Eyres House is an historic residential property, located at 810 Ligar Street Soldiers Hill in the Victorian gold rush city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Later named Balmoral, the house was constructed between 1901 and 1905 for Joseph Bryant, and having passed through as series of private hands, is now under the ownership of the Ballarat Health Services for use as a day centre and intermittent residential service for people with memory loss and confusion.

Previously known as "Esleta" and then "Balmoral", the house was renamed "Eyres House", in recognition of the contributions of the Eyres family, after it was purchased by Ballarat Health Services around 1960.

History

William Mountford Kinsey Vale MLA

The original Crown Grant of the property, on which the house was built, was to William Mountford Kinsey Vale (1833–1895). Vale bought Allotment 2 of Section 3, Township of Ballarat North, Parish of Ballarat, County of Grenville,Victorian Land Titles registration Volume 331 Folio 66158 in 1886 for £10.5.0 and Allotment 3 for the sum of £10, both being an acre approx. in size.Victorian Land Titles registration Volume 331 Folio 66157 Ligar Street, where Eyres House is located, was named in recognition of Charles Whybrow Ligar, the unpopular surveyor-general of Victoria 1858–1869.

During the early to mid 1860s land between Howitt and Gregory Streets was also purchased from the Crown for what were to become the grand houses Trelawny, Black Hill, Ballarat, Linlithgow and The Grange.Township Plan, Township of Ballarat North, Sections 1 2 & 3, Parish of Ballarat, County of Grenville,

William Vale was a local bookseller and newsagent, who qualified as a barrister in England and became the member for Ballarat West in the Victorian Legislative Assembly"Members' titles". parliament.vic.gov.au. 25 October 2010. Retrieved 9 April 2011. for Ballarat West from November 1864 to August 1865, and from September 1865 to April 1869.The Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924) Thu 24 Oct 1895 Page 3 DEATH OF THE HON. W. M. K. VALE. He was very involved in a number of Ballarat community activities, including as a committee member of the Ballarat Benevolent Asylum.The Star ( Ballarat, Vic. 1855-1864) Thu 1 Jan 1863 Page 4 BENEVOLENT ASYLUM COMMITTEE

W.M.K. Vale moved to Abbotsford, where he died, after he won the seat for Collingwood in 1889. It was there he died.

Richard Tayler Vale MLA

The two allotments were sold to Vale's brother, Richard Tayler Vale (1836–1916), a bookseller, newsagent, investor and director of a number of gold mining companies,Victorian Land Titles certificate Volume 331 Folio 65158 in 1887, who also bought the adjoining Allotment 4 from Thomas Sanderson Walker,Victorian Land Titles certificate Volume 26 Folio 5003 the original purchaser from the Crown in 1866, when he had paid £25 for his acre on the corner of Ligar and Gregory Streets. R.T. Vale therefore owned Allotments 2, 3 & 4 fronting Ligar Street. Like his brother, W.M.K. Vale, Richard Vale was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the member for Ballarat West, serving from 1886 until 1889, and again 1892 to 1902.

Vale Street, Sebastopol is named after The Honourable R. T. Vale, MP.

The Vale brothers, W.M.K. & R.T., also owned blocks of land near the corner of Ligar and Howitt streets.Township Plan, Township of Ballarat North, Section 1, Allotmenst 7 & 8, Parish of Ballarat, County of Grenville

Ethel Ford Bryant - "Esleta"

R.T. Vale sold Allotments 2, 3 & 4 to Ethel Bryant Ford (1878–1937) in April, 1900.Victorian Land Titles certificates Volume 331 Folio 66158, Volume 1428 Folio 285548 She was the eldest child of Joseph "Joe" & Elizabeth Bryant, and it has been generally and long assumed the property was owned by Joe. Why the property was owned by Ethel, and not her wealthy parents, is not known.

In 1901 Joseph Bryant JPMount Magnet Miner and Lennonville Leader (WA : 1896 - 1926) Sat 5 Nov 1898 Page 3 Police Court commissioned a fine residence to be built on Soldiers Hill, which, at the time, was on the outskirts of Ballarat.

His brother, Robert Ford ("R.F.") Bryant, also a wealthy mining investor and director of gold mining companies,The Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924) Mon 28 Oct 1895 Page 4 MINING MEETINGS. Robert F. Bryant, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Joseph Bryant, Mine Manager of the Morning Stare Quartz Company at Mount Magnet, W.A. already had a large, gracious Victorian house in the area, "Trelawny", Black Hill, Ballarat, which he built in 1886, and where some of his descendants still live. "Trelawny" is at 804 Havelock Street, Black Hill, the next street east parallel to Ligar Street.

Joseph Bryant (1849–1917), an Englishman from Altarnun in Cornwall, England, who arrived in Australia in 1863, had been very successful as investor and mine manager in the gold mines at Clunes, Victoria,The Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924) Thu 23 Jul 1885 Page 4 NEW NORTH CLUNES COMPANY including the North Clunes Mining Co., one of the richest in the district in its dayShepparton News (Vic. : 1914 - 1918) Mon 12 Nov 1917 Page 2 THE LATE MR. J. BRYANT. manager of the New North Clunes Mining Co., one of the richest in the district in its day.On 24 June last, Mr Gilbert tendered his resignation as mining manager, and Mr Joseph Bryant was appointed in his steadThe Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Mon 21 Jan 1889 Page 6 THE GENERAL ELECTION. Mr. Joseph Bryant, mine manager of the New North Clunes Company He commissioned local architect F.W. Turton to build a large residence in the "American-Swiss" style, according to an article in Ballarat and District 1901. The house was designed around a central skylight foyer with rooms and corridors radiating from it. The house originally had seven bedrooms, some which have now been converted into a bathroom and toilet.

