Now I'll be the first to admit that I have become a real fan of the writers for 'Aussie Towns', as I am sure regular readers will recognise. Usually I try to paraphrase when I can, but in the case of Westbury I would not even attempt to better the description provided by this august website. The title reads: "Historic, quintessentially English village in northern Tasmania."
It goes on........
"One of the elements that makes small English villages so captivating
is the sense of surprise. You never know what you will see around a
corner - a thatched cottage, a view across a river, a town square.
Westbury, a little piece of England in Australia, is like that. Around a
corner you will find a village green, tree-lined streets, old
courtyards and stables, elegant inns and charming houses. It is a feast
of Victorian and Georgian buildings. Not surprisingly it is a classified
historic town where the visitor simply has to get out of their vehicle
and start walking."
That is indeed true of the 'old village' area of Westbury (park and walk that is....and we did just that), but there is a bit more to this town than its historical core, not the least of which is the 'Silhouette Trail', a series of eight silhouette sculptures which depict local characters who, in the words of the relevant brochure "are examples of the many inspirational lives that have built this community".
We began today's tour at the wheel rather than on foot, taking in the sights along the Meander Highway.
One of the most impressive buildings in this utterly charming town greets visitors arriving from the west. The junction of the highway and William Street is completely dominated by the Catholic Holy Trinity Church.
This aerial shot, courtesy of 'Westbury cottages' is impressive enough,
but at ground level the bulk and grandeur of this blue stone 'decorated gothic' style church is something else. I was unsurprised to learn that it took five years to complete the build from the starting date in 1869.
I am indebted to 'John Maidment' for this interior shot. It does not show the church organ, which is of real historical significance, but I'll leave that for homework for any who care to enquire further. .
It was in the grounds of this magnificent building that we were introduced to the Silhouette Trail, in this instance honouring Father James Hogan,
who was, as the accompanying text tells, a real character. What a wonderful idea these silhouettes are.
Churches and pubs in historic towns. How Tasmanian! Almost opposite Holy Trinity stands the Berriedale Hotel, C 1843, but significantly renovated and modernised. This is now the only operating pub in Westbury, but this was far from the case earlier.
A few hundred metres east along the Meander Highway we came to what was the first hotel in the town. In 1833 the Commercial Hotel opened its doors for business and operated for some years as a coaching inn.
In 1903 the Fitzpatrick family acquired the building and the business, and gave it their name. It remained in the family throughout the 20th Century, and, whilst being run by the three Fitzpatrick sisters enjoyed the reputation of being a fine hotel. It is now a B&B.
Here we found silhouette number two, on our list that is, one which presents images of the redoubtable sisters Fitzpatrick,
and tells some of their tale. I rather suspect one did not mess with the Fitzpatrick girls!
Our next port of call was the Westbury sports ground, an area which was, at the time of our visit, the centre of a local controversy. It was pretty hard to miss. These 'stumps' at the entrance stood well over two metres tall. And, as you can see, here was yet another silhouette.
Clayvel Lindsay Badcock was born in nearby Exton in 1914. "Jack' as he was universally known, was a child prodigy when it came to wielding a cricket bat. He fronted up for the Tasmanian State team at the age of 15! Badcock went on to tour England as one of Bradman's Invincibles. On retirement (due to injury) he returned to farm at Exton.
But what of the controversy to which I referred? This expanse of grass had been, for quite a number of years, the site of a low cost travellers' camp. Prior to our arrival in the area we had read many good reports of the sites and its facilities and could not initially understand why it was totally vacant.
Answer.....local bureaucracy and rising risk insurance premiums as I understand. The business folk of the town are furious as you will see shortly. The local butcher told us that he has dropped so much business as a direct result that he had been forced to lay off a casual school kid whom he had employed daily for several hours each afternoon.
I did actually call in to the council offices as we walked by to seek some explanation, but strangely enough the person responsible was not available! I suspect this issue is very much 'watch this space', because now everyone goes on to Deloraine and spends their resupply and pub money there.
