Bridgedale House — Point Of Interest in Bridgetown

Reviews of Bridgedale House

• Christopher

  Added 2015.01.24

  Under the conditions of the land regulations introduced in 1851, John Blechynden had a pre-emptive right to purchase a 10 acre (4ha) block within the boundaries of his lease. The Lands Department records show that in February 1859 he applied and paid for the 10 acre block on the banks of the Blackwood River which was to become the Nelson Location 12. The freehold title for the land was signed by Governor Kennedy in June 1859.
• Bryan

  Added 2014.10.12

  Bridgedale has been closely identified with the bridges across the Blackwood River throughout its history in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first crossing over the river was at the ford where Geegelup Brook enters the Blackwood, approximately 300 meters west of Bridgedale house. It was near this point that the first bridge was constructed in 1862, only to be swept away before it was completed, in the winter floods of that year. A second bridge was constructed soon after, this time in a more favorable location upstream on the boundary of Location 12, with access from what was to become Hampton Street on the north bank and adjoining the police station reserve on the south. A new bridge was built on the same site in 1888 and remained in use until 1936, when yet another bridge was constructed in a new location immediately to the west of Bridgedale. This in turn has been replaced by the present traffic bridge, which was constructed in 1981.
• Brandon

  Added 2013.12.07

  Edward Hester and John Blechynden are generally regarded as pioneers of the Bridgetown district. Both came to the Blackwood valley seeking poison free pasture land and took up adjoining leases in the 1850s, Edward Hester in January 1856 and John Blechynden in July 1858. Both settlers and their families were to become prominent in the affairs of the local community which developed with the establishment of the Bridgetown townsite in 1868.
• Cody

  Added 2013.06.27

  John Blechynden wasted no time in establishing himself on his homestead block. When Assistant Surveyor Robert Austin surveyed the Hester and Blechynden leases in February 1859, to resolve a dispute over their boundaries, he identified Blechynden’s house and established the east boundary of his 10 acre block as being 5 chains distant from the center of the house. The laying out of the townsite along Geegelup Brook, followed in 1868 with Blechynden’s land, (Location 12 and the adjoining Location 25, an additional freehold purchase), included within the townsite boundaries. As Charles Staples has pointed out, Blechynden’s house Bridgedale was therefore the first to be built in the town, notwithstanding that it was a farm house and the center of a substantial pastoral property. While it has been possible to established where Blechynden’s original house was located it has not been as easy to determine if the building now on the site is the original dwelling, or as it now seems likely, is a second house built some years later, as suggested in an article published in the Western Mail in 1939. Assistant-Surveyor T C Carey’s plan drawn in 1868 at the time of the survey of the townsite shows two buildings on Location 12, with access from Hampton Street and the bridge over the river to the south of the house. It should be noted that the ‘man’s room’ located in the south-east corner of Location 12, which has been thought to be the first building on the site does not appear on this plan, suggesting that it did not exist at the time. A more detailed discussion on the development of the Bridgedale buildings is included later in this report.