Regentville - Home Of Sir john Jamison - Regentville NSW
Regentville Mansion (Site) and Vineyard Terracing
460a-626 Mulgoa Road
Regentville (1823-1869) was constructed for Sir John Jamison (1776-1844) physician, landowner and constitutional reformer who arrived on the First Fleet. Regentville was known as the grandest and most substantial house in the colony of NSW, and was named in honour of George IV, the former Prince Regent. Despite its ruinous state Regentville is an important site as the place where Sir John Jamison chose to have his mansion complex built and where he established a major agricultural enterprise. The Regentville site is historically significant as a rare example of the site of probably the first wine estate to use the terraced vineyard technique (c1830); one of the few early wine estates where the vineyard terraces and, though ruinous, the old winery can still be located. The vineyards are important as one of the earliest complete wine-producing enterprise planned and implemented at the time ie. vineyards, large winery/store, access road and circulation system. The site has presumed associations with Henry Kitchen (mansion design) and Sir Henry Parkes (labourer at Regentville 1839-40). The Regentville ruins and surrounds is an area of substantial archaeological deposit and archaeological potential. The site has already yielded substantial archaeological evidence of early 19th century development. The site also contains numerous plants likely to be the progeny of earlier species. These plants are useful in maintaining an appropriate character and setting for the site. The place is used for educational purposes by geology and archaeology students and also has excellent potential for studying the comparison of sandstone and shale vegetation communities.
(RNE)
Physical description:The foundations are located on top of a hill between the recent suburb of Glenmore Park, to the east and Mulgoa Road down the hill to the west. African olives and Pepper trees grow in the vicinity of the foundations, with the area to the north being basically clear with exotic vegetation such as crepe myrtles, oleanders, cypresses and pines growing in the cleared area between the mansion site and a semi-circular dam. Remnants of what appears to be a rockery with succulents and agaves lay on the eastern boundary. The area to the south of the mansion site is cleared and level.
The vineyard site lies to the southwest of the mansion site and is substantially overgrown with African olive, Privet and other weed species. Remnants of the terracing and drainage system which were constructed using rounded river stones are clearly discernible in parts on the descent to the dam where there are remnants of the foundation of the winery. An access road to a neighbouring property lies to the north of the terraced vineyard. (RNE)
The site of the vineyard lies to the southwest. Its extensive terracing of rounded river stones and drainage system recently have been exposed through clearance by bush fire of shrub overgrowth. The house was sited to face north and the views to Windsor from the house were noted in early nineteenth century descriptions. Vistas to Penrith and beyond are still possible.
Historical notes:Exploration parties ventured along the Nepean River from the beginning of settlement. The first series of official land grants was made by Governor Macquarie in 1810, along Mulgoa Creek and the Nepean River. The Mulgoa Valley was less suitable for grazing purposes than areas on the Cumberland Plain and was therefore selected later by pastoralists. The Mulgoa Valley was known as the 'forest lands', in the early decades of colonisation as it had poorer soils. This is likely to have been the reason Governor Macquarie allocated larger than usual land grants. The grantees included men with sufficient capital backing and position which enabled them to support convict labour assigned to them, including William Cox (magistrate), James Norton (solicitor), Robert Cartwright and Henry Fulton (clergy) and Sir John Jamison (physician).
Sir John Jamison (1776-1844) physician, landowner and constitutional reformer, born in Ireland, arrived in the colony as surgeon's mate on the First Fleet. Sir John Jamison's family initially occupied a cottage built by his father, Thomas Jamison on the land which would become the site of his mansion Regentville. On the death of his father in 1811 Jamison inherited several grazing properties including 1000 acres near Penrith. By the 1820s Jamison was 'one of the first Landed Proprietors in the Colony'. He acquired more land by grant and purchase and extended his Penrith estate, where in 1823 he began construction of Regentville, presumed to be designed by Henry Kitchen, and known as the grandest and most substantial house in the colony of NSW. Regentville was named in honour of George IV, the former Prince Regent.
Only a few settlers in the area had built houses by the early 1820s, the foremost being the Cox family and Sir John Jamison. The Cox Cottage (1811) is located south of the Mulgoa Natural Area. (RNE #003108).
A program of clear-felling timber in the vicinity of the new house was undertaken. Jamisons primary interest appears to have been to create an agriculturally productive property, he seems to have experimented with a number of crops and cultivated grape vines, and he is credited with having the first terraced vineyard in the colony. The vineyard is noted as having been laid out by F.A. Meyer. Meyer arrived in the colony in 1830 and is believed to have undertaken a 3 year engagement in which he established several vineyards.
In December 1847 Regentville was described as a 1560 acre estate, 600 acres had been cleared and stumped and about 150 were under cultivation. The mansion was built of stone with a colonnade in front and on each side, surmounted by an iron balcony. The house had an entrance hall and 15 rooms and cellars. There was also a building for servants approximately 180 sq feet enclosed by a stone wall about 10 feet high. There were stone stables behind which was a garden covering about 4 acres, comprising a range of fruit trees and vegetables as well as a gardener's house. Behind the garden was a partitioned and railed shed which would accommodate about 30 colts, along with a paddock containing stock yards and drafting yards. There was a ten and a half acre vineyard with a stone house of four rooms, a large cellar for manufacturing wines with wine press and still. A large dam was immediately in front of the wine cellar.