So, after this quick highway 'meander' (how could I possibly resist that one!) we were off back to 'old Westbury', which is only a relatively small portion of the entire village. We did as was suggested and parked at the far end of William Street, but then walked back to the Catholic Church which is the point from which I'll take up this part of the story.
We walked on past the church and
its surrounding open area where two of the associated church buildings stood at the far edge of the grounds,
until we came to the point, not too far in from the highway, where these two roadside pillars rather grandly announce the beginning of the Westbury Historic Village.
Beyond this we came across the first of the many hedges for which this town is noted.
Further to the south, towards the end of the street, a few of the trees were showing the first touches of autumn colour, highlighted by the dark backdrop of a section of the Great Western Tiers.
Houses with historical significance abound in Westbury. Apparently many do not appear on any historical register....there are just too many of them. This is indeed a town around which one could wander for hours finding something of interest.
Given our time constraints, we restricted our foot ramble to the area I've depicted in red in this Google Earth aerial. The controversial sports ground we visited first is clearly evident to the right. The magnificent Village Green lies in the open space area shown at the left of this shot and beyond that is the open area of the town common.
As I noted earlier, before walking back to the Catholic church, we parked at the intersection of William and King Streets (which is located at the bottom right corner of the area marked above).
Here we came across our first group of old Westbury buildings of note, a series of five colonial cottages dating from the 1850's, known by some as the 'Gingerbread' group.
All are now delightfully furnished B&B's and include (unsurprisingly) The Gingerbread Cottage (second from the left above), The Old Bakehouse, The Corner Cottage, The Servants Quarters and Apple Tree Cottage.
The building on the other corner of the intersection had no historical plaques or other identifying features but was clearly 'of the era'.
Before we made our way back to Lyall Street we popped into the local butcher's shop for a quick squiz and a chat, driven to some extent by this sign in the window. We knew of the sites behind Andy's bakery (not quite where we would choose to stay) but up to this point were unaware of the problem with the sports ground. All was soon made very clear! I won't repeat the story.
The other thing which attracted my attention at this point on William Street was this interesting and colourful street bench with its inlaid mosaic back. We were to see a few more of these as we rambled further around 'old Westbury'.
The signs at Lyall Street indicated that this would take us down to the Village Green. Off we went. We could see the massed trees which we expected to find there at the end of this quite short thoroughfare.
Here, on the northern side of the street we came across two buildings which could not have been more different. This odd little hairdressing salon
shared a boundary with this much more majestic looking neighbour which unfortunately was devoid of any plaques or other signs to indicated what it had been. We had picked it for a bank, and that later proved to be correct. It first opened its doors in 1887. Banking continued here until 1996 when it was sold as a private residence.....very private!
Opposite was a very clearly marked building, the 'modern' Westbury Town Hall. Built in 1933, this was a comparative newcomer to this general area.
A little further down this same side of the road the Meander Valley Council has ensconced its staff in a building which was utterly incongruous in this locale. We were less than impressed with this effort (and the fact I could get no sensible information about the free camp closure!).
We pushed on to the junction of Lyall Street and Lonsdale Promenade, the road which forms the eastern boundary of the Village Green. Here at the junction, directly overlooking the sward, the local RSL is housed in real style, but this was not always so....obviously....the building, circa 1832, significantly predates that organisation. This was the original Westbury Courthouse,
and this would seem an appropriate time to chat briefly about the town's history. Governor Arthur had grand plans for this town which was laid out in 1828. His intention was that the all powerful Van Diemen's Land Company would develop this town as an important stop-over point on the route from Hobart to their expanding holdings on the north-west coast. In fact, the original plans made it clear that Arthur intended that Westbury should grow into a city.
That clearly did not happen. We'll come to that in a moment.
Interestingly, despite the fact that Wesbury is known as an 'English Village', the first European settlers were predominantly Irish, a somewhat motley group of ex Irish convicts, retired soldiers and free settlers, many fleeing the Great Irish Famine in the 1840's. In fact, for many generations, the principal language spoke in Westbury was Gaelic.
One fascinating snippet I discovered about the early Irish emigres was that those who fitted the bill as military pensioners were each granted a five acre block of land, and....wait for it...each came complete with a well and a pear tree. What more could a new settler want!