Originally on the outskirts of Ballarat, the property took up almost the entire Ligar Street frontage between Gregory and Howitt Streets, and had an elaborate front fence. The residence in Ligar Street dominated the landscape, with only a few villas in Howitt Street, but otherwise in open country.Dr. Anne Beggs Sunter, The Courier Extra, 20 May 2004 "A Secret Garden"

The house was constructed in what we now refer to in Australia as the Federation architectural style that was prevalent from around 1890 to 1915.

Broadly speaking, it is the Australian version of the Edwardian Style, but differed from Edwardian in the use of Australian motifs. Cream painted decorative timber features and elaborate fretwork, tall chimneys, leadlight windows and a Tudor type look, especially on gables, is very much part of the Federation style and is particularly evident at what is now Eyres House.Dr. Anne Beggs Sunter ibid

His first wife, Elizabeth Gilbert ( 1853-1884 ) died in 1884,The Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924) Thu 12 Jun 1884 Page 3 CLUNES. untimely death of Mrs Bryant, wife of Mr Joseph Bryant, late manager of the Lothair and Bute and Downes mines and the following year, Joseph Bryant married her younger sister, Selina Gilbert (1858–1887).The Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924) Tue 9 Aug 1887 Page 2 Family Notices She died two years later and it was another 18 years before Bryant with his six children – five from his first marriage and one from the second – moved into the house they named, "Esleta".The Ballarat Star (Vic. 1865-1924) Wed. 4 Sep. 1912 Page 6 Advertising The curious name was made up from the first names of Joseph Bryant's children – the five with his first wife; Ethel Ford Bryant, Selina Gilbert Bryant (1880–1958), Lillian Parker Bryant (1881–1957), Elizabeth Curtis Bryant (1883–1951), Thomas Gilbert Bryant (1884–1949); and Ada Violet Bryant (1886–1952), the only child with his second wife.

There were a number of grand homes in the close vicinity, including "The Grange" in Lydiard Street North, and "Linlithgow" in Gregory Street, Ballarat. The only indication of the existence of "The Grange" is a short eponymous street leading into the houses and townhouses that now occupy the subdivided site."Linlithgow" still stands in substantial grounds.

Joseph Bryant and with his brother R.F. Bryant had borne the brunt of the miners' anger during the Clunes Riots of December, 1873 against the importation of Chinese strike breakers.The Ballarat Star (Vic.: 1865 - 1924) Wed 10 Dec 1873 Page 2 RIOTS AT CLUNES. "The miners,'accompanied by troops of women and children proceeded to the residences of several miners who had rendered themselves obnoxious ... by continuing work ... . Warnings were given those offending men to leave town ... 'They then marched to Mr. Bryant's home to demand his resignation as mine manager. However, some of the men claimed consideration for Bryant's family, and Bryant assured them that ' he had all along been opposed to bringing Chinamen'. He was allowed to stay.

This may have been part of the reason for the Bryant brothers' move from Clunes and into Ballarat.

Adam Lindsey Ronaldson - "Balmoral"

In 1903 Adam Lindsey Ronaldson had been taken into partnership by his brother, David Ronaldson, who had recently established a machinery manufacturing company on Creswick Road, Ballarat, which produced chaff cutters and grain crushers. It 1905, John Tippett joined the company and it became Ronaldson Brothers & Tippett Pty. Ltd., which made internal combustion engines and water cooled engines. The company built a wide size range of oil engines which it sold across Australia and promoted under the Austral brand.Jenkins, Lloyd, Another Five Ballarat Cameos, SP, 1986. The company was still operating up until 1969 when it closed due to cheaper imported engines becoming available on the market.

"A property known as the; Ballarat North Mansion, erected eight years, ago by Mr. Joseph Bryant, a mining investor, at a cost of £500, has been sold by Messrs. Chas. Walker and Co., auctioneers, to Mr. Adam Ronaldson, implement maker, of Creswick-road".The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954) Sat 31 Aug 1912 Page 19 COUNTRY NEWS. COUNTRY NEWS BALLARAT Adam Ronaldson (1899–1916) bought the property in October 1912,Victorian Land Titles certificate Volume 1428 Folio 285548 and the family lived there from 1912 until 1918, after his death in 1916.PROV Index to Wills, Probate and Administration Records 1841-2013 - Ronaldson 1916 145/810 It was Ronaldson who gave the house the name "Balmoral".Adam L Ronaldson Manufacturer Ballarat 15 Jan 1916 145/810 VPRS 28/P3, unit 645; (21 pages, please note inventory of Balmoral on page 8) VPRS 7591/P2, unit 547 (9 pages)

Business partner John Tippett also owned a fine house, "Rothbury", which also still stands, at Lal Lal, outside Buninyong, Victoria.389 Yendon-Lal Lal Rd., Lal Lal, Victoria, Australia

Adam Ronaldson died in 1916 and "Balmoral" was transferred into his estate, from where the property was split up and Allotment 2 was sold, and parts of Allotment 3 became part of "Balmoral" or residential blocks. This divestment happened in parts over a period of time, from probate of the will in March 1916, to June 1929. During this time, the remaining balance of Allotment 3 of the property was transferred in March 1934 to Adam's wife, widow, Isabella Magdalene Ronaldson (Hood).Victorian Land Titles certificate Volume 5920 Folio 1183818

Mrs. Fanny Jolliffe

Mrs. Fanny Jolliffe (Bowring) (1858–1935) of Newlyn, Victoria bought the property from the Ronaldson estate, which she owned during the period 1920 to 1922. It had diminished considerably from its original size and now was little more than an acre in area, straddling one and a part of the original Crown Allotments -Certificate of Title Vol.4295 Fol.858938 Allotment 2 & part of Allotment 3.

Arthur Richard Stewart JP