Saturday, July 4, 2026

Glentworth – Victoria / Seaview Street precinct – Ashfield – NSW

Glentworth – Ashfield – NSW

Built 1886 for Frederick Clissold · Italianate · Standing inside Cardinal Freeman / Levande village

Ashfield’s showpiece Italianate pile — built for landholder and early councillor Frederick Clissold, sold to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in 1913, and still standing inside today’s seniors village with its wartime chapel next door. The live post already had the bones; this scrapbook puts Sources under them and refuses to invent a street number Clissold never needed for posterity.

At a glance

  • Name: Glentworth
  • Location: Ashfield — Victoria Street / Seaview Street corner precinct (Historypin photo viewpoint); Cardinal Freeman Village / Levande campus
  • Built: 1886 (live post; Historypin; Ashfield & District Historical Society). Soft alternate completion 1887 in one secondary Millstone note
  • Client: Frederick Clissold — first Ashfield Council member; large local landholder (Ashfield HS)
  • Architect (secondary attribution): Morell & Kemp (Kurrajong–Comleroy Historical Society Millstone, comparing Belmont Park) — confirm against Ashfield inventory before stating as fact without caveat
  • Style: Victorian Italianate (Ashfield HS)
  • Institutional chapter: Sisters of the Good Shepherd from 1913; Good Shepherd Home for young women into late 1970s
  • Chapel: Cardinal Freeman Chapel / Good Shepherd Chapel — built 1942; restored c.2018 (~$1 million)
  • Fate: Standing — house adapted within seniors living (Cardinal Freeman / Levande); several residents in the old home (Catholic Weekly)

Site & setting

Glentworth anchors a large Ashfield estate later wrapped by convent and then retirement-village fabric. The 1942 chapel sits beside the mansion; undercroft used as WWII air-raid shelter. Modern village landscaping and later wings crowd the historic core — photograph the Italianate eaves and tower/bay silhouette carefully so readers can still find the 1880s house in the campus.

Aboriginal Country: Wangal of the Eora Nation (Inner West / Parramatta River corridor).

Timeline

  • 1886 – Glentworth finished for Frederick Clissold (live; Historypin; Ashfield HS). Soft 1887 completion note in Millstone Belmont comparison.
  • 1913 – Sold to Sisters of the Good Shepherd as convent / refuge (live; Historypin).
  • 1913–late 1970s – Good Shepherd Home — “protection and rehabilitation of young women and girls” (live wording; institutional history deserves careful, sourced language on publish).
  • 1942 – Sisters build Romanesque Revival chapel (consecration story with Archbishop / later Cardinal Gilroy in Catholic Weekly tradition); synthetic sandstone; air-raid shelter below.
  • 1978 – Property sold and redeveloped for senior living — Cardinal Freeman Village (live).
  • c.2018 – Chapel restoration (~$1m); stained glass cleaned/re-leaded; village ownership of chapel emphasised (Catholic Weekly).
  • Today – Levande Cardinal Freeman community; Glentworth house still in residential use within the village; chapel open for Mass / reflection (check current access).

Architecture

Grand Italianate mansion — Ashfield HS notes it as a local pattern-setter for the 1880s boom, itself influenced by Victorian Government House (1876) and ultimately Osborne House / picturesque Italianate taste. Live and tour photos show tower/bay massing, verandahs, and decorative eaves that the chapel’s Italian eaves deliberately continue (Catholic Weekly). Interior institutional adaptations (convent, then seniors apartments) mean original room schedules need inventory confirmation before a full joinery essay.

Chapel: inter-war Catholic Romanesque Revival; rose windows; Good Shepherd iconography; acoustics prized by visiting choirs.

People

Frederick Clissold — early Ashfield councillor and landholder; Glentworth as status seat on vacant municipal land he helped shape.

Sisters of the Good Shepherd — convent life beside the mansion; wartime chapel build under austerity (imitation sandstone); decades of institutional care for vulnerable girls and young women — treat with evidence and sensitivity, not scrapbook gloss.

Village lore (Catholic Weekly): Gilroy on consecration — “I gave you permission to build a chapel, but you have built a cathedral.”

Gallery





______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Built in 1886 for the Clissold family who resided there until selling it to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in 1913 to be used as a convent.
It was used until the late 70’s as part of the Good Shepherd Home for the “protection and rehabilitation of young women and girls”.
In 1978 the property was sold and redeveloped for senior living an is now part of the Cardinal Freeman Village.
The Cardinal Freeman Chapel was built by the Sisters of the Good Shepperd in 1942 and was used as an air raid shelter during WWII. It was made from synthetic sandstone so as to save money during the war years. It has recently undergone a $1million renovation and is owned by the Village, and doesn’t fall under any parish.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



















What stands today

Glentworth stands inside Cardinal Freeman / Levande seniors living, Ashfield — private residential campus, not a ticketed house museum. The chapel is village-owned (not a parish), used for Sunday Mass and open reflection by arrangement / published hours. Ashfield & District Historical Society has led accessible tours — watch their calendar.

Sources & further reading

Related

Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)