A circular area inside the carriage drive to the front of the house was fenced and there were exotic species planted in the foreground. Close to the house were planted Agaves, Olives, Silky Oaks, Camphor Laurels, Crepe Myrtles, Pines and Coral Trees. Regentville also had an irrigation scheme, and a woollen mill built about 1842.
It was at Regentville that Sir Henry Parkes (1815-1896) politician and journalist, obtained his first employment in Australia. Parkes his wife and one child found work as a labourer at Regentville estate for 6 months on his arrival in Australia from England.
By the late 1830s Jamison was probably the richest man in the colony. Jamison had an income of around eighteen thousand pounds for the year. The collapse of the Bank of Australia and the drought and depression of the 1840s combined to seriously undermine Jamison's financial standing. He died in 1844. Regentville is believed to have remained occupied by the Jamison family during the 1840s. Regentville was then put up for sale.
Frederick A Bell, then leased the property and opened a private asylum for insane and nervous patients at Regentville (1860-1864). In 1864-1869 a Penrith farmer, Mr John Shiels leased the building, with forty acres, and ran it as the Abels Family Hotel. The railway had come to Penrith and being only a mile and a half away Shiels sought to capitalise on the popularity of the district as a holiday resort, however in May 1869 a fire broke out and gutted the main part of the house.
In 1917 some of the lower walls of Regentville remained standing, most of the stone had been carted away and was re-erected in High Street, Penrith. The whole estate, which had once led the field in stock breeding, methods of cultivation, viticulture, as well as being a Mecca for grandscale sporting and social events, now lay dormant. The decades of intensive land use and high yields were over. The following period was one of speculative investment and attempted subdivision but also one of minimal use of the land.
The land passed through a number of changes of ownership and was used periodically for agriculture and dairying. The changes of land use on the Regentville Estate are a barometer of more significant changes occurring elsewhere in the Mulgoa and Penrith areas. Involving experimental farming and grazing at Regentville up to the 1840s then emphasis moved to dairying and intensive agriculture such as vegetable and fruit growing.
The land on which the Regentville ruins are located was acquired by the State of NSW in 1977 and is part of the Mulgoa Nature Reserve, managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NSW.
In the early 1800s, right in the middle of the suburb now known as Regentville, sat an enormous mansion that would still be considered grand even in life today.
But the history of the Regentville mansion is shrouded by mystery as events that led to its demise raised questions that have never been answered.
During the years of settlement in NSW, Sir John Jamison acquired 9,000 acres of land in the Penrith area following the 1811 death of his father, Thomas Jamison, a member of the First Fleet.
Jamison lived in a cottage by the Nepean River until he commissioned the building of a grand house, to be called Regentville, of which the foundation stone was laid on September 9, 1823.
Built using stone and materials from nearby, Regentville was finished the following year.
With 15 rooms, including a breakfast room, a billiard room and a library as well as a grand entrance hall, the mansion quickly gained a reputation as being one of the finest houses in NSW at the time.
In addition to the house, the grounds stretched over acres and there were a number of other structures, including stables, a bake house, kitchens and a mill.
Among these buildings were quarters for the workers and labourers, one of which was a young Sir Henry Parkes.
There was a vineyard and groves of fruit trees and the land was also used to farm sheep and cattle. In addition to holding a reputation as one of the grandest houses in the state, it was also known for the extravagant parties held by Jamison.
In 1840, however, there was a depression and Jamison was hit hard.
He died at Regentville in 1844, aged 68.
From here, the mansion fell into disrepair and was empty for years until it was picked up for use as a mental asylum run by a Gladesville doctor.
The quiet surroundings were expected to assist in the recovery of patients but the subsequent remoteness of the site meant that those who could afford treatment elsewhere elected to leave.
The house again was left empty when the endeavour failed. In 1865 the house and its grounds were leased by the Shiels family, who ran a private hotel.
After a few years, the owner looking to end the lease was selling Regentville’s furniture when the mansion caught fire
The details of what happened on the night of the fire in May 1869 were recorded during an inquest into the incident.
There were only two maids in the house at the time of the fire, who were woken by the sound of crackling and rushed to the ballroom, where they saw the flames.
The occupants of the house and those living on the grounds watched as the house was destroyed and many said that they could not see how the roof could have caught alight naturally.
It was concluded in the inquest that “the house was wilfully and maliciously set on fire by some person or persons unknown”.
While it was a great loss to Penrith that the mansion burned down, parts of this history are literally distributed all over Penrith.
When the mansion was reduced to rubble by fire, bits of the sandstone walls were salvaged and used in the building of Penrith’s roads and buildings.
The guttering on Station Street and Belmore Street was originally made from this sandstone, and the stone still lies in the walls of the Red Cow Hotel.
The site where the house sat still exists, though at one point was threatened by the development of Glenmore Park.
As for the fire, the case was never solved, meaning it remains one of Penrith’s longest-running mysteries.
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All thats left of the Grand Home Regentville
