Convict bricks from the remains of the blacksmith’s shop at Horsley. Fairfield Museum & Art Gallery

Collection

Fairfield City Museum and Gallery

Object name and number

Convict sandstock bricks, “Horsley”, Horsley Park. ID No. 2005.156.1

Location

Fairfield City Museum and Gallery, Smithfield

Object description

Convict bricks, terra cotta in colour with evidence of sand and shell, with an indentation on one side, and a rough and pitted surface. Condition is fair. Dimensions: 2.3cm (9 in) x 1.10cm (4½ in) x 6.0cm (2½in). Typical of sandstock bricks produced up until 1850, they are smaller in depth than later sandstock bricks ranging from 6.4cm (2½ in) to 7.1cm (2¾ in).

The convict bricks from the former blacksmith’s shop at Horsley, were donated to the museum by Mrs Helen Kerfoot, the present owner of the historic homestead at Horsley Park, Fairfield. These particular bricks were from the site of half of the blacksmith’s shop that fell into disrepair in 1939 after winds in a storm blew off the roof. The central loft and the other half of the blacksmith’s shop remain and still house the large bellows used to flame the forge. Fire damaged exposed timbers of the remaining half of the blacksmith’s shop in 1983.

Lack of available tradesmen during the early years of WWII prevented the repair of the building. Also, a lack of building materials in general, saw many of these remanent bricks being given by the Moffitt’s to other families who were building in the area.[1]

Horsley Blacksmith Shop, the symmetrical building in the centre. Photograph courtesy of Grant Weston Pike from the Weston family album commissioned by Blanche Weston in 1880

Remaining half of the blacksmith’s shop 2009. Fairfield City Library and Museum Photographic Collection

Horsley stands on part of Colonel George Johnston’s 2000 acre land grant received in 1805 from Governor King for Johnston’s part in quelling an Irish convict uprising at Vinegar Hill in 1804. After Johnston’s death in 1823, his youngest daughter Blanche inherited the property, which was known as “King’s Gift”. Blanche married Captain George Edward Nicholas Weston who had served in the British army and as a judge in India[2]. Weston had come to N.S.W. in the 1820s to visit his brother William Francis Weston and liked what he saw of the colony.

In order to settle permanently in New South Wales, the Westons left for India in 1829 for two years to finalise Captain Weston’s private affairs and on their return in 1831, they brought with them George Weston’s two children. The family was extended by 4 girls and three boys, 9 children in total living at Horsley.

With the help of convict labourers, they built their large hipped roofed bungalow which in style, emulated Indian colonial architecture and the life Weston had experienced in India, complete with a team of Indian servants[3]. The house was named “Horsley” after Captain Weston’s family home, West Horsley Place near Ripley in Surrey, England.

To continue the fox hunting tradition of West Horsley Place, George Weston set up the first pack of fox hounds in Australia and basically lived a life of a gentleman.[4] The hounds were maintained at The Kennels on Western Road near Prospect[5], and were a proud possession as evidenced by an advertisement placed in the Australian, 2 September, 1904 by Weston threatening dire consequences if anyone is found to have a dog and a bitch of his that had strayed. Weston also established a vineyard, an orchard, reared bloodstock horses for local race meetings and exported horses to India[6], and kept deer as pets.

Horsley, c. 2000. Fairfield City Museum & Gallery Photographic Collection

Records show that the assisted immigration of Germans to help develop early colonial vineyards began with the voyage of Beulah, which arrived in Sydney on 4 April, 1849 from London. On board the Beulah were German vinedresser families assigned to owners of vineyards in New South Wales. These vinedressers, who were shipped down the Rhine from wine producing areas of south-west Germany to Rotterdam then London, were part of a scheme to supply labour for those occupations which could not be filled by British workers.[7]

Captn. Struben’s List of German Migrants per Beulah[8] shows two vinedressers, Jacob Dries and Adolph Johan Gustav Roese and wine cooper, Jacob Krallick were assigned to Edward Weston (Major George Edward Weston) of Horsley Park, Liverpool for a period of two years. It is not known how long after that indenture period that these vinedressers stayed on with the Westons or stayed anytime at all, as they often were “traded” between other vineyards in the area. While landowners may have applied for vinedressers, they may have been put to work as shepherds, general farm labourers or gardeners.

Vineyards extended over the surrounding hillside tended by the vinedressers, some of whom lived in the workers’ cottage adjacent, like the one still standing at Horsley. The German immigrants who worked at Horsley were among a strong contingent who helped to develop the wine industry in Western Sydney at that time, an industry which contributed to the nation’s exports towards the end of the 19^th century.

Vineyards and worker’s cottages, Horsley. Photograph courtesy of Grant Weston Pike from the 1880s Weston Family Album

An extensive cellar was included under the house for making wine, complete with long sloping timber rails to roll the casks into the cellar[9]. The southern cooler side of the cellars, separate rooms were used as butchery with a chopping block, another for milk, and the third for cheese and butter making, all in close range to the kitchen, and helping to sustain a large family and workers on the western extremity of Sydney.

