by Cathy Jones 2021
The land bounded by Ardittos Lane to the north, Elva Street to the east, Redmyre Road to the south and Homebush Road to the west was purchased by Robert Joshua King and Mary Ann Balmain, wife of surveyor and Strathfield Council Town Clerk John Hope Balmain, in 1903. Prior to this time, it was largely considered unusable due to the presence of a watercourse and creek (which is now a Sydney Water closed stormwater conduit). King and Balmain subdivided the two allotments into 66 feet wide blocks fronting Redmyre Road and The Avenue (later Churchill Avenue), a new street to link Elva Street and Homebush Road. The land was auctioned as the ‘King Estate’.
The land was gradually taken up with the last allotments sold in 1914. Many of the sales did not correspond with the original subdivisions, a number of purchasers preferring narrower frontages. A convenant was placed on most sales requiring ‘one main building only on the said land and such building shall be a double fronted…and be built of brick and/stone with roof of slates and/or tiles and shall not cost less than £300”.
21 to 67 Redmyre Road are built on the ‘King Estate’.
Lot 46 was purchased by Sarah Isabella Dodson, wife of John Dodson, builder of Burwood in March 1907. Strathfield Council valuation records indicate the house was built in 1907, likely by John Dodson. Dodson was very prolific local builder during this period and is listed as the occupier of the house in Sands Directory from 1909-1911. In October 1910, the house was sold to John George Lawther, an accountant, who named the house “Lamesley”. Lawther died in June 1918 aged 56 years and was noted as ‘late of Gateshead, Newcastle-on-Tyne’.
In September 1919, the house was transferred by transmission to Lawther’s widow, Hannah. In October 1921, Mrs Lawther sold the house to James Francis Daly, a business manager of Burwood. “Lamesley” was retained in the ownership of the Daly family until 1973, when it was sold to Neville Lunn, a medical practioner and his wife, Irene.
References
Department of the Valuer General NSW – Valuation List – Valuation District of Strathfield 1924, 1930 and 1960
Family Notices (1918, June 12). Sydney Morning Herald, p10.
Fox & Associates, Strathfield Heritage Study, 1986
Sands Directory for Sydney and Suburbs 1900-1932
Strathfield Council Valuation Lists 1894 to 1920
Strathfield Council Notices of Land Transfer (1927-1960s)
Strathfield Heritage 