Neotsfield is a heritage-listed homestead at Neotsfield Lane, Whittingham, Singleton Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Henry Dangar and built from 1827 to 1888, with William Dangar supervising much of the initial construction. What remains of the original property include a two storied brick homestead and associated western wing, the original carriage house and stables building, a meat store, and the remains of a greenhouse. The property includes a ballroom, servants' quarters, gentlemen's parlour, breakfast room and guest reception room, and sits on a 9.71 hectares block fronting onto the Hunter River. The gates and gate house/lodge survive but are no longer part of the Neotsfield property. The eastern wing has been demolished, and the front balcony and verandah roofs are missing. The main building has "lost its face" and its original proportions. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
Henry Dangar
Henry Dangar (1796-1861) was eldest of six brothers, descendants of an old Jersey (Channel Islands) family.Wilberforce et al., 1927 Henry was born at St Neot, Cornwall, son of William Dangar and wife Judith. He was the first of six brothers to emigrate as free settlers to New South Wales. Henry arrived on the "Jessie" on 2 April 1821 and soon after arrival was appointed by Governor Macquarie as assistant in the Survey Department and employed in the counties of Camden and Argyle.Gray, 1966
The well-known Dangar was one of the Government surveyors who, with Surveyor Finch, surveyed the Counties of Northumberland and Durham in the Hunter Valley. Dangar was rewarded for his service when Governor Macquarie granted him 700 acres in the Hunter Valley between Morpeth and Raymond Terrace on 6 September 1821.
When Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane began preparations early in 1822 for the free settlement of the Hunter River districts, Dangar was transferred to Newcastle to make a detailed and immediate survey of the valley, which was believed to extend only about 25 miles (40 km) to the north. He prepared the plans of King's Town (Newcastle) and in the next 2 years measured and marked out village reserves, church lands and allocations for settlers along the lower branches of the Hunter River and as far north as Patrick's Plains, furnishing in 1823 a detailed and valuable "Return of Land Cleared and Other Improvements made by Small Settlers". Early in 1824 Colonel James Morisset, commandant at Newcastle, complained that Dangar was paying too much attention to his own 700-acre (283 ha) grant and too little to his official duties, whereupon Surveyor-General John Oxley ordered his transfer to another district.
The order was withdrawn and for the next year Dangar toiled almost unceasingly, marking the road from Newcastle to Wallis Plains (Maitland), measuring reserves and grants and working steadily northwards until he reached the hitherto unsettled upper districts of the Hunter River. In July 1824 he named Fal and Foy Brooks, in August explored the present sites of Muswellbrook, Aberdeen and Scone, crossed the Hunter and discovered and named Kingdon Ponds and Dartbrook. Soon afterwards he arranged an expedition to ascertain "the nature and point of junction of the stream from the westward" which he had observed on his earlier journey up the Hunter. Accompanied by John Richards and two servants, Dangar discovered in October 1824 the confluence of the Goulburn and Hunter Rivers, explored Dartbrook to its head where Allan Cunningham had crossed it in 1823, named Lamorran Brook (Wybong) and crossed the Liverpool Range to the plains beyond.
Cornish place names, scattered through the Hunter Valley, mark Henry Dangar's surveys and record his deep affection for his birthplace. Mount Dangar, Dangarfield and Dangarsleigh commemorate his name. His finest memorial however, was the proud boast of his employees, and their children and grandchildren, that they were "Dangar men".
Henry's brothers William and Thomas arrived in Sydney on 18 March 1825.
His reports caused an immediate rush of applicants for land grants in these desirable new districts and in May 1825 when he revisited the area, he was commissioned to select land for a number of settlers. His main purpose was to accompany and advise Peter McIntyre, superintendent for Thomas Macqueen, in the selection of grants for Macqueen and the McIntyre brothers. On returning from the Upper Hunter Dangar allocated for himself and his brother William land to which McIntyre believed he had prior claim. Dangar suggested a compromise which McIntyre regarded as a bribe and the affair was referred to the Governor, who set up a board of inquiry. The board found Dangar guilty of using his public position for private gain and he was dismissed from office on 31 March 1827. Governor Sir Ralph Darling recommended that he be dispossessed of the land under dispute and required to take his grant in some other district.
Dangar returned to England to appeal against this recommendation, claiming ample precedent for his actions. Oxley supported him, recording that "he has performed his duties with zeal and in the most efficient and correct manner, and afforded no occasion, within my knowledge, in the execution of arduous and perplexing duties, for censure and complaint against his public conduct". Although the appeal was unsuccessful, this visit to England determined Dangar's future career. During the voyage he wrote his "Index and Directory to Map of the Country Bordering Upon the River Hunter", which was published in London in 1828. It demonstrated his skill as a cartographer and ability as a surveyor and brought him to the immediate attention of the directors of the Australian Agricultural Company. He was offered, and accepted, an appointment as a surveyor to the company under Sir Edward Parry. Accompanied by his wife Grace, whom he married at St Neot in Cornwall on 13 May 1828, and with their infant son, William John, (b. 1829) he returned in April 1830 to take up his new position at Port Stephens.
