Meurant's Cottage

Exeter Farm (Meurant's Cottage)

c.1810 building. Photograph (c) David Powell, 2005

c.1820 building, side view. Photograph (c) David Powell, 2005

Built between 1810-1820. Located on Heritage Place (Off Meurant's Lane), Glenwood (formerly Kings Langley).

Meurant's Cottage is a rare intact surviving example of an early settler’s farmhouse dating from the time of Governor Macquarie and provides a record of occupation by members of the one family until 1923. The family may have settled on the site as early as 1808. The original cottage is sited to enjoy views of the Blue Mountains and provide outlook over the approach from Meurant’s Lane.

The oldest surviving building in the Blacktown area and one of the oldest surviving buildings in Western Sydney. Built by Daniel Brien, an emancipist transported to Australia on the third fleet. The name "Exeter Farm" first appears in the 1913 will of Peter Brien. Also known as "Meurants Cottage", no doubt from the neighbouring Meurant's landgrant in the 1820's and the inter-marriage that took place between the Brien and Meurants families.

c.1820 building, front view. Photograph (c) David Powell, 2005

The cottage comprises two buildings. The earlier built section (c.1810) is a simple timber framed building with timber slab infill panels mud rendered internally. The exterior is covered with weatherboard, date unknown. It has a hipped roof sheeted with corrugated iron over timber shingles. A wide verandah has been added, extended and enclosed later to provide additional rooms.

The newer building (c.1820), depicted in the photograph, is a vertical timber slab building containing three rooms with hipped roof and verandah around two sides. The corrugated iron roof covers an earlier shingle roof. Later enlarged (1825) with similar wall construction to add three extra rooms. The second building was likely added after Daniel Bryan/Brien received the land grant for the area, 5/4/1821. The two buildings are joined by a verandah. Part of the building has external brick walls covered with render

Barns, sheds, fences etc in the grounds dated to beween 1820 and 1920, unfortunately these have all been removed and only the two main buildings remain.

The buildings retains many rare early colonial details including, on the older section, door pivot hinges; half dovetail joints at wall plate connections; simple fire-place construction, chimney stack separated from roof; frogless sandstock bricks and shingled roof cladding. The later building retains large areas of its original external paint colouring; finishes such as wallpapers and skim plastered mud linings.

In 1997 the buildings and a small patch of surrounding land were gifted to the Department of Planning and Urban Affairs by the then family owners, the Delaney's. All the buildings are in a rather dilapidated condition, presumably pending restoration. Stabilisation repairs have been done on the site, which is now secured by a fence.

There is, however, dispute as to just who built Meurant's Cottage and when it was built. Blacktown Historian Hazel Magann has proposed the alternative origin for the homestead:

The original Charles Ferdinand Meurant (a convict) built the family's original home on the site of where this cottage stands today. The same year Charles died, 1844, the original home burnt down all that remained was the chimney. His son, Ferdinand Napoleon Meurant, built the second cottage around this chimney (stove outlet). I have also been working on these two cottages for many year I believe both belonged to the Meurant and that Daniel Brien's [sic] three homes in the area were on different sites.

Original Cottage (c.1810), facing Cornells Lane
Drawing (c) Daphne Kingston

"New" Cottage (c.1820), facing Meurants Lane
Drawing (c) Daphne Kingston

Sources:
Blacktown Advocate, 5/6/2002
NSW Heritage Office Website, http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au
"Highways & Byways of the Sydney Region", Daphne Kingston, 1999, Macquarie Lighthouse Press
Personal Correspondence, Hazel Magann, Fellow, Blacktown District Historical Society.
Convict Cottage Saved, Blacktown Advocate, 1st December, 2004