Exeter Farm, Heritage farm site in New South Wales, Australia.
Exeter Farm is a heritage-listed residence at 2 Knightsbridge Avenue, Glenwood, in Sydney's City of Blacktown. It consists of two cottages, the larger front building with ceiling joists dovetailed into the top plates, a technique rarely seen in the colony and only seldom from the 1850s. The property is also known as Meurant's Cottage.
Governor Macquarie granted 110 acres to Daniel Bryan in 1821, though Bryan had farmed in the Seven Hills district earlier; locally the land was called the "Eighty Acres". Bryan later added three neighbouring farms and probably built the first cottage. The name Exeter Farm first appears in Peter Robert John Brien's 1913 will, possibly recalling Exeter, home town of Daniel Brien's wife Mary Ann Parker. The Delaneys gave the cottages to the State in 1997.
The name Exeter Farm first appears in Peter Robert John Brien's 1913 will; it may recall Exeter in Devon, where Daniel Brien's wife Mary Ann Parker was tried. The alternative name Meurant's Cottage stems from a confusion with Ferdinand Meurant's house Frontignac, built on his own adjoining grant.
Exeter Farm stands at 2 Knightsbridge Avenue in Glenwood, in Sydney's Blacktown area, on land that was part of Daniel Brien's 1821 grant. The two cottages were given to the State by the Delaney family in 1997 and are conserved through the NSW Historic Houses Trust's Endangered Houses programme, so access is arranged rather than casual. The surrounding farmland became the Parklea Links golf course and later a housing estate.
The ceiling joists of the larger front building are dovetailed into the top plates, each end cut at an angle to fit a matching notch in the wall beam. This technique avoided costly hand-made nails and was rarely used in the colony, and only seldom from the 1850s.
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