Royal Cricketers Arms Inn is a heritage-listed Australian pub at 385 Reservoir Road, Prospect, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. It was designed by James Manning and built by James Manning. It is also known as Cricketers Arms Inn. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
Aboriginal & European settler history The area of Prospect Reservoir is an area of known Aboriginal occupation, with favourable camping locations along the Eastern Creek and Prospect Creek catchments, and in elevated landscapes to the south. There is also evidence to suggest that the occupation of these lands continued after European contact, through discovery of intermingled glass and stone flakes in archaeological surveys of the place. The area was settled by Europeans by 1789.
Prospect Hill, Sydney's largest body of igneous rock, lies centrally in the Cumberland Plain and dominates the landscape of the area.Ashton, 2000 Very early after first settlement, on 26 April 1788, an exploration party heading west led by Governor Phillip, climbed Prospect Hill. An account by Phillip states that the exploration party saw from Prospect Hill, "for the first time since we landed Carmathen [sic] Hills (Blue Mountains) as likewise the hills to the southward". Phillip's "Bellevue" (Prospect Hill) acquired considerable significance for the new settlers. Prospect Hill provided a point from which distances could be meaningfully calculated, and became a major reference point for other early explorers.Karskens 1991 When Watkin Tench made another official journey to the west in 1789, he began his journey with reference to Prospect Hill, which commanded a view of the great chain of mountains to the west. A runaway convict, George Bruce, used Prospect Hill as a hideaway from soldiers in the mid-1790s.
During the initial struggling years of European settlement in NSW, Governor Phillip began to settle time-expired convicts on the land as farmers, after the success of James Ruse at Rose Hill.Higginbotham 2000 On 18 July 1791 Phillip placed a number of men on the eastern and southern slopes of Prospect Hill, as the soils weathered from the basalt cap were richer than the sandstone derived soils of the Cumberland Plain. The grants, mostly 30 acres, encircled Prospect Hill.Ashton 2000 The settlers included William Butler, James Castle, Samuel Griffiths, John Herbert, George Lisk, Joseph Morley, John Nicols, William Parish and Edward Pugh.
The arrival of the first settlers prompted the first organised Aboriginal resistance to the spread of settlement, with the commencement of a violent frontier conflict in which Pemulwuy and his Bidjigal clan played a central role.Flynn 1997 On 1 May 1801 Governor King took drastic action, issuing a public order requiring that Aboriginal people around Parramatta, Prospect Hill and Georges River should be "driven back from the settlers" habitations by firing at them'. King's edicts appear to have encouraged a shoot-on-sight attitude whenever any Aboriginal men, women or children appeared.
With the death of Pemulwuy, the main resistance leader, in 1802, Aboriginal resistance gradually diminished near Parramatta, although outer areas were still subject to armed hostilities. Prompted by suggestions to the Reverend Samuel Marsden by local Prospect Aboriginal groups that a conference should take place "with a view of opening the way to reconciliation", Marsden promptly organised a meeting near Prospect Hill. At the meeting, held on 3 May 1805, local Aboriginal representatives discussed with Marsden ways of ending the restrictions and indiscriminate reprisals inflicted on them by soldiers and settlers in response to atrocities committed by other Aboriginal clans. The meeting was significant because a group of Aboriginal women and a young free settler at Prospect named John Kennedy acted as intermediaries. The conference led to the end of the conflict for the Aboriginal clans around Parramatta and Prospect. This conference at Prospect on Friday 3 May 1805 is a landmark in Aboriginal/European relations. Macquarie's "Native Feasts" held at Parramatta from 1814 followed the precedent set in 1805. The Sydney Gazette report of the meeting is notable for the absence of the sneering tone that characterised its earlier coverage of Aboriginal matters.
From its commencement in 1791 with the early settlement of the area, agricultural use of the land continued at Prospect Hill. Much of the land appears to have been cleared by the 1820s and pastoral use of the land was well established by then. When Governor Macquarie paid a visit to the area in 1810, he was favourably impressed by the comfortable conditions that had been created.Pollon & Healy, 1988, 210
Nelson Lawson, third son of explorer William Lawson (1774-1850), married Honoria Mary Dickinson and before 1837 built "Greystanes House" as their future family home on the western side of Prospect Hill. Lawson had received the land from his father, who had been granted 500 acres here by the illegal government that followed the overthrow of Governor Bligh in 1808.
Governor Macquarie confirmed the grant, where William Lawson had built a house, which he called "Veteran Hall", because he had a commission in the NSW Veterans Company. The house was demolished in 1928 and the site is now partly covered by the waters of Prospect Reservoir. Greystanes was approached by a long drive lined with an avenue of English trees - elms (Ulmus procera), hawthorns (Crataegus sp.), holly (Ilex aquifolium), and woodbine (Clematis sp.) mingling with jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia). It had a wide, semi-circular front verandah supported by 4 pillars. The foundations were of stone, the roof of slate, and the doors and architraves of heavy red cedar. It was richly furnished with articles of the best quality available and was the scene of many glittering soirees attended by the elite of the colony. Honoria Lawson died in 1845, Nelson remarried a year later, but died in 1849, and the property reverted to his father. Greystanes house was demolished in the 1940s (Pollon, 1988, 116, amended Read, S., 2006 - the house can't have been "on the crest" of Prospect Hill as Pollon states, if its site was covered by the Reservoir).
