The suburb with the misspelt name

Englorie Park House sits at the centre of the tiny suburb of Englorie Park. The land on which it sits has been home to many interesting people. It straddles two original land grants – one made to First Fleeter William Eggleton, and the other to Second Fleeter David Nowland.
Eventually the grants became one farm owned by merchant farmer Samuel Terry, who became known as the “Botany Bay Rothschild.” The property stayed in the Terry family after Samuel Terry’s death in 1838, via his grandson Samuel Terry Hughes, then to his stepdaughter Esther Hughes and then to William Nunn Pattrick, grandson of Esther Hughes. Pattrick (who had 12 children, of whom 6 sons served in WWI, three killed in action, 2 wounded), sold the property to Alfred Leath Park. Alfred built “Parkholme” – described as one of the “prettiest villas in the vicinity of Campbelltown, or indeed the colony”. Park was well known in coursing circles in the colony and his greyhounds were his pride and joy.  In about 1892, the property was sold to Henry Edward Vaughan, who was elected as an Alderman the same year, and as Mayor of Campbelltown the following year. He only served as mayor for one year. He leased Parkholme out when he subsequently moved away and after his death in 1901 it was purchased by Frederick Merewether. Frederick’s brother Herbert built the historic home Raith around the same time. The Merewethers were descendants of a pioneering family from the Hunter Valley.

In 1913 the property changed hands again. It was sold to Charles Burcher.  Born to blacksmith father Steven and mother Jane in Liverpool, on April 4th, 1837, Charles married Margaret Wilhelmina Smith in 1873, but she would tragically die in 1874, and their first and only child, daughter Jane, died in 1875. 

(Photo: Pastoral Review 16.12.1916) 

Burcher was highly respected in pastoral circles, and had been the owner of Euglo Station near Condobolin, and the adjoining Eugalong Station. Consequently, having retired to Campbelltown he changed the name “Parkholme” to “Euglorie Park”. Newspapers of the day frequently misspelt the name as “Englorie”, and this name would eventually stick. Burcher only lived at Euglorie Park for 3 years, before he died in 1916. He is buried in St Peter’s Cemetery, and clearly on his headstone is written “Charles Burcher who died at Euglorie, Campbelltown”. And so, Englorie Park really should be named "Euglorie Park". 

Burcher's headstone at St Peter's Campbelltown

Written by Claire Lynch

Sources

Trove

Ancestry

Grist Mills, Vol.4, No.1

http://www.cahs.com.au/parkholme.html

Highway Hold ups

Travelling along Appin Road has long been a hazardous trip. If you were doing it in 1866 there were even more reasons to be filled with trepidation. My research has revealed at least three terrifying hold-ups between Campbelltown and Wollongong during this year, leaving the community shaken.

In early April 1866 one late evening, two armed men stopped the mail coach at Loddon River just outside of Appin on the Wollongong side. They robbed the coach coming from Campbelltown to Wollongong of its mail bags and £5 from the only passenger. They later stopped the mail coach from Wollongong to Campbelltown, known as the up mail, and robbed the passengers of various sums of money, but did not take the mail bags.

It is believed the same bushrangers robbed again about a week later. At about 3am and four miles (7kms) from Appin, the bushrangers stopped the horses, and ordered the the coachman to bail up. The coachman and contractor was James Waterworth, and he was accompanied by the driver, a man from Wollongong and two youths returning either to home or school. The bandits tied everyone up, searched and robbed them. They also undid and rifled the mail bags, opening the letters, and helping themselves to whatever they liked. After leaving the letters scattered about the road, one of them cracked the whip and they drove off, leaving the poor passengers tied up. They eventually untied themselves and raised the alarm.

A few days later a girl on a farm on the Macquarie Fields Estate, was returning from school, when she picked up a parcel which turned out to contain 36 cheques, amounting to £360, and was a portion of the proceeds of the robbery. The cheques were handed over to the police and later a man from Appin was apprehended by the police.

James Waterworth was the coachman on Appin Road for many years. He died in his nineties in Campbelltown in 1920 after a lifetime of amazing stories of bushrangers and robberies. He was held up by bushrangers on three separate occasions. Before the robbery described above, James was held up once with a sickly man as his passenger. He was coming back from Wollongong with £300 and when the bushrangers stuck up the coach, James picked the little man up and carried him to a nearby shed. "You surely wouldn't harm this poor sick fellow" he said, and the bushrangers let him go.

Joshua Bray lived at Denfield on the Appin Road. In 1866 he wrote "They are very much excited about here, the mail was robbed ten days ago...The night before last they stopped it about a quarter of a mile from this house- the coachman and the passengers came about 4 o'clock in the morning to tell us. These robberies take place in the night...they were hiding all their jewellery. Papa has loaded his pistol". Bray describes this robbery as a quarter of a mile from Denfield or about 400 meters in today's measurements. This would rule out the robbery where they tied the victims up as it was seven kilometeres from Appin and therefore too far from Denfield, however it could have been the one where Waterworth carried his sickly man to safety.

The bushrangers are long gone but the same narrow and winding Appin Road continues to move thousands of people between Campbelltown and Wollongong every day.

 James Waterworth pictured in 1902 driving the same coach that travelled from Campbelltown to Wollongong via Appin

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Empire, 16 April 1866, p4

Sydney Morning Herald, 14 April 1866

NSW Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime, 4 April 1866, p118

The Old Police Station

 

The Campbelltown Police Station was once situated in Railway Street. Dates for its construction vary from 1880, the late 1880s and 1890. It replaced an earlier station around the corner in Queen Street near the Courthouse.

The police station was built in typical late nineteenth century style for police stations. It had cast iron brackets decorating its ten verandah columns. To the north of the station were the cell blocks and stables. These cell blocks were linked to the courthouse in Queen Street by a tunnel. A police sergeant's residence was situated next to the station until it was demolished in 1970.

The station operated until August 1985, when it became far too inadequate for Campbelltown's growing population. A fibro extension to ease the congestion did little to fix the problem. 

The old station was eventually demolished in 1988 and it was controversial. The Attorney General's Department owned the building but regarded the station as having no real historical significance. The National Trust however recommended that it be retained. Members of the public were vocal about its pending demolition including Deputy Mayor John Hennessey, who claimed "this is nothing short of public vandalism". A new court complex now stands on the site. A more modern and much larger station was built in Queen Street.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

ALLEN, Andrew 2018

More Than Bricks and Mortar: Remembering Campbelltown's Lost Buildings

Campbelltown: Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society

Macarthur Chronicle, 17 November 1987, p17