In 1832 the fledgling Westbury became a garrison town when a detachment of troops arrived here under the command of Lieutenant Ball. All were barracked around the Village Green, which was then the centre of town. Today, although precious few of the original buildings remain, this plaque on the Green shows the manner in which they were organised.
By 1836 the town's population comprised 227 free men and women and 317 convicts. This settlement grew so that by the mid-1850s the town had become the largest military barracks outside Hobart and Launceston.
And then, in 1871, the railway arrived, an event which oddly spelt the end of the initial plans to make this the predominant town in the area, because the line did not end here but in nearby Deloraine, the town which then went on to fulfil the role of 'gateway to the north-west'.
The troops were withdrawn and it could be said that from this point on Westbury entered a time warp. It did continue to expand slowly and today remains a small town servicing the local agricultural industry but the halcyon days, and all the grand ambitions held for Westbury, were over.
But all was not lost in this village named after Westbury in Wiltshire, England. Just as we were, tourists now throng to this delightful town, with its Village Green reputed to be the only original, traditional surviving village green in the southern hemisphere. It remains the site of the renowned annual St Patrick's Day festival held here each March.
So there you have it, and the question remains, is the Village Green really so special? We think so, but having said that it was impossible to photograph in its entirety so I'll have to bring it to you in sections, beginning immediately opposite the RSL building. What an appropriate spot for the town War Memorial with its plinth, flagpoles and old artillery piece.
Behind this rather 'standard' memorial, we found something quite different, a quaint little statue of a digger atop a rearing horse.
The information on the plaque at the base of this rather odd little memorial did not entirely surprise us.
This is the scene which greeted our eyes as we looked further north fro the Lyall Street junction, a beautiful open expanse of well manicured lawn shaded throughout by many majestic trees......elms, oaks and chestnuts....all very 'English'!
What a different view those here in the early to mid 1800's would have seen. With the soldiers of the garrison living all around the edges of the Green, it was then used for parades and archery competitions and was the site of the early St Patrick's Festivals.
As a visible expression of the disapproval of the authorities and the crude nature of punishment in the 1800's, there was even a set of stocks embedded on the Green in which local miscreants could find themselves very publicly imprisoned, there to endure the jibes of their more fortunate (or yet to be caught) fellow citizens.
Whilst on the subject of those on the wrong side of the law, another of the silhouette offerings to be found here on the Green tells the story of one John Peyton Jones, a man intimately associated with the island's convict past. He is depicted holding the lead of a savage looking dog, with good reason.
The accompanying text says it all. Clearly the powers that were at the time were more than
impressed with the Jones method of prisoner security, and it would seem that Jones himself had more strings to his personal bow than merely devising a method by which to chew up errant prisoners. He went on to become a very prominent local citizen and played a significant role in Westbury's early development.
This is the view looking south over the Green along the Lonsdale Promenade (named after one of the early garrison officers and presumably a colleague of Jones', Captain Lonsdale of the 63rd Regiment of Foot).
Here we found another of the town's most prominent early buildings and, surprise, surprise, it was another church.
St Andrews Anglican Church, built in a completely different style to its Catholic counterpart, rose incrementally between 1836 and 1890 as bits were added to the original. It now stands surrounded by grand trees, but the scene here was vastly different when this building was completed.
This photo of Westbury in 1895, looking east across the Town Common in the foreground and the Village Green beyond, from the vicinity of the first road bridge across Quamby Brook,
shows that the splendid trees for which the Westbury Village Green area is now so appropriately noted, were still very much in their infancy. The building seen here to the left of the church remains today.
The original town Post Office and Telegraph Station, which was built on the site of the original convict probation station in 1888, is another of Westbury's historic buildings now used as a private residence.
The same can be said for the red brick building on the other side of the church. What began life here in the mid 1800's as the residence of the early Westbury Council Clerks, now known as 'The Gables', is the home of another lucky local family and has been since 1944.
Another of the town's original buildings to survive can also be found in this area, although not much of it can be seen behind the clipped front hedge. It was behind these very walls that, from 1832, the first of Westbury's colonial surgeons practised.
