax renamed his home "Woodford House" and built the second-storey east wing, primarily to accommodate his Sydney friends and their servants. It became an exclusive retreat for him and his friends. During his time here he bought more land c. 1868 and then owned 90 acres on which he created an orchard and house garden to provide fresh food for his guests. Fairfax had "house and servants" at Woodford.

In 1874 an observation was made of the transit of Venus 200 yards to the west of Woodford. Members of the scientific community visited the Fairfax property to observe the phenomenon. Portable observatories were set up in tents for the observations.

In 1879 the house was still described as Mr. Fairfax's "commodious residence and large gardens namded Woodford". In c. 1880 William Manning made additions to the kitchen building and opened the property as a guest house: "Woodford House".

From October 1881 until 1907 it is said to have been a fashionable guest and function house.

On 29 June 1897 the mortgagee, William Manning put the property up for auction and sold it to his employee David Flannery. At this time it was described as a sanatorium with two blocks of land 16.49 hectares (40.75 acres) and 20 hectares (50 acres). 'buildings are substantial...accommodation is large...pleasure grounds and orchard extensive...' Flannery subdivided and sold some of the land.

A March 1903 inventory of the contents was made, with the rooms named and another made in 1905.

In November 1906 it was sold under the Real Property Act (occupied by Edward Graves).

From 1907 to 1934 under lessee (and distinguished classics scholar) John Fraser McManamey, it became a significant school, the Woodford Academy, in competition and then in succession to Cooerwull Academy at Lithgow, the other major Presbyterian school outside Sydney, where McManamey had previously taught.

John McManamey was a Scottish policeman's son from Wellington, educated at an Anglican boarding school, All Saints' College in Bathurst, then at the University of Sydney, where he lived at St. Andrew's College. At University and College he was enabled to indulge his passions for classical literature, and extended them into English literature, while living a vigorous outdoor and sporting life. After graduation, he was founding headmaster of Dr. Aspinall's Scots College in Sydney (now in Bellevue Hill ). He left to found his own school, the Australian College and then went to Queensland to be senior classics master at the renowned Ipswich Grammar School. In 1903 he returned to NSW's central west to be rector of Cooerwull Academy, but again ventured out to create a school of his own in 1907. This was Woodford Academy, directed, like Cooerwull, towards the Sydney University entry examination and elite learning generally. This was a significant school, in competition and then in succession to Lithgow's Cooerwull Academy (which McManamey had been rector of from 1903–07). Woodford Academy was a case of adapting much older buildings to school use, while supplementing the old with a custom-made wing.

Over 300 students were educated in the Blue Mountains location between 1907 and 1925, benefitting from a curriculum based on the liberal arts with commercial subjects available for those intending to enter business life. There are tales of daily morning swims, even in the winter months, to encourage hygiene and develop character. Confident that his students would "make their mark on history", McManamey encouraged his boys to engrave their initials into their school desks and the rock shelves that surround the school buildings. They did so, but many made their mark in ways unimaginable at the time, distinguishing themselves for their actions in both world wars.

In December 1908 it was subdivided and the greater part sold to Mary Jane Waterhouse, mother of Eben Gowrie Waterhouse, later of Sydney University and Eryldene, Gordon. In 1910 the timber concert room was blown over. In 1913 Mrs McManamey died. In July 1914 the remainder of 5.1 hectares (12.5 acres) including the buildings was sold to John Fraser McManamey.

Over the duration of World War I, fifty four boys from Woodford Academy enlisted to serve King and country. Their names are listed on an Honour Roll Call, and the National Trust's Woodford Academy Management Committee hopes family and friends will recognise names and come forward with additional information on the boys. This will be added to research carried out as the basis for a display at the Academy commemorating the centenary of the Anzacs from August 2014 to November 2018. Interactive ebooks are progressively developed and displayed at the Academy museum on the centenary of the month each boy enlisted for the Great War.