Mail Coach Inn is a heritage-listed former inn and residence at 24 Jellore Street, Berrima, Wingecarribee Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1833 to 1841. It is also known as the Royal Mail Coach Inn. It traded in recent times as a now-closed bed and breakfast known as the Coach and Horses Inn; however, that name historically referred to a different Berrima hotel. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
Berrima is the second oldest (European) settlement in the Wingecarribee Shire and the oldest continuing settlement in the shire. The first town settlement in the district was in 1821 at Bong Bong, 8 km south-east of Berrima on the Wingecarribee River.
The site of Berrima was selected by Surveyor General Sir Thomas Mitchell in 1829 on a visit planning the route for a new road alignment from Sydney to replace the old Argyle Road, which had proven unsatisfactory due to a steep hill climb over the Mittagong Range and river crossing at Bong Bong. In 1830 Mitchell instructed Robert Hoddle to mark out the town based on a plan Mitchell's office prepared, along the lines of a traditional English village (with a central market place and as many blocks as possible facing onto the Wingecarribee River), and using the local Aboriginal name. The new line of road came through the town. Berrima was to be established as the commercial and administrative centre for the County of Camden.
Following the approval of Governor Bourke in 1831, the period 1824 to 1841 saw significant flourishing development as mail coaches changed their route to this new line of road.
Early town lots were sold in 1833, predominantly to innkeepers and around Market Square. In March 1833, Bryan McMahon (occasionally recorded as MacMahon) purchased the site of the Coach and Horses Inn, along with the adjoining site of the Berrima Inn (also known as McMahon's Inn). McMahon was an innkeeper from Sutton Forest. Both lots are located at the eastern corner of Bryan and Jellore Streets.
It is understood that the building was built by a Mr. Matthews during McMahon's ownership. It operated under the sign of the (Royal) Mail Coach Inn, from 1837 to 1839, as a licensed public house and staging post for travel and delivery of mail, run by licensee Michael Doyle. This was one of the first inns to operate in Berrima, along with the Surveyor-General Inn and the Berrima Inn (next door on Lot 1 Section 2). Doyle transferred the (Royal) Mail Coach Inn's liquor licence to the opposite side of Market Square in 1839 to operate from the property he and his wife had purchased, which is now known as the White Horse Inn.
The recent use of the "Coach and Horses Inn" name for this property is misleading. Research has revealed that the Coach & Horses Inn never operated from this site. The original Coach and Horses Inn) licence, granted to Lewis Levy in 1856, was located on the corner of Oxley Street and Argyle Street (the Old Hume Highway), a building now known as Bramber Cottage.
Since 1839 when the (Royal) Mail Coach Inn liquor licence was transferred, the Coach & Horses Inn property has been maintained as a private residence.
Bryan and his wife Winifred McMahon mortgaged Lot 2 Section 2 to William Morrice of Comfort Hill in April 1850, two days before Bryan died. In 1841 Morrice had taken up the half share of his brother John's grant from Reverend Doctor John Dunmore Lang, where he built Comfort Hill (farm homestead). This house was regarded as a twin house to "Eling Forest" opposite on the Great South Road (now the Hume Highway).
Bryan Patrick McMahon (son of Bryan) had inherited Lots 1 & 2 Section 2 and in 1862 sold both lots containing the original Berrima Inn and the stone and brick building to Francis Breen. Governor Bourke executed the inn's land grant in 1862, transferring it to Francis Breen, innkeeper. Breen was already a previous innkeeper having owned Breen's Commercial Hotel in Berrima in 1840(since renamed the Colonial Inn, the Old Breen's restaurant and currently named "Eschalots" restaurant).
In 1863 a map of Berrima noted the property was in the possession of B. MacMahon. The will of Francis Breen, executed by the Supreme Court in 1870, bequeathed 'the house and premises known as McMahon's house situated in Market Square' to his brother Edward Breen.