But we must quickly return to St Andrews, because it is here that we found another of the unique Westbury memorials.
Ellen Nora Payne, 'Nellie' to her mates, was a most extraordinary woman as can be gathered
from the text below her image. This is but a brief synopsis of her life and achievements.
Thanks to the 'Meander Valley Gazette' I can bring you the magnificent 'Seven Sisters' chancel screen carved by Nellie in memory of her seven dead sisters (she was the twelfth of fourteen children) which she completed in 1938. It can now be seen in St Andrew's.
The many works of this prodigiously talented and hardworking wood carver include this font head (photo courtesy of 'The Mercury') and in the year following the completion of the St Andrew's screen, such was her status by now that she was invited to carve a coat of arms which still adorns the walls of Parliament House in Hobart.
The trees which are a feature of the Green are nothing short of spectacular (Liz is standing at the base of this beauty).
And they are as varied as they are numerous.
Whilst we were wandering around admiring them and the whole area, we came across yet another of the Westbury silhouettes, this one with a very Irish connection.
The text is self explanatory, but really touches only briefly on the lives of these two quite
incredible men. Their stories, particularly that of Meagher's, make for remarkable reading. Let me whet your appetites by mentioning that Meagher, who died at 43 years of age, was not only an Irish intellectual and revolutionary, but went on to become a Brigadier-General in the American Civil War and the Governor of Montana (amongst other things!). I'll leave you to it.
We ended our visit to Westbury with a quick stroll along the street which forms the western boundary of the Green,
where this group of B&B cottages give some idea of the charm of this area. Many private homes and more guest accommodation can be found along this narrow street. What an extraordinary place to call home!
Well folks, I really have made a bit of a meal of Westbury, and frankly I could have gone on much longer. A bit of later research showed me that as far as the 'historical' aspect of this town goes, and the many, many buildings of significance which can be found here, we barely scratched the surface. I can say with complete confidence that anyone with a skerrick of genuine interest in 'historical Tasmania' could happily spend a number of days just meandering about the old village.
Westbury has definitely made it onto our list of places to revisit for much longer when we return to Tassie.
its surrounding open area where two of the associated church buildings stood at the far edge of the grounds,
until we came to the point, not too far in from the highway, where these two roadside pillars rather grandly announce the beginning of the Westbury Historic Village.
Beyond this we came across the first of the many hedges for which this town is noted.
Further to the south, towards the end of the street, a few of the trees were showing the first touches of autumn colour, highlighted by the dark backdrop of a section of the Great Western Tiers.
Houses with historical significance abound in Westbury. Apparently many do not appear on any historical register....there are just too many of them. This is indeed a town around which one could wander for hours finding something of interest.
Given our time constraints, we restricted our foot ramble to the area I've depicted in red in this Google Earth aerial. The controversial sports ground we visited first is clearly evident to the right. The magnificent Village Green lies in the open space area shown at the left of this shot and beyond that is the open area of the town common.
As I noted earlier, before walking back to the Catholic church, we parked at the intersection of William and King Streets (which is located at the bottom right corner of the area marked above).
Here we came across our first group of old Westbury buildings of note, a series of five colonial cottages dating from the 1850's, known by some as the 'Gingerbread' group.
All are now delightfully furnished B&B's and include (unsurprisingly) The Gingerbread Cottage (second from the left above), The Old Bakehouse, The Corner Cottage, The Servants Quarters and Apple Tree Cottage.
The building on the other corner of the intersection had no historical plaques or other identifying features but was clearly 'of the era'.
Before we made our way back to Lyall Street we popped into the local butcher's shop for a quick squiz and a chat, driven to some extent by this sign in the window. We knew of the sites behind Andy's bakery (not quite where we would choose to stay) but up to this point were unaware of the problem with the sports ground. All was soon made very clear! I won't repeat the story.
The other thing which attracted my attention at this point on William Street was this interesting and colourful street bench with its inlaid mosaic back. We were to see a few more of these as we rambled further around 'old Westbury'.
