Summer Hill, New South Wales

Stroud’s built history - a brand new perfect, a national treasure

As soon as the Australian Agricultural business (AACo) ended up being created in London in 1824. as a chartered business to increase fine wool in brand new South Wales, it was an initial endeavor into business farming in Australia. The company is the oldest in Australia nevertheless exchanging under its initial name.

Stroud, created by AACo in 1826, is exclusive in-being the earliest and best maintained surviving business town in Australian Continent. and it also was one of the first outlying cities classified by the National Trust in 1976; prepared bythe AACo, a lot of its initial cottages and Stroud home survive and so are in good condition. They date from the very first 50 several years of European settlement.

The business’s activities had been personal also economic. The St. John's Group of structures alongside the AACo head office and domestic structures, represented a deliberate plan by the conventions of that time period to promote religion, knowledge and a well-balanced society. The plan ended up being section of a grand design by the free enterprise AACo, which in part had been created in counter into convict beginnings of the Colony of NSW. Stroud's town plan pre-dates the founding of Melbourne.

The AACo laid out and designed Stroud into the English Georgian rural village custom. It shows the best of an earlier nineteenth century township with church, college and parsonage at its centre, a grand house (for superintendent of this AACo), cottages dotted in some places along with a town popular. Stroud has some of Australia’s oldest European heritage. It really is an original metropolitan landscape that features perhaps not already been contextually diluted in the way of Sydney. It's special in that all have survived.

The St-John the Evangelist Church, Parsonage, Parish Hall and Quambi form the extremely significant team when you look at the heart of the special townscape. Historically, the group is considerable because of its links to AACo although the part of Quambi additionally the Parish Hall, as a school provide links to early knowledge systems in brand new Southern Wales.

Inside the church:

• The initial cedar fixtures are still being used;
• Two managing pulpits flank the railed sanctuary -a function found nowhere else in Australia;
• a performers’ gallery, approached by measures from nave, is based against the western wall surface;
• The barrel vault ceiling is crowned with an easy cornice where lighting is hidden.

The Church has been evaluated as "perhaps the finest and undoubtedly many intact Anglican Church in Australian Continent which pre-dates the influence of ecclesiology, It is comparable to everything for this scale surviving in The united kingdomt. Historical value and architectural quality make it of outstanding significance.” - Clive Lucas OBE, heritage architect.

Collectively, the structures form an aesthetically significant Colonial Georgian team, practically unaltered since construction. Socially, the 3 places of worship consistently stay a focus of spiritual and neighborhood life in Stroud; Quambi, now a museum, remains a spot of training. Thus all fill their particular original roles. “Not can be found anywhere else in Australia” - Damaris Bairstow, historian.

These days, these nationwide essential buildings at the heart of Stroud town are respected by architects, historians and townspeople. They form a precinct this is certainly of utmost importance in Australian history. By attracting tourists they bring financial advantage toward surrounding area. Along the years they usually have relied regarding the thin and sometimes inadequate sources of the village neighborhood due to their maintenance. The Stroud Trust has come into being to bring certainty for their future.

With its recommendation, local Development Australia - Hunter features written that it “supports and recognises the significance of the SHCTrust as an element of our region. The wide general public benefits the SHCTrust provides, both personal and economic, and special significance of just what it seeks to protect is essential towards Hunter.”

Resources:

Elizabeth Ellis OAM, Emeritus Curator, Mitchell Library, Sydney & Hon Assoc., Dept of History, Uni. of Sydney Clive Lucas OBE, history architect Dr. Jonathan King, historian and writer Brian Eastoe, Certified Practising Planner The late Dr. R. Frappell, MA (Hons), PhD (Syd), historic Consultant, Past President, Royal Aust. Hist. Soc. Dr. P. A. Pemberton, Archivist, ANU Archives system Dr. Damaris Bairstow, MA., LLB., PHD, composer of A Million weight a Million Acres, 2003 Mr. Todd Williams, CEO, RDA – Hunter State history NSW site The late Kenneth J. Cable, have always been MA D.Litt, Th.D, FRAHS, FSAG, previous, Head of Department o History Uni. of Sydney, President, RAHS, person in the history Council of the latest South Wales.