| Physical description: | Farm setting:
The farm homestead complex is within a larger farm (not listed on the State Heritage Register). The homestead complex is located on top of a hill with views to the west, north and east. There is a spectacular view east to Mount Canobolas (which is west of Orange). Other views are available north and west including to Limestone Creek. There is a family cemetery located east of and away from the house that documents the generations of Rotherys that have lived at Cliefden. Three knolls or local high points are to the homestead complex's west, south and south-east (the latter being the highest).
A drive to Belubula Way leads east-west to the homestead, approaching it from the east and south, coming close to its western (rear) side, between the Stables complex and homestead and continuing on to the knoll to the west. A dam is located further south-west. A weir in Limestone Creek is to the homestead's north-west.
A tennis court and shed are to the homestead complex's west. (Stuart Read, interpreting drawings by Integrated Design Associates, 1/2012).
Evidence of brick making and kilns are also in this direction, between homestead complex and creek to the homestead's north-west (Stuart Read, interpreting drawings by Integrated Design Associates, 1/2012). Here is the 1830s limekiln which helped to build this remarkable complex: it is the earliest limekiln over the Mountains (Jack, 2003).
Garden:
Cliefden's garden has been extensive over time. Evidence of a more formal garden to the homestead's north-east includes curving path layouts and what may have been a formal rose garden. A path parallel to the homestead's eastern (front) facade is also early. A series of photographs from the 1870s show large garden areas to the east and north of the main homestead's eastern (front) frontage. Windbreaks of pine trees (Pinus sp., likely Monterey pine, P.radiata) to the house's south-west give it shelter from prevailing south-west winds. Closer to the house are a number of palms, including date palms (Phoenix dactylifera) and Californian desert fan palms (Washingtonia robusta). A large red flowered oleander (Nerium oleander cv.) close to the verandah of the house's eastern (front) facade may date from the 1870s. A line of cypresses is to the east of the homestead. Elsewhere on site tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) grows. (Stuart Read, interpreting plans and photographs by Integrated Design Associates, 1/2012 and others on file, Heritage Branch, OEH).
Homestead:
A document signed on 6/7/1838 between William Montagu Rothery and convict brick maker John Bedley to make 200,000 bricks 'such as are fit to build a Substantial House'... could well be for construction of part of the homestead and also for the imposing two-storey barn which bears the date 1842 (Cantlon, 1981, 114).
The house was originally constructed as a low brick Colonial Georgian building with wide verandahs and very thick walls. It grew incrementally over time as the number of children in the family increased and the property came under threat of bushrangers (Jack, 2003).
The main facade of the north-facing homestead consists of a delightful section of three rooms which open through four pairs of shuttered French doors to the verandah. A second section with two smaller solid-shuttered windows also shaded by a verandah adjoins the verandah of the main section in a way that suggests two different periods of building (ibid, 1981, 114).
The central room in the main section is the former dining room, approximately 14' x 18' (4.3 x 5.5m) with two pairs of French doors and a (red) cedar mantelpiece of Georgian design. In this section the 6' (1.8m) high doors are six-panelled in the Georgian manner. Towards the rear of the house are the charming drawing room with paintings of the Nile, Istanbul and Sydney Harbour, by Nicholas Rothery who was the father of the original settler, William Montagu Rothery. More recently the courtyard area between the front section, the drawing room wing and the dining-kitchen block has been enclosed (ibid, 1981, 114).
The new rooms were arranged around a central courtyard to its south, enclosing the original 1842 structure and the kitchen further south. When Cliefden came under threat, horses could be brought into the courtyard area for protection. A special slot was built into the wall next to the western entry to make it possible to fire a weapon at someone approaching without being shot (Jack, 2003).
A wing to the east, another two wings south of this forms the courtyard's eastern side. A Dining room and kitchen to the courtyard's south form that boundary. Two more rooms north of that form a western courtyard 'wall' (Jack, 2003).
In the interwar years (c.1920s/30s) the courtyard space was roofed over. C1870 there is a reference to a homestead 'of 29 rooms' which is more than remain today (Jack, 2003).
Original shingle roofing remains inside the current roofing in corrugated iron. Box gutters drain much of the rooves (Jack, 2003).
Outbuildings:
Stables/Coach House/Meat-House/Barn & Shearing Shed:
There is an interesting symmetry about the placing along a major axis of the main section of the white-stuccoed homestead, the handsome two-storied white-washed brick barn and the adjoining woolshed which is a low timber addition (ibid, 1981, 114).
Close to and south of the homestead is a large two storey Colonial Georgian barn and woolshed. The bricks were manufactured on Cliefden - in a location noted above. A distinctive triple hipped roof (clad with corrugated iron) reflects the internal division of the building into stables, classing tables and wool room. This huge square brick building was erected between 1838 and 1842 by William Rothery and contains under one roof the stables, coach house, meat-house, barn and shearing-shed (Jack, 2003).
The barn presents an impressive facade which separates house from woolshed. The ground floor of the barn is divided into three main functional areas - stables for working and 'blood' horses, wool rooms for classing and storage, and a butcher's shop. The upper floor accessible by a vertical ladder, is divided into three major storage areas (ibid, 1981, 114).
The actual shearing area is housed in a lower timber framed structure adjacent to the above square brick building's south. Shearing still takes place in these buildings. Shearing-sheds are not always freestanding (Jack, 2003).
The Ferrier wool press (the same make as the press at Coombing Park) stands spectacularly in its own empty hall: the impact of entering this great space dominated by the one machine is really remarkable today (Jack, 2003).
East of the Stables complex is a garage. South of this are holding pens and a sheep run, which connects to the timber framed shearing area/shed (Stuart Read, interpreting a plan by Integrated Design Associates, 1/2012).
Woolshed/shearing area:
Adjacent to the barn, a low timber addition (Ibid, 1981, 114).
Contents Collection:
Cliefden is still occupied by the three grand-daughters of William Rothery, who was the brother-in-law of Thomas Icely of Coombing Park near Carcoar, and both the homestead and the out-building retain many of their Victorian contents.
The phaeton carriage which brought the family over the Blue Mountains in 1842 is still in good order, though kept in the meat-house section; until a year or two ago, Rothery horses used the original stalls in the stable section; and shearing still goes on today, using the slab weather-shed later attached to the brick building, with the sheep still using the original slab pens and exits (Jack, 2003).
Boot makers' workshop:
Nearby to the west of the Stables complex is a small rectangular stone building that has recently been 50% rebuilt that was originally known as the boot makers' workshop.
It is said that two bullet holes can be seen in a wooden shutter on the western side of the barn and these are the legacy of the raid made on the property by the Ben Hall Gang in 1863.There is also a bell called the bushrangers bell which has been rehung next to the old boot makers workshop. Whether or not these items have any authenticity is unknown (Jack, 2003). |