Castrella, New South Wales

• Comment: " has had various uses and modifications over the years but still retains its historic charm" reads nothing like an encyclopaedia article! Theroadislong (talk) 08:53, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

• Comment: Please indicate how this building is famous. Is it listed in some national register? Has it been covered by multiple news articles and magazines? AngusW🐶🐶F (bark • sniff) 19:49, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

---

Castrella
Alternative names	Castrella Heritage Homestead, Castrella villa
General information
Standort	127-129 Wentworth Avenue, Wentworthville, Parramatta, New South Wales
Land	Australien
Construction started	March 1888
Completed	July 1888
Owner	William Hart Junior
Technical details
Floor count	two stores

Castrella is a historical two-storey house, built in 1888, located at 127-129 Wentworth Avenue, Wentworthville, New South Wales. Associated with William Hart Junior and his sons (William Ewart Hart the famous aviator). It is heritage listed by the City of Parramatta for its important to the area's local history and culture.

When the property was purchased, only Toongabbie and Parramatta train station stops existed. The house stood out on a trip from Toongabbie to Parramatta and all inhabitants in the local area at the time were familiar with the house and its inhabitants.

History

William Hart Junior purchased the property from the estate of the late D'Arcy Wentworth.

The estate, called Darcyville, was broken up with the subdivisions of ”Toongabbee”. Toongabbie is one of the oldest suburbs in Western Sydney and map of the first subdivision can be viewed here.

The subdivision was gazetted for sale at auction on 9 November 1886 at 2:30pm.

The property was considered part of the Parramatta region and the area now designated as Wentworthville when only the colonies of Toongabbie or Old Toongabbie and Parramatta existed.

Castrella is mentioned as a residence “off Hart Drive” which is part of the history and development of Greater Sydney and the Parramatta region.

In March 1911, Castrella was sold to Martin Rowland Shannon, a barrister where he and his son may have resided.

History of the residents and Uses of Castrella

William Hart (1830–1910) arrived in Australia from England at the age of 24 and worked as a builder and timber merchant starting the company Hart & Sons and residing in the Parramatta region. His son William (builder of Castrella) worked in the family business and had Darcy road Parramatta as his listed residence at the time when the famous aviator William Ewart Hart was born. Mr William Hart Senior (grandfather of Bill Hart) was the Hart & Sons founder and may have had a hand in the planning and construction of Castrella.

William Hart (junior)’s son, William Ewart Hart, a pioneer Australian aviator, possibly spent time at Castrella. William Hart Junior was known to be a philanthropist and supported his son and the Australian aviation industry financially.

The same trees/timbers may have been used in Castrella as the first cross-country plane flight in NSW(this monument says “in Australia” however Joseph Hammond flew cross-country in Victoria earlier in 4 February of the same year (1911). The Penrith to Parramatta flight William Ewart Hart (“Bill Hart”) on the 4 November 1911 was to meet his dad (builder of Castrella) for breakfast. The plane was reconstructed using the Australian timbers at the family’s expense after weather destroyed it in September 1911. Bill Hart is also responsible for the first official plane crash in Australia in 1912 at the train line between Mt Druitt and Rooty Hill. The plane was repaired (again using the family timbers), and went on to race.

From March 1911, when Castrella was sold to Martin Rowland Shannon, a barrister, it appears that Castrella was used as their residence for some time. Mr Martin Rowland Shannon and his son Rowland Maurice Shannon listed “Castrella” as their address in 1916. Rowland Maurice Shannon was a draftsman and was enlisted in the army (9th division) in 1916.

There were two historic houses on Wentworth Avenue. Local residents in the area say that Castrella was most probably at one point a guesthouse or boardinghouse.

Architecture

The building is considered to be a rare example of a late Victorian Italianate villa. It is a two-storey, rendered masonry, late Victorian house with projecting bay window at the front gable. It has a gabled roof clad with slate, terracotta ridge capping and decorated bargeboards. The verandah and balcony at the front of the building have cast iron fluted posts and lace balustrade, frieze/valance and brackets. The building's facade with ashlar markings has a faceted bay in gable, topped by a louvred round ventilator below the gable fascia. The two tall rendered brick chimneys have stepped decorations. The verandah floor is concrete on ground floor, and timber on the first floor. The windows have rendered brick sills with bracket decoration and rectangular niches below. The front door has transom light and half glazed sidelights with dentils below.

Materials

The bricks are solid in the “convict” style, each brick stamped with a heart. Original timbers in the floor and the staircase were likely to have been locally sourced and milled via the Hart & Sons family business. The outside cistern and the house is made of bricks. The way the bricks were laid for the outside cistern is in a concave pattern. Some of the walls were also laid in a concave manner. This concave brick laying technique assisted the building to have the strength to last the test of time. Like mortar and rendering “plaster” overlays the bricks.