Clydesdale is a heritage-listed homestead and former seminary and missionary school (1859–71) and wartime hospital (1942–44) at 1270 Richmond Road, Marsden Park, City of Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1823 to 1885. It is also known as Lang's Farm; the northern half is also known as Echovale. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
The area was traditionally occupied by the Darug people prior to the arrival of Europeans. The Warrawarry clan in were recorded around the Eastern Creek district and are likely to have occupied the Marsden Park area. Prior to European settlement the area was thickly forested with creeks and waterways intersecting the area.
Roads through the area were developed by the 1790s and between 1792 and 1860 clearing for agricultural purposes transformed the woodland landscape of the Blacktown area. The soils of the area did not support grain crops but they were found to be successful for supporting fruit trees and vineyards, and the area became well known for its orchards. Prior to 1816 Richmond Road was mainly an unformed track linking Richmond to Prospect, Parramatta and Sydney. The road was improved in 1816 and again in 1822.
Clydesdale is situated on 700 acres of land granted to Walter Lang, businessman and India trader, in the Parish of Rooty Hill in September 1813. Initially it was known as Lang's Farm. Lang leased the land to William Walker for 91 years on his return to London in 1814. Lang died in 1815 and the land was sold to Charles Tompson in 1819. Although only working as a clerk in Sydney, he appears to have been engaged in trading, having worked as a merchant prior to his transportation to Australia for stealing two books. He also appeared to have the respect of prominent free settlers such as Reverend Thomas Hassall, Captain John Piper and Governor Macquarie
Tompson arrived in the colony in 1804 as a convict on board the Coromandel. He enlarged the estate to 865 acres by purchasing two adjacent farms. By 1822 Tompson had built a "good dwelling house safe from inundation" which he was offering for lease together with 25-50 acres. In 1825 a commodious two storey brick dwelling with large barn, shed, stables, outhouse, dwelling for servants and stockyards with garden and orchard was described as being on the site. 1827 there was a Georgian style brick, two storey dwelling built upon an 1822 homestead. Tompson resided there with his wife and nine children. The ground floor of the homestead orientated north-west toward a tributary of South Creek which ran through the property, has been attributed to this 1820 period.
Charles Tompson jnr, who had attended the Rev. Fulton's school at Castlereagh prior to his father's purchase of Clydesdale, dedicated "Wild Notes, from the Lyre of a Native Minstrel", the first published book of Australian poetry at Clydesdale on 1 March 1826.
When the 1828 census was taken, Clydesdale was a thriving community. Personnel employed by Tompson and residing on the property included an overseer, teacher, cook, shoemaker, stableman, two shepherds, two labourers, a hut keeper, herdsmen, ploughman, carpenter and a house servant. George Bennett, medical practitioner and naturalist, later well known for his involvement with the Australian Museum, stayed at Clydesdale in 1832. He observed that the cultivated land on local farms was generally located near the houses. Around Clydesdale were patches of "fine red clay soil, which has been found very productive when laid out as vineyards."
Records of the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney show that Tompson was sent ornamental shrubs in 1835. In the 1840s Tompson donated land for a church to be built on the property. The construction on St Phillip's Church of England began in 1845 and was consecrated on 21 September 1846. The church was erected on ground on the eastern side of the bank of South Creek on an area which flooded from time to time.