Barnstaple Manor – Iron Cove / Rodd Point (Five Dock) – NSW
Built 1845 · Architect John Hilly · Destroyed by fire 1927 · Site subdivided
At the head of Iron Cove, solicitor Brent Clements Rodd built a family seat and named it Barnstaple Manor after his Devon birthplace. Twelve children, a private burial vault on the point, an island renamed for the family, and a street grid still speaking Rodd names — then fire in 1927 and subdivision. The manor is gone; Rodd Park, the vault site, and Rodd Island keep the memory.
At a glance
- Name: Barnstaple Manor
- Location: head of Iron Cove — later Rodd Point / Five Dock (Canada Bay: site along present Princess Avenue between Noble Street and First Avenue)
- Built: 1845
- Architect: John Hilly (City of Canada Bay Bay Run history)
- Original owner: Brent Clements Rodd (1809–1898), solicitor; wife Sarah Jane Robertson; eight sons, four daughters
- Land: lots purchased from Samuel Lyons’s subdivided Five Dock Estate (formerly Five Dock Farm) by 1838
- Fate: Unoccupied; destroyed by fire 1927; remains/subdivision through the 1920s; street names and Rodd Park vault site survive
Site & setting
Five Dock Farm — once surgeon John Harris country, later Samuel Lyons’s speculation — was cut into large lots from the late 1830s. Rodd bought two: one toward present Chiswick, one at the head of Iron Cove where he built Barnstaple. The point below became known as Vault Point for the family’s burial vault, then Rodd Point; the nearby island (Snake / Rabbit / Rhode) he tried to buy in 1859 and renamed Rodd Island even when the deal failed.
Aboriginal Country: Wangal land of the Eora Nation (south shore of the Parramatta River / Iron Cove).
Timeline
- 1822 – Brent Clements Rodd arrives Australia with father and brothers.
- 1833 – Admitted solicitor; prospering by late 1830s.
- 1838 – Purchases Five Dock Estate lots from Samuel Lyons.
- 1839 – Marries Sarah Jane Robertson; eventually twelve children.
- 1845 – Barnstaple Manor built to John Hilly’s design.
- 1859 – Deposit on Iron Cove island (deal fails); island nonetheless takes Rodd name.
- 1898 – Brent Clements Rodd dies.
- 1903 – Bodies from Rodd family vault moved to Rookwood (secondary local histories).
- 1920s – House unoccupied; fire 1927 (Canada Bay); demolished / remains cleared; land subdivided.
- Today – No manor. Rodd Park (vault memorial), Rodd Island (Sydney Harbour National Park), Barnstaple Road and children’s street names remain.
Architecture
Canada Bay identifies a John Hilly design of 1845 — a mid-century harbourside manor in the Hilly domestic manner familiar from other Sydney marine villas. Detailed measured interiors were not locked this pass; keep the live-post historic photographs (including the windmill view on the scrapbook) as the visual record. Do not invent room counts.
People
Brent Clements Rodd rose from Icely’s shipping office to solicitor and Iron Cove landholder. The children’s names — Brent, Burnell, Clements, Janet, Lenore, Trevanion, Undine — still label Five Dock / Rodd Point streets; Barnstaple Road recalls the Devon manor name. Sarah Robertson Rodd co-anchors the family portrait pair on the live scrapbook.
Rodd Island’s later Pasteur rabbit-laboratory chapter and harbour-park life are a separate story — but the island’s name is the manor’s echo across the cove.
Gallery
Brett Clements Rodd (1809-1898) arrived in Australia in 1822 with his father and two brothers after the death of his mother. The young Rodd secured employment with Thomas Icely an enterprising merchant and shipping agent in Sydney.
In 1833 Rodd became a solicitor and by 1838 was prosperous enough to purchase two lots of the subdivided Five Dock Estate (previously known as Five Dock Farm) from Samuel Lyons. One piece of land was at the head of Five Dock Bay in present-day Chiswick. The other was at the head of Iron Cove, where Rodd built a house which he named Barnstaple Manor, after his birthplace in Devon.
In 1839 he married Sarah Jane Robertson and they had eight sons and four daughters. In 1859 Rodd put a deposit down to buy the island in Iron Cove known variously as Snake, Robbit or Rhode island. While the deal did not go through, Rodd nonetheless renamed the island in his own name.
The remains of Barnstaple Manor were still visible until the 1920s when it was demolished and the property subdivided. Many Five Dock streets bear the names of Sarah and Brent Rodd’s children including Brent, Burnell, Clements, Janet, Lenore, Trevanion and Undine streets. While, Barnstaple Road, Rodd Island, Rodd Point and Rodd Park also recall the family’s association with the area.
Brent Clements Rodd Sarah Robertson
What stands today
Barnstaple Manor does not stand. Walk Rodd Park (the old Vault Point) for the family memorial, Princess Avenue for the house site corridor, and look across to Rodd Island. Pair with other Iron Cove / Parramatta River losses on this blog.
Sources & further reading
- City of Canada Bay — Bay Run history (Hilly 1845; fire 1927): https://www.canadabay.nsw.gov.au/bay-run-history
- Canada Bay Connections — “The Rodd family of Barnstaple Manor” (live post source text): https://canadabayconnections.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/the-rodd-family-of-barnstaple-manor/
- Existing scrapbook post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2026/07/barnstaple-manor-iron-cove.html
