Bowman House
Location: 368-370 Windsor Street, Richmond, NSW 2753
Constructed: 1817 - 1820
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Bowman House was completed in 1817 and has changed little since then. The house is now occupied by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and features tea rooms, so drop in for a snack.
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Physical Description
With its steeply pitched roof, dormer windows and surrounding stone flagged verandah the cottage typifies the early Australian farmhouse. Its detailing and fitments are colonial Georgian while the walls are brick nogged, a building technique once common in the Hawkesbury district, but now rare. Brick nog houses were built of brick set in a timber frame which was covered externally with weather boards (Mason, 1988). |
Modifications
There are few buildings of a similar age which have retained a comparable degree of originality and, ..although Richmond has changed dramatically since the 1820s Bowman Cottage has not.
Conservation of the building was commenced in 1982 and was carried out under the supervision of the Historic Buildings Group of the Department of Public Works (Mason, 1988).
Bowman Cottage is a colonial house of considerable character, though it has been altered superficially in some ways. (The stone flagged verandah has been spoilt by the erection of a partition and by the addition of clumsy bases to the verandah posts. The projecting rooms at each end of the verandah have been cement rendered.) The overhanging slate roof has three gable windows lighting the attic rooms. In the main section of the house the walls are of brick, set in timber uprights and overlaid with wooden planks, a method of building sometimes used by the early settlers. The weatherboard covering protected the soft sandstock bricks from deterioration (Baker, 1967). |
History
Construction of Bowman Cottage was commenced in 1817 by James Blackman, the local constable and later gravedigger and sexton. Blackman erected the frame of a brick nog cottage during what turned out to be for him an all too brief period of prosperity. He was subsequently dismissed as constable and as a consequence found himself in financial difficulty which resulted in the forced sale of his property to George Bowman.
Bowman completed the cottage by 1820 and by 1824 it had attained its present appearance.
At the time the cottage was built Richmond was still a rustic town made up of clusters of buildings separated by paddocks and dense patches of bush. The bulk of the houses were built to timber and Bowman Cottage was one the few substantial buildings. It was built close to Windsor Street on the edge of two acres of garden and vegetable beds.
A brick stable block stood at right angles to the rear of the house and parallel to this was a timber barn with a cobbled courtyard between. Both buildings have long disappeared except for a small section of the stables which still stands.
The cottage remained in the ownership of the Bowman family until the 1920s when George's twin sons Andrew and Edward began to subdivide the land. By 1930 the cottage was sold and subsequently divided into two semi-detached houses. It remained this way until it was purchased by the Department of Environment and Planning.
(Mason, 1988)
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Internet links
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Attraction Homepage |
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Data
| Name of Item: |
Bowman House |
| Other Name/s: |
Bowman's Cottage |
| Type of Item: |
Built |
| Collection: |
Residential buildings (private) |
| Category: |
House |
| Location: |
368-370 Windsor Street, Richmond,
NSW 2753 |
| Local Govt: |
Hawkesbury |
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| Builder: |
James Blackman |
| Constructed: |
1817 - 1820 |
| Current Use: |
Function centre and tea rooms |
| Former Use: |
Private residence |
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