The signs at Lyall Street indicated that this would take us down to the Village Green. Off we went. We could see the massed trees which we expected to find there at the end of this quite short thoroughfare.
Here, on the northern side of the street we came across two buildings which could not have been more different. This odd little hairdressing salon
shared a boundary with this much more majestic looking neighbour which unfortunately was devoid of any plaques or other signs to indicated what it had been. We had picked it for a bank, and that later proved to be correct. It first opened its doors in 1887. Banking continued here until 1996 when it was sold as a private residence.....very private!
Opposite was a very clearly marked building, the 'modern' Westbury Town Hall. Built in 1933, this was a comparative newcomer to this general area.
A little further down this same side of the road the Meander Valley Council has ensconced its staff in a building which was utterly incongruous in this locale. We were less than impressed with this effort (and the fact I could get no sensible information about the free camp closure!).
We pushed on to the junction of Lyall Street and Lonsdale Promenade, the road which forms the eastern boundary of the Village Green. Here at the junction, directly overlooking the sward, the local RSL is housed in real style, but this was not always so....obviously....the building, circa 1832, significantly predates that organisation. This was the original Westbury Courthouse,
and this would seem an appropriate time to chat briefly about the town's history. Governor Arthur had grand plans for this town which was laid out in 1828. His intention was that the all powerful Van Diemen's Land Company would develop this town as an important stop-over point on the route from Hobart to their expanding holdings on the north-west coast. In fact, the original plans made it clear that Arthur intended that Westbury should grow into a city.
That clearly did not happen. We'll come to that in a moment.
Interestingly, despite the fact that Wesbury is known as an 'English Village', the first European settlers were predominantly Irish, a somewhat motley group of ex Irish convicts, retired soldiers and free settlers, many fleeing the Great Irish Famine in the 1840's. In fact, for many generations, the principal language spoke in Westbury was Gaelic.
One fascinating snippet I discovered about the early Irish emigres was that those who fitted the bill as military pensioners were each granted a five acre block of land, and....wait for it...each came complete with a well and a pear tree. What more could a new settler want!
In 1832 the fledgling Westbury became a garrison town when a detachment of troops arrived here under the command of Lieutenant Ball. All were barracked around the Village Green, which was then the centre of town. Today, although precious few of the original buildings remain, this plaque on the Green shows the manner in which they were organised.
By 1836 the town's population comprised 227 free men and women and 317 convicts. This settlement grew so that by the mid-1850s the town had become the largest military barracks outside Hobart and Launceston.
And then, in 1871, the railway arrived, an event which oddly spelt the end of the initial plans to make this the predominant town in the area, because the line did not end here but in nearby Deloraine, the town which then went on to fulfil the role of 'gateway to the north-west'.
The troops were withdrawn and it could be said that from this point on Westbury entered a time warp. It did continue to expand slowly and today remains a small town servicing the local agricultural industry but the halcyon days, and all the grand ambitions held for Westbury, were over.
But all was not lost in this village named after Westbury in Wiltshire, England. Just as we were, tourists now throng to this delightful town, with its Village Green reputed to be the only original, traditional surviving village green in the southern hemisphere. It remains the site of the renowned annual St Patrick's Day festival held here each March.
So there you have it, and the question remains, is the Village Green really so special? We think so, but having said that it was impossible to photograph in its entirety so I'll have to bring it to you in sections, beginning immediately opposite the RSL building. What an appropriate spot for the town War Memorial with its plinth, flagpoles and old artillery piece.
Behind this rather 'standard' memorial, we found something quite different, a quaint little statue of a digger atop a rearing horse.
The information on the plaque at the base of this rather odd little memorial did not entirely surprise us.
This is the scene which greeted our eyes as we looked further north fro the Lyall Street junction, a beautiful open expanse of well manicured lawn shaded throughout by many majestic trees......elms, oaks and chestnuts....all very 'English'!
What a different view those here in the early to mid 1800's would have seen. With the soldiers of the garrison living all around the edges of the Green, it was then used for parades and archery competitions and was the site of the early St Patrick's Festivals.
