Local History |
| A BRIEF
HISTORY OF KINGS LANGLEY
Matthew Pearce, who was born in England in Kings Langley, a village about 30km from London, arrived in Sydney aboard the “Surprise” in October 1794. On July 22, 1795, he received a grant of 160 acres of land, which he named Kings Langley. His son Woodward Pearce settled on the northern side of the farm and his house looked out on Seven Hills from which the district got its name. Matthew Pearce died in 1831 aged 69, and was buried in St Johns cemetery, Parramatta. His widow, who died in 1840, was interred in the same grave. Later the family established a private cemetery on their estate and the remains of Matthew Pearce and his wife were moved there. This cemetery is located on the Baulkham Hills side of the roundabout at the Seven Hills/Old Windsor Rd junction. The Hooker Rex Company developed the Kings Langley estate, which consisted of 278.8 hectares (689 acres). A development control plan was issued by Blacktown Council on June 7, 1971. On September 14, 1973, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam presented the deeds of the 4-hectare park known as Pearce reserve, to the mayor of Blacktown. Arial photographs
of Kings Langley were taken in 1969, before development of the suburb
started, show that there were very few trees on the area – mostly
only growing along the water courses, and some high tops. Hooker Rex
planted ten thousand trees throughout the estate, replacing those cleared
a century ago to provide open space for grazing. In September 1973 about 140 homes were under construction, and some had already been completed. Home sites in Kings Langley were available from $14,000, and four – bedroom house and land packaged were available from $39,950. Kings Langley was one of the first suburbs to have all services, such as power and phone lines, placed underground to preserve a parklike environment. This photo is of the village in England from which Kings Langley takes its name. It looks much like the way the present suburb in the Seven Hills district once looked. The ancient site in England is mentioned in William the Conqueror’s Doomsday Book dating from the eleventh century. Henry111 built a manor house here and gave it the name Kings Langley. The area was associated with royalty for several hundred years. GLENWOOD PARK HOUSE Glenwood Park house is located on Glenwood Park Dr, Glenwood, NSW. It is a brick two-storey homestead. It has a veranda along the front with iron lace work around it. The house was originally built with timber French windows; however, the downstairs windows were later replaced with aluminium ones. Inside, the house has marble fireplaces and finely detailed plaster work. Between 1853 and 1888, the Staff family developed the land at Glenwood Park as orange orchards. They held church services and Sunday school in their homestead, which was provably not the current house.
For the period 1912 to 1920, a gentleman called James Burns owned the land and probably continued to work the orchards. In 1920, Ernest Thompson bought the property and was thought to have removed the orchards. He used the land for crops and grazing cattle. After 1941,
the property was renamed Glenwood Park by Alfred Von Sanden. He ran
horses on the land, including racehorses. From 1949, the estate was
mainly used as a dairy. New buildings were added to the house, but much
of the house and garden were neglected. STANHOPE GARDENS Stanhope
gardens is one of the newer suburbs in the City of Blacktown. The suburb
name reflects the fairy farm owned by the Peel family, called “Stanhope
Park Dairy”. The Peel’s bought the farm in 1928. it had
previously belonged to the Pearce family, who had owned the grazing
orchard land since 1856. John Hillas, a free settler, was granted 150
acres in 1804, which he named “Stanhope Farm”. In 1999 Stanhope Gardens won the Royal Australian Planning Institute Award for Excellent in Plan Making-urban Planning. The planning of this new suburb was considered innovative and demonstrated the benefit of local government, the local community and land developers working closely together to devise plans. It has become a model for future planned housing estates in the Blacktown area. Stanhope Gardens is a 189 hectare suburb, and will have about 2000 houses, four schools, a retail town centre, parks and community facilities. In 1998 the NSW Softball made their headquarters at the Stanhope Park Softball and Sports Centre. This reserve consists of four softball diamonds, four tennis courts and two netball courts, all with lighting. FERDINAND MEURANT 1765 – 1844
He arrived in New South Wales in 1800 and was given a pardon in 1803 in return for jewellery he designed for the wife of Governor King. Ferdinand married his first wife Mary Pritchard and together they had two children, William Edward and Elvira. Meurant was granted land at Seven Hills (now Parklea) which he named Frontignac after his birthplace in France. In 1811, he married his second wife, Rosetta Martin. Ferdinand and Rosetta had twelve children together. Ferdinand died in 1844 aged 79 years and is buried on the family property at Meurants Lane, Parklea. BLACKTOWN WORKERS CLUB Blacktown
Workers club had a humble start on leased land in Kildare Road. An army
hut was purchased from Schofields IMPORTANT DATES IN OUR HISTORY YEAR EVENT 1791 First
land grants in the Blacktown district. AERIAL PHOTOS OF KINGS LANGLEY
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In
1888, James Cocks owned the property and also used the land for orchards.
He was responsible for building the current homestead, but called it
Sorrento. In the original plans for the house, there was no evidence
of a kitchen or bathroom. These were probably contained in other outhouse
buildings.
Ferdinand
Meurant was born in Frontignac, France in 1765. He was a jeweller by
trade and escaped from France to Ireland during the French revolution.
Meurant was convicted for forging bank notes and transported to Australia
on the Minerva.
aerodrome
and trading began on Rememberance Day 1955. with two poker machines
and drinks being sold under the glass hire system (hire the glass and
get your beer for free).
