By Cathy Jones (2020)
Coventry Road Strathfield is situated on land originally granted in 1793 by the NSW Colonial Government to a group of free settlers, including Frederick Meredith, Edward Powell and Thomas Rose, in an area known as Liberty Plains. The intention of the land grants was to establish farms and food supply for the growing colony. The land proved difficult to farm and the settlers abandoned farming activity and moved from their land. Eventually, this land and other land located in the current day Homebush West and Homebush (both sides of the railway line) came under the ownership of James Underwood, Edward Powell’s son-in-law. The land became known as the ‘Underwood Estate’.
By 1878 when the section of the ‘Underwood Estate’ known as the ‘Village of Homebush’ was subdivided, residential development of the suburbs of Strathfield (then Redmire) had already commenced. The large ‘Redmire Estate’ commenced residential subdivision in 1867 and by the late 1870s, large homes for wealthy merchants and businessmen were being built in Strathfield. In 1877, a rail halt and later a station was established at Redmire.
A railway halt and later a station was established at Homebush in 1855, which was intended to service the Homebush Racecourse, sited north of the current railway line. There is little evidence of development on the south side of the Homebush Railway until the development of the ‘Village of Homebush’ estate from 1878 onwards.
‘The Village of Homebush’ estate is a section, measuring 306 acres, of the ‘Underwood Estate’. it is located south of the railway. The land was purchased by a group who intended to subdivide the land for residential development. The group included: William George Pennington, William Henry Mackenzie Snr, John Piper Mackenzie, Robert John King, and Charles Wye Weekes.
The ‘estate’ created Burlington Rd, Beresford Road, Abbotsford Rd, Bridge St, Coventry Rd, Meredith St, Homebush Crescent and Bellevue Street. Parts of Coventry Road have been renamed. In July 1918, the section of Coventry Road from Elsie Street (now Shortland Avenue) to The Crescent was renamed Mackenzie Street. Bellevue Street was renamed Homebush Road and Homebush Crescent was renamed The Crescent.
‘Verona’ was built during 1886-1887 for its owner Andrew Arndell (d.1936) and wife, Amelia (d.1935). This was the first house built on the north side of Coventry Road and one of the oldest surviving houses on the 1878 Village of Homebush Estate.
Arndell was the great-grandson of Surgeon Thomas Arndell, R.N., one of the medical officers who arrived in Sydney on the First Fleet in January 1788. Arndell joined the Postal Department in 1872, and he became appointment clerk in 1896, and chief clerk in 1904. Later he held the position of head of the appointments branch and upon his retirement was Deputy Postmaster General.
Arndell was the owner of ‘Verona’ until 1918, when ownership of the house transferred to Thomas Weymark. Weymark sold this house to Douglas James Gibbons, a builder, in February 1927 for a purchase price of £1500. In 1938, Gibbons sold the house to Hilda Myrtle Fulton. In 1943, the house was transferred to Florence Grennan, wife of Bernard Grennan, a stock and share broker. In 1953, ownership transferred to Theo Richard Rossi, a company director and then in 1961 to James Hayes, an engineer and his wife Beverley.
References
1936 ‘MR. ANDREW JOHNSTON ARNDELL’, Windsor and Richmond Gazette (NSW : 1888 – 1961), 28 August, p. 4. , viewed 12 Jul 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article86044692
1935 ‘OBITUARY’ (Mrs Amelia Arndell), Windsor and Richmond Gazette (NSW : 1888 – 1961), 19 April, p. 12. , viewed 12 Jul 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85798090
1889 ‘Family Notices’, The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), 29 June, p. 1. , viewed 12 Jul 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28337841
Department of the Valuer General NSW – Valuation List – Valuation District of Strathfield
Sands Sydney and Suburban Directory
Strathfield Council Building Register
Strathfield Council Valuation Lists
Strathfield Heritage 