As a visible expression of the disapproval of the authorities and the crude nature of punishment in the 1800's, there was even a set of stocks embedded on the Green in which local miscreants could find themselves very publicly imprisoned, there to endure the jibes of their more fortunate (or yet to be caught) fellow citizens.
Whilst on the subject of those on the wrong side of the law, another of the silhouette offerings to be found here on the Green tells the story of one John Peyton Jones, a man intimately associated with the island's convict past. He is depicted holding the lead of a savage looking dog, with good reason.
The accompanying text says it all. Clearly the powers that were at the time were more than
impressed with the Jones method of prisoner security, and it would seem that Jones himself had more strings to his personal bow than merely devising a method by which to chew up errant prisoners. He went on to become a very prominent local citizen and played a significant role in Westbury's early development.
This is the view looking south over the Green along the Lonsdale Promenade (named after one of the early garrison officers and presumably a colleague of Jones', Captain Lonsdale of the 63rd Regiment of Foot).
Here we found another of the town's most prominent early buildings and, surprise, surprise, it was another church.
St Andrews Anglican Church, built in a completely different style to its Catholic counterpart, rose incrementally between 1836 and 1890 as bits were added to the original. It now stands surrounded by grand trees, but the scene here was vastly different when this building was completed.
This photo of Westbury in 1895, looking east across the Town Common in the foreground and the Village Green beyond, from the vicinity of the first road bridge across Quamby Brook,
shows that the splendid trees for which the Westbury Village Green area is now so appropriately noted, were still very much in their infancy. The building seen here to the left of the church remains today.
The original town Post Office and Telegraph Station, which was built on the site of the original convict probation station in 1888, is another of Westbury's historic buildings now used as a private residence.
The same can be said for the red brick building on the other side of the church. What began life here in the mid 1800's as the residence of the early Westbury Council Clerks, now known as 'The Gables', is the home of another lucky local family and has been since 1944.
Another of the town's original buildings to survive can also be found in this area, although not much of it can be seen behind the clipped front hedge. It was behind these very walls that, from 1832, the first of Westbury's colonial surgeons practised.
But we must quickly return to St Andrews, because it is here that we found another of the unique Westbury memorials.
Ellen Nora Payne, 'Nellie' to her mates, was a most extraordinary woman as can be gathered
from the text below her image. This is but a brief synopsis of her life and achievements.
Thanks to the 'Meander Valley Gazette' I can bring you the magnificent 'Seven Sisters' chancel screen carved by Nellie in memory of her seven dead sisters (she was the twelfth of fourteen children) which she completed in 1938. It can now be seen in St Andrew's.
The many works of this prodigiously talented and hardworking wood carver include this font head (photo courtesy of 'The Mercury') and in the year following the completion of the St Andrew's screen, such was her status by now that she was invited to carve a coat of arms which still adorns the walls of Parliament House in Hobart.
The trees which are a feature of the Green are nothing short of spectacular (Liz is standing at the base of this beauty).
And they are as varied as they are numerous.
Whilst we were wandering around admiring them and the whole area, we came across yet another of the Westbury silhouettes, this one with a very Irish connection.
The text is self explanatory, but really touches only briefly on the lives of these two quite
incredible men. Their stories, particularly that of Meagher's, make for remarkable reading. Let me whet your appetites by mentioning that Meagher, who died at 43 years of age, was not only an Irish intellectual and revolutionary, but went on to become a Brigadier-General in the American Civil War and the Governor of Montana (amongst other things!). I'll leave you to it.
We ended our visit to Westbury with a quick stroll along the street which forms the western boundary of the Green,
where this group of B&B cottages give some idea of the charm of this area. Many private homes and more guest accommodation can be found along this narrow street. What an extraordinary place to call home!
Well folks, I really have made a bit of a meal of Westbury, and frankly I could have gone on much longer. A bit of later research showed me that as far as the 'historical' aspect of this town goes, and the many, many buildings of significance which can be found here, we barely scratched the surface. I can say with complete confidence that anyone with a skerrick of genuine interest in 'historical Tasmania' could happily spend a number of days just meandering about the old village.
Westbury has definitely made it onto our list of places to revisit for much longer when we return to Tassie.
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