Ivy Cottage

I'm forever wishing I could go back in time. To be able to walk the streets of Campbelltown 50, 100...even 150 years ago would be amazing. One of the buildings I'd make a priority to visit would be Ivy Cottage in Allman Street. There was nothing grand about it. Just a simple little cottage but one full of charm and character that many happy families called home.

Local storekeeper William Gilchrist purchased land in Allman Street and built Ivy Cottage on it for his brother, Rev. Hugh Gilchrist, a Presbyterian minister appointed in 1838 to take charge of Campbelltown and many other surrounding towns. The cottage became the Presbyterian Manse and served as such until about 1882. The cottage would've held weddings in its early years as Presbyterian marriages were not conducted in church but in private houses.

An undated photograph of Ivy Cottage (Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

After Gilchrist's death in 1852, his brother sold Ivy Cottage to Alick Osborne. It then passed through many owners including John Hurley who rented it out after the death of his wife Mary in 1859. John and Ellen Thurston were living there in 1865. In 1882 it was owned by a W.J. Wilson followed by a Patrick Cullen who died in the cottage in 1893.

The cottage became home to the Vardy family some time around the early 1900s. It's unclear exactly when they moved in. The Vardy family numbered 12 with Michael and Mary the parents. Michael and Mary had lived at the cottage for a period prior to 1877 when it was still the Manse. When his father died, Michael inherited Springfields at Menangle, and he moved there. He returned to Ivy Cottage when he retired.

Members of the Vardy family outside Ivy Cottage c.1920 (Tess Holm Collection. Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Photographs of the cottage show a building that was symmetrical with a picket fence around it. A newspaper advertisement in 1861 describes it as containing a dining room, drawing room, 3 bedrooms with attics, detached kitchen, servants' room and sheds. Also a flower garden in front and a spacious kitchen garden at the rear.

The cottage was occupied by members of the Vardy family right up until the late 1950s. In 1957 unmarried siblings, Cyril and Gertrude, still resided there. For many years piano music could be heard playing inside the cottage. Gertrude was the sister who played the most and apparently played so loudly as she was deaf. The piano was owned by her mother Mary who would play for many years as the organist for the Catholic Church.

Unidentified group of women and children on verandah of Ivy Cottage (Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Another sister was Cora who lived with her husband in the same street as Ivy Cottage. Her husband would look after the garden at the back of the cottage and in the forties and early fifties kept between 200 and 250 hens in the backyard to supply the Egg Board.

Ivy Cottage was sold for re-development after 1957 when Cyril Vardy died and Gertrude moved out. I'm unable to locate an exact date for its demolition. It stood at 31 Allman Street.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Sydney Morning Herald, 10 October 1861 p8

HOLM, Tess et al 1985
Campbelltown 1930-1940: Dumaresq Street and Environs

THORNTON, Kathryn
People, Places and a Piano
In Grist Mills, Vol. 24, No. 1, February 2011 pp 3-9

Demolished Heritage Buildings of Campbelltown
November 2005

"Bullah" Vardy

It's difficult to imagine the horror that William Carroll Vardy, better known as "Bullah", went through during the First World War. Like many that joined up from Campbelltown, the young man would never return the same person who first left the town.

William Carroll Vardy was born in Campbelltown in 1891 to Michael and Mary Ellen Vardy. He was the youngest of 12 children. "Bullah" was 24 and working as a bank officer when he decided to answer the call to join the war. His older brother Joe had served in the Boer War.

"Bullah" joined the 13th Reinforcements, 3rd Field Artillery Brigade in August 1915. He would eventually leave from Western Australia bound initially for Egypt and then to France where he was involved in action at Poizieres and later Ypres in Belgium.

Fortunately, "Bullah" kept a diary of his experiences on the Western Front. They provide us with an insight into what conditions he would've experienced in the trenches. One passage reads:

"Last night was hell . . . our boys again attacking and the casualties were heavy. Was buried by a big shell in my dugout.  Men close by killed . . . a sniper shot at me and only missed by a few inches, but got poor chap behind me. Trenches full of dead and wounded."

"Bullah" survived the war but was released on medical grounds and he returned to Australia in 1919. He rejoined the bank, married a local girl named Rita and settled at "Carmel" in Patrick Street. He and Rita produced four children. Sadly, and understandably, the horrors of the war seemed to affect him for the rest of his life. He died in 1971.

I will be speaking about "Bullah" Vardy on ANZAC Day at 1.30pm at the meeting of the Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society at Glenalvon at 8 Lithgow Street, Campbelltown. Visitors are welcome.

 

 

"Bullah" and his wife Rita in later years (Photo courtesy of Chris Thomson)

 

 

Adventures Down St Elmo Hill

In my interview with local identity Norm Campbell in 2011, he told me a story about the day of his lucky escape as a baby in the 1930s. Norm was in the care of the Meredith family on this day and they were visiting friends at St Elmo. They walked there pushing young Norm in a pram. This house was located at the top of the steep Broughton Street hill in Campbelltown.

The Meredith girl who was taking care of him was distracted for a moment. Suddenly his pram began to charge down the steep, unpathed roadway, gathering speed as Norm swayed and bumped inside. The pram accelerated past Lindesay Street, Moore Street, and Queen Street, finally coming to a halt in long grass near the railway line.

Another local girl named Chris Vardy and her brothers experienced the thrill of hurtling down this same hill during their childhood in the late 1950s. In her Campbelltown Recollections: stories from our past interview, Chris described what is was like to descend the hill at top speed in a home made billy cart made from pram parts. "No helmets, no shoes and just shorts. Straight from the top of St Elmo all the way down to Queen Street. Look out! It was a wonder we weren't killed".

The photograph above is of the notorious Broughton Street hill at St Elmo looking west in 1946. (Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Written by Andrew Allen