In addition to topographical and soil reports on the company's grants Dangar surveyed its 400,000-acre (161,876 ha) reserve north of the Manning River. So unfavourable were his reports of the whole area that Parry sent him to explore, as an alternative location, the Liverpool Plains districts recommended originally by Oxley. From the headwaters of the Manning, Dangar crossed the Great Dividing Range to the Liverpool Plains, a feat of extreme endurance and skill which he performed for a second time afterwards, and selected for Parry's personal examination an extensive area of attractive land. Parry then visited the district with him and after much negotiation, during which Dangar and the government surveyor, George White, made a joint survey, the company's claim to the land was accepted by the government. This accomplished, Dangar's services were no longer needed and in June 1833 he retired to his property, Neotsfield, near Singleton.
At Newcastle he had boiling down works and meat-processing and tinning works, and in New Zealand he established a steam flour mill near the wheat farms around Official Bay. As a magistrate and member of the District Council his experience and judgement were in frequent demand, and he gave time and energy to the agricultural and political advancement of the Hunter Valley. In common with most large landholders who were seriously short of labour, he supported the proposed reintroduction of transportation and advocated the use of coolie labour. He welcomed the government's immigration policy and sponsored many immigrant families from Britain and later from Saxony. With some hesitation he accepted nomination for the electoral district of Hunter, Brisbane and Bligh in the first elective New South Wales Legislative Council in 1843, but his brothers Thomas and William Dangar, both resident in the Upper Hunter, supported his successful opponent, William Dumaresq. In 1845 he was returned for Northumberland and remained a strongly-conservative member of the council until 1851 when he retired from public life.
The magnitude and complexity of his pastoral and business interests, combined with the incessant demands of public office and private affairs, at length exhausted even Henry Dangar's vitality. Early in 1852 he sailed for England, returning to NSW in 1856 after an extensive tour of the Continent. He lived in retirement at (castle-like) Grantham, Potts Point and died on 2 March 1861 and was buried in the churchyard of All Saints' Church of England, Singleton in a tomb of Italian marble for which his will provided and in which his widow, Grace, was buried on 18 August 1869. Their surviving children were William John of Neotsfield, Henry Cary Dangar MLA, Frederick Holkham, Albert Augustus, Francis Richard, Margaret and Florence.
Neotsfield under Dangar
On 16 May 1825, Governor Thomas Brisbane granted Henry Dangar 300 acres, situated at Patrick's Plains, near Singleton. He named this grant "Neotsfield" after his native place of St Neot in Cornwall, South-West England. On the same day, he also acquired another 700 acres adjoining this grant, giving a total of 1000 acres for Neotsfield.
Henry's brother, William John (1800-1868) successfully managed Henry's business affairs from 1925 to 1935, including running Neotsfield farm from until 1933, before settling at Turanville, near Scone. William's pastoral interests became so extensive that Turanville was managed by his brother-in-law, Samuel Wellington Cook, whose son established a stud farm there. William inspired many of Henry Dangar's progressive ventures and shared in others until he returned to England in 1857.
William John Dangar supervised the initial house's construction during his years managing Neotsfield. Over the next decade or so the buildings were constructed and became known as Neotsfield. Dangar set cattle on the property and cleared the acres of land around the homestead. Early descriptions of the property indicate that the land was improved in "every known way", with trees being cleared with discretion in order to leave sufficient shade. The property was well-watered by the Hunter River, and tanks and reservoirs filled by windmill pumps meant that there was no shortage of water for the valuable stock. Dangar ran cattle on the property and at one time a small herd of black buck from India. Apparently they bred so profusely that they became a serious nuisance and were eventually presented to the Zoo.
In June 1833, Henry Dangar retired to Neotsfield and took over management of the property. By that time, it was a flourishing and highly developed farm, its stock and produce receiving much favourable comment. Henry Dangar quickly extended his interest, purchasing additional grazing properties and leasing extensive runs which by 1850 amounted to more than 300,000 acres (121, 407 ha). Along the Great North Road to the Liverpool Plains he acquired town allotments and established inns and stores.
The main house block would have been erected some time between 1833 and 1838. It had wide verandahs, was designed around a three-sided courtyard (i.e. had two wings). The eastern wing contained temporary family quarters and a convict cell situated below the southern end of the building. These quarters were used until such time as the house block was built. It was a large and complex group with 29 rooms built over a period of approximately 50 years.
Due to financial difficulties in early 1838, Henry was forced to advertise Neotsfield and his other Hunter River properties for sale. These financial difficulties were apparently overcome and consequently the property was retained by Henry Dangar.
An advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald said Neotsfield was "to be sold and let, by private bargain, and to be given on the 31st May 1838...". Later it offered this description: