Roads End
198-238 Beaumont Road,BERWICK, Casey City
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Statement of Significance
'Roads End', comprising the house designed by Blackett and Forster and constructed between 1921-28, the associated complex of buildings and structures including the original stables and stable master's quarters, a small builder's cottage, and an old well and sundial, the formal entrance drive trees and entrance gates, and the mature garden setting, at 198-238 Beaumont Road, Berwick
How is it significant?
'Roads End' is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Casey. It is also of potential historic and aeshetic significance to the State of Victoria.
Why is it significant?
Aesthetically, 'Roads End' is significant for its associations with the noted surgeon Sir Sidney Sewell for whom the house was built, and who ran an important dairy complex there. As a partner in a joint dairying company formed with Edwin Flack of nearby Burnbank, Sewell helped establish one of Victoria's pioneer Friesian herds which held various Australian and world records for milk production.
Aesthetically, Roads End is of potential architectural significance to the State of Victoria as an outstanding and intact example of the work of the notable architectural firm, Blackett and Forster, and as an important representative of a hybrid architectural style of the 1920s era which incorporated the Arts and Crafts, Bungalow, Shingle Style and Sydney Balcony Style idioms. The property is also significant for its spectacular garden setting, former entry drive specimen trees, its original stables and stable master's quarters, a small builder's cottage, and an old well and sundial, which are located near the site of a nineteenth century farmhouse where cheese was made and stored in the 1920s.
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Roads End - Usage/Former Usage
Residential, farming
Roads End - Physical Description 1
Roads End is constructed in a variety of materials, forming a complex Craftsmans Bungalow with a character suggestive of a sequence of different design intentions. However, this hybrid style appears to be a style characteristic of Blackett and Forster's work in the 1920s. It has been described as featuring the Arts & Crafts, Bungalow, Shingle Style and Sydney Balcony Style idioms (1).
The foundations and feature columns are constructed in bluestone. The ground floor walls are unpainted roughcast render and the upper level is a composition of gable sections with vertical timbers above a shingled apron. Exposed rafters in the eaves and consistent multi-paned sashed windows are characteristic bungalow features, as are the brick potted chimneys. Stone retaining walls, containing flower gardens, surround the house.
Roads End retains its original stables and stable master's quarters, and the original builder's cottage near the swimming pool (once the site of a lawn tennis court). A cheese factory building, or dairy, which once stood near an old well has gone, as has a weatherboard Federation style cottage destroyed by bushfire. However, the garden retains many unusual plantings collected from all over the world, some by the Sewells and many by the present owners. These include oaks, pines and elms and several Californian Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and other conifers. South-east of the house, near the site of the old farmhouse (which was used as a cheese factory), there is a collection of old statues, the old well and a sundial with the words around its base: 'Roads End Was Not the End of Time'. The impressive gates at the entrance to the property came from the former East Melbourne Market (2). The former entry drive, now part of Beaumont Road, retains fine specimen trees.
Sources
1. HBC File 6038593.
2. Inspection of property of 11 March 1993.Roads End - Physical Conditions
Good
Roads End - Historical Australian Themes
Developing Primary Production
Heritage Study and Grading
Casey - Casey Heritage Study
Author: Context Pty Ltd
Year: 2004
Grading: StateCasey - Heritage of the City of Berwick
Author: Context Pty Ltd
Year: 1993
Grading:
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