At Colo Vale in 1883 entrepreneur Patrick Lindesay Crawford (PLC) Shepherd established a large country estate on the east side of the Great Southern Railway line.
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In the 1850s, he and other family members had sub-divided land in inner Sydney where the family's successful Darling Nursery had existed since the 1820s.
Being well positioned financially, in the 1860s PLC purchased prime land in Bowral which he sub-divided.
He relocated the 10 children from his first marriage to a large cottage in Merrigang St, Bowral, where several more were born to his second wife, Sarah Jane.
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On his Colo Vale estate he built a large, two-storied, L-shaped family house which he named Lindesay Hall.
It was described as 'an Italianate style home with wide iron-fenced verandahs overlooking the paddocks and surrounded by uncleared bush'. Cedar was used extensively in the interior of the house.
A coachhouse, stables and gatehouse were added, all in a beautiful setting of wild flowers, exotic trees and ferns.
Hunting and fishing became popular activities in the northern portion of the estate where several streams fed into the Bargo River.
To the west the property extended almost to the Great Southern Road.
PLC purchased further land on the west side of the line, which he sub-divided for a private village around Colo Vale station. The sale of small house lots began in 1889, followed by larger blocks and small farms on the outskirts.
In planning the village, he used street names that reflected his horticultural background: daphne, myrtle, wattle, elm, jasmine, rose and ivy.
In 1890 he put his family estate up for sale or lease. Eventually in 1893 it was leased by Mrs Adria Stafford who opened it as a fine boarding house. With regular advertisements in Sydney papers, her venture took off.
In June 1902 the Bowral Free Press reported that a wedding took place in the little church at Colo Vale, when May Stafford, youngest daughter of Brabazon R Stafford, police magistrate, Cairns, North Queensland, and Mrs Stafford, Lindesay Hall, Colo Vale, was married to the Rev D W Weir of Moss Vale.
The bridesmaids were Misses Bessie and Annie Stafford, sisters of the bride, and Miss Weir, sister of the bridegroom. The Rev S E Langford-Smith performed the marriage. Afterwards a wedding breakfast was partaken of at Lindesay Hall.
By 1904 the Misses Stafford were running the Lindesay Hall boarding house with billiards, golf, tennis and an excellent cuisine available.
The estate's owner, PLC Shepherd, died in 1903.
His family sold the property in 1906 to Edward Carr Hordern who, in 1907, changed the name to Wensleydale, after the breed of sheep he imported from England to stock the property.
A further wing was constructed, changing the house to a U-shape. The property was owned by the Horderns until 1941. It then had several successive owners and was listed by the National Trust in 1976.
In the 1980s Mick Fleetwood, a member of the English rock band Fleetwood Mac had ownership for a couple of years.
- Part three of a four-part series. To be continued.
This article compiled by PHILIP MORTON is sourced from the archives of Berrima District Historical & Family History Society, Bowral Rd, Mittagong.
Phone 4872 2169.
Email bdhsarchives@gmail.com
Web: berrimadistricthistoricalsociety.org.au
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