Crushing grapes in the cellar at Horsley early 19^thCentury[10] Courtesy State Library of NSW

Blanche Weston continued to live in the house after her husband’s death in 1856 until her death in 1904 at the age of 98yrs. The home remained in the possession of Blanche Weston and her descendants for 110 years, including her daughter Mrs Augusta Smart and Miss Perry (granddaughter of Mrs Weston), who operated Horsley as an unofficial guest house in the 1920s.

Just over a century later from when Horsley was built, Frederic and Nell Moffitt bought Horsley in 1939, passing it on to their two daughters in the 1960s, Mrs H. Kerfoot and Miss J. Moffitt. Horsley is still in their ownership.

One of the specifically Indian features of the Indian style bungalow was the large canvas hanging blind (known as a punkah) suspended from the ceiling in the centre of the dining room. A rope and pulley device was attached and passed through a metal loop to an adjacent hallway where a servant, (a waller) would pull the rope to fan diners. When the Moffitts arrived at Horsley just months before the outbreak of WWII, Mrs Moffitt had the punkah removed as “there were no punkah wallers to operate the fans”, and replaced them with electric lights.[11]

To their surprise, the Moffitts found that there was no bath house or room, as bathing was taken in a hipbath which was moved from bedroom to bedroom. One of the six bedrooms was promptly turned into a bathroom[12]. As Frederic Moffitt worked in Sydney as an accountant, sharefarmers were engaged to use the 65 acres for market gardening during WWII and later for dairying. The sharefarmers were accommodated in the cottage once used by workers in the vineyards.

Convict Bricks

While the many bricks, like this example in the Museum’s collection, were used to build and make Horsley homestead and its outbuildings a significant historic asset in Fairfield, the role the makers of the bricks played in the development of the colony is also important.

The brickmakers were transported convicts who were assigned to the private owner of Horsley, Major George Weston. The convict gang used in 1831 at Horsley Park, were one of the last consigned to private developers prior to the cessation of convict servitude and the handmoulding of bricks was replaced with brickmaking machines. While the house and other brick buildings on the site were being built, the Westons themselves lived in a marque on site. By 1841, the Census showed that the number of assigned convicts working on properties were a mere handful.

For properties on the outskirts of Sydney, it was cheaper to hand mould the bricks and either cure them in temporary kilns, or to sundry the bricks on site, rather than to have them transported to the site by drays over rough roads. The bricks made at Horsley were sun dried.[13] The hand moulding brick makers, whether convict or free labourers, were in demand as it was a skill which took months to acquire. The clay for the bricks was obtained from the dam paddock which is now part of a residential subdivision[14].

The mould would have been an open rectangular wooden frame and the top edge may have been fitted with metal strips to keep the shape and to prevent ware. The size of the wooden brick mould was made to allow for shrinkage during firing and drying. An Australian authority on the manual process advised that the mould should measure 9½ x 4½ x 3¼ inches to achieve the required size of 9 x 4½ x 3 inches[15], although there was no standardised size for bricks throughout the nineteenth century. The mould was then dusted with sand to allow the clay to slip away easily, hence the origin of the term ‘sandstock’. Bricks were coated with dry sand to prevent them adhereing to other surfaces, and allowed to dry. Bricks from this process were often soft and of low quality due to the inefficient temperature control of the wood fire or the sun.

The marks on the brick relics show that of a heart, which, along with the diamond, spade and club, were popular symbols. The desired imprint mark was usually handcarved from wood and screwed or nailed to the stockboard attached to a workbench, which the upper or ‘strike’ face of the brick was placed over. Frogmarks were used to identify either the brickmakers or the owner of the house to avoid theft. 

Wooden brick mould used by hand moulders

The lack of natural deposits of lime for mortar in the Sydney region meant that the quality of many bricks was poor, making it necessary for adding hair, animal or human, with the sand and water to bind the brick. While there was surveillance of assigned gangs by the military, there was not the same requirement to oversee the quality of the output. The problem of leaky brickwork and dampness plagued early buildings, which needed to rely on regular whitewashing with lime and water to retard dampness. Fashion as well as necessity from the early 1830s required the brick walls of houses to be stuccoed. As the walls of the house are double brick and without cavities, living conditions experienced by the current owner, Mrs Helen Kerfoot, are that the interiors are cool in summer and cold in winter.[17]

Convict clay brick drains are still visible around the base of the house and their purpose was to channel water from the roof, which was originally gutterless, to an underground water well to the west of the kitchen.[18] The dome covered well or tank remains visible on site, and gutters now feed rainwater to an aboveground tank.

The original grant was 2000 acres, and the current curtilage of the homestead is 9½ acres, having been reduced substantially by a number of subdivisions. Some of the brick walls on the outbuildings are lime washed and need to be regularly rewashed. The bricks of the main house are lime plastered, although rising damp from the porous bricks is a continual problem to be managed.

