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RAGLAN HOTEL
232 HIGH STREET MELTON, MELTON CITY

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Statement of Significance

What is significant?

The Raglan Hotel, which was one of the earliest buildings in Melton, was originally situated at this site at the corner of Yuille and Unitt Streets, Melton. Constructed in 1855 by James Strachan, the original Hotel was a weatherboard building with brick chimneys; it also had a number of associated outbuildings including two stables and a bakehouse. Between 1861 and 1892, the Hotel was moved by a bullock team to a new location on the north side of High Street.

How is it significant?

The site of the original Raglan Hotel is of local social and historical significance.

Why is it significant?

The original site of the Lord Raglan Hotel is a heritage place of importance to its local community on the basis of its social and historical significance. In addition, it has high potential for archaeological deposits, features and artefacts to be intact below the existing carpark, and these could provide information about the early settlement of Melton.

The social heritage values embodied in the Raglan Hotel stem from its role as a meeting place for local people for a range of leisure, economic, administrative and transportation activities. It was the second hotel built in Melton, and appears to have been at the centre of life for the burgeoning community. The yards at the rear of the property were frequently used for the sale of stock, the Hotel's address was used as a contact point for land sales and tenancy agreements, and early meetings of the Melton Council and Melton Agricultural Society were held on the premises, before a permanent Shire Hall was constructed (Argus 13 September 1858; Argus 16 April 1861; Age 8 March 1861;). The Lord Raglan Hotel was also used as a changing post for horse coaches on the road from Melbourne to the Ballarat goldfields. Among the coach lines who stopped here were Watt's Royal Mail, and Hewett and Co's People's Line, who also breakfasted at the Hotel (Argus 4 January 1856).

The Raglan Hotel also has significance for its association with Raglan Cottage (HO 83), which has already been recognised as having heritage significance for its early function as a wayside stop on the route to the Ballarat goldfields and as being the only extant commercial building in Melton from this period (Moloney 2007b).

Although the Lord Raglan Hotel was only located at Yuille and Unitt Streets for a short period of time, there is still potential for archaeological deposits and features associated with this period to be present underground.

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    • History

      RAGLAN HOTEL - History

      The original site of the Raglan Hotel is located at the corner of Unitt and Yuille Street, Melton, where the present-day Melton City Council Offices are located. The hotel was built by James Strachan in 1855, and was a weatherboard building with brick chimneys, "containing ten large bedrooms, two parlors (sic), tap-room, large well-arranged bar, and a well-appointed kitchen, containing ovens, range, etc." (Starr 1986: 43; Argus 29 April 1856, p.3). It also had two stables, capable of housing up to 30 horses, a blacksmith shop, bakehouse and stockyard.

      The Raglan Hotel and its associated outbuildings are marked on an 1857 map of the township of Melton, situated on lands owned by C. Forbes (Figure 3). This same configuration of buildings is also marked on a later map from 1861 (Figure 4).

      By 1862 the Raglan had been moved to a new location on the south side of High Street, likely to ensure it still received roadside patronage as High Street became the main route through Melton (Moloney 2007: 73; Starr 1986; 47). Moloney (2007) and Starr (1986) both indicate that the Raglan Hotel was moved by bullock team to its new location, however no mention of this could be ascertained from newspaper articles of the time. The first record of the hotel at its new site appears in an advertisement for the sale of the Hotel in 1862 which describes it as situated on "allotments Nos. 4, 5, and 6, of Section 20, Melton, each containing two roads.on which is erected The Raglan Hotel and Outbuildings" (Argus 3 September 1862, p.2). It also appears on an 1892 shire map, opposite the Post Office and Shire Hall (Figure 5).

      An undated early photograph of the Raglan is included in Starr's 1986history of Melton, showing the Raglan at its new site, with theKilpatrick family standing out the front. In this photograph theweatherboard hotel appears in good condition with benches and ahorse-trough located near the entrance (Figure 6).

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