By the 1870s, with the collapse of the production of cereal grains across the Cumberland Plain, the Prospect Hill area appears to have largely been devoted to livestock. The dwellings of the earliest settlers largely appear to have been removed by this stage. By the time that any mapping was undertaken in this vicinity, most of these structures had disappeared, making their locations difficult to pinpoint.
The land was farmed from 1806-1888 when the Prospect Reservoir was built. In 1867, the Governor of NSW appointed a Commission to recommend a scheme for Sydney's water supply, and by 1869 it was recommended that construction commence on the Upper Nepean Scheme. This consisted of two diversion weirs, located at Pheasant's Nest and Broughton's Pass, in the Upper Nepean River catchment, with water feeding into a series of tunnels, canals and aqueducts known as the Upper Canal. It was intended that water be fed by gravity from the catchment into a reservoir at Prospect. This scheme was to be Sydney's fourth water supply system, following the Tank Stream, Busby's Bore and the Botany (Lachlan) Swamps.
Designed and constructed by the Public Works Department of NSW, Prospect Reservoir was built during the 1880s and completed in 1888. Credit for the Upper Nepean Scheme is largely given to Edward Orpen Moriarty, the Engineer in Chief of the Harbours and Rivers Branch of the Public Works Department from 1858-88.B Cubed Sustainability, 2005, 7
The Prospect Hotel The first official record of a hotel at Prospect is in 1876 when the town is described as having a post office, a hotel - "The Prospect" - a public school and an Anglican and Catholic Church. A further record in 1902 indicates a second hotel opening at Prospect in that year.
James Manning was issued a publican's license on 13 September 1881 for the Royal Cricketer's Arms Hotel which indicates that the hotel was already built by that date, and that the building was built as a hotel. It is likely that the hotel operated briefly prior to the issue of the licence. Manning also operated a race track and a cricket pitch on the property and it was a popular site for picnics. It is likely, but not certain, that the name of the hotel came from Manning's interest in cricket being a member of the local Prospect Cricket Team.
Various mortgages were taken out to expand the hotel during the 1880s, the boom period for the village of Prospect. In 1881 Manning again mortgaged the property, this time to the Bank of New South Wales. This correlates to the time when he and one of the Neave (sic) family commenced operating the Flushcombe Stores and Butchers adjacent to Manning's hotel on the corner of Flushcombe and Western Roads. This was advertised in the local paper saying they sold groceries, beef, boots, clothing and ironmongery. An 1883 advertisement noted they had been operating for two years. The exact location of the store is unclear but it appears on an 1884 subdivision plan as a structure behind the hotel. It is also possible the hotel was extended by this time with the western wing that was clearly set up as a separate retail outlet connected with the hotel activity. Manning took out other mortgages in 1882 and 1883. It is unlikely these were to build the hotel, but could have been to expand the business, perhaps to build and stock the store at the rear and side of the hotel. Construction of the Prospect Reservoir was underway by this time (1879-1888) and there is little doubt that the construction of the hotel and expansion into the general store was related to the influx of people associated with that work. Reservoir construction had been mooted since the late 1860s but did not commence until 1880 giving Manning considerable time to plan the hotel venture.
By 1870 the stone quarry on Prospect Hill had also been opened to supply blue metal to Sydney and for local road building. The Main Western railway to Blacktown opened in 1860 and the hotel was on the corner of Flushcombe Road, the main access to the station. This would have placed Manning in an ideal position to capitalise on the workforce on the Reservoir as they moved to and from Blacktown. The winding down of the Reservoir construction occurred at the same time that Manning was in financial trouble and it is possible that he overestimated the potential of the business after the Reservoir was complete. He also undertook the subdivision of the remainder of his land during this period, retaining a three acre block around the hotel and store. An 1884 auction led to blocks slowly selling from that time.Paul Davies, 2001, 16
The period from 1870 through to the depression of the 1890s was the boom period for the village of Prospect. It saw intensification of activity related to the Reservoir construction and introduction of mining activity on Prospect Hill.
In 1889 ownership of the hotel was transferred to Hugh McCue, who mortgaged the property back to Manning. Business continued to deteriorate and Manning eventually died in 1927, aged 73. A trustee was appointed for the property and the bank foreclosed on the mortgage of the remaining 28 acres but maintained the hotel in operation. Licenses were granted in 1895 and 1899 to a Sarah Roche. The hotel continued to operate until 1906 when it is believed to have ceased operation. The hotel use appears to have survived until the sale in 1913, although a history of the area written in 1906 refers to a hotel called "The Prospect" as the only hotel operating in the area, indicating that (by then) the Cricketer's Arms had ceased operation.Paul Davies, 2001, 17
Farming and market gardening