The convict brinks are historically significant because Horsley House is the only Australian colonial house that can be directly related to Anglo-Indian architecture. Not only the design with a punkah in the dining room to fan diners, but also details and fittings such as the folding casement doors and the louvered jhilmils (shutters)[19] made of teak, all purchased through connections the Westons had in India.[20]

Additionally, the house and complex is an excellent example of a self-contained country estate of the early 19^th century, with extensive out-buildings behind the house including an estate office/library, kitchen, servant’s quarters, and stables still existent. The former kitchen, office and house retain much of the original lathe and plaster internal walls, original windows, doors, and hardwood board floors and shingle roof under corrugated iron roofing. Servants’ bells, which linked the service area to activities in the house, are still visible under the roof of the back verandah.

Horsley and its complex of outbuildings and cultural landscape is of National, State and local significance and, as a residential building, is the second oldest building in Fairfield, the oldest being the Male Orphan School Superintendent’s residence built in 1826 at Bonnyrigg.

The convict bricks have interpretive significance as evidence of building skills and economic growth that occurred on the outskirts of Sydney through the homestead estates, and no doubt enhanced by the use of free convict labour. The convict constructed home and outbuildings at Horsley bear witness to the many pioneering endeavours that flourished there for some 75 years. It is a tribute to all the owners and carers that this important part of our colonial built environment has been preserved for future generations.

The Horsley estate represents one of the last examples of a purpose built village on the fringe of Sydney supplying and maintaining all the needs of the occupants down to cheese and butter making and storing cellar rooms, although most of the outbuildings are now not used for their original purposes.

Bibliography

Broadbent, James, Rickard, Suzanne and Steven, Margaret. India, China, Australia: Trade and Society 1788-1850. Historic Houses Trust of NSW. Glebe, 2003.

Gemmel, Warwick. And so we graft from six to six – The brickmakers of NSW. Angus & Robertson Publishers. London. 1986.

Mort, Eilene. The Westons of Horsley. Transcribed and arranged from records collected by Nora Kate Weston, daughter of the second son (Frederick Weston) of Major General George Edward Nicholas Western. Mitchell Library MSS 1462/4x

Patterson, Jenny. “German Immigrant Ships to Eastern Australia – Resources and Problems. Part 1: Beulah 1849“. Ances-tree, vol. 16, no. 1, March, 2003.

Ringer, Ron. The Brickmasters 1788 – 2008. Dry Press Publishing Pty Ltd, Horsley Park, N.S.W. 2008.

Roxburgh, Rachel. Colonial Farm Buildings of New South Wales. Rigby, Adelaide. 1978.

The Horsley Park NSW – Architectural Assessment, January 1982, prepared for the Heritage Council of NSW by Clive Lucas Pty Ltd.

Varman, Robert Victor Johannes, Bricks and Nails: Building materials as criteria for dating Sydney and environs from 1788. A Documentary Survey and Assessment of Dating Potential. A thesis submitted for Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology, University of Sydney, September, 1993.

Weston, Bert E. Personal documents, Mitchell Library, DOC20136, relating to Weston land grants at Horsley, Horsley Park and West Horsley at Dapto.

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[1] Personal telephone discussions with Mrs Helen Kerfoot, 29/1/09

[2] Weston, Bert E. Personal documents. Mitchell Library dated 20/11/1972, p. 3

[3] Cumberland Argus, 3 September, 1904

[4] Weston, Bert E., p. 4

[5] Mort, Eilene. The Westons of Horsley. 1943.

[6] Australian Town and Country Journal, 25 March, 1871

[7] Patterson, J. Pp. 17-23

[8] SRNSW Immigration, CES5239. Letters received from miscellaneous persons re migration to NSW, 1864-1897; 9/6193 with letter No. 49/3275

[9] Roxburgh, R., p. 135

[10] Mort, Eilene. Mitchell Library MSS 1462/4x

[11] At an exhibition at the Museum of Sydney in 2003, a replica of the dining room at Horsley complete with a set of shutters from Horsley, and a reconstructed punkah, coincided with the launch of James Broadbent’s India, China, Australia Trade and Society 1788-1850. Following the exhibition the punkah was given by the Historic Houses Trust of NSW to Mrs Kerfoot to be eventually reinstated at “Horsley”.

[12] Personal telephone discussions with Mrs Helen Kerfoot, 29/1/09

[13] Conversation between Mrs H. Kerfoot & Blanche Weston’s great-grandson, Bert Weston, personal telephone discussions with Mrs Helen Kerfoot,.29/1/09

[14] Personal telephone discussions with Mrs Helen Kerfoot, 29/1/09

[15] Varman, R., p. 16

[16] Ringer, R., p. 14

[17] Oral History interview with Mrs Helen Kerfoot, as part of the interview series The Way We Were, at the Whitlam Library, 3 September, 2003.

[18] Horsley, Architectural Assessment prepared by Clive Lucas Pty Ltd, January, 1982 for the Heritage Council of NSW, p. 9.

[19] Jhilmils – timber shutters with adjustable blades that could be angled to control the flow of natural light and breezes.

[20] Broadbent, James, p. 15.

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