Hill
The Royal Oak Inn is a heritage-listed hotel located on the corner of Windsor Road and Commercial Road , Rouse Hill .
It has also been known as the Queens Arms Inn and is currently known as the Fiddler Hotel . In 2012 the former Royal Oak Inn ( now the Fiddler Inn ) has state significance as an important survivor of an early colonial coaching inn of the 1820-40 period with the main part of the original complex of buildings remaining intact .
It is believed to be the site of one of the first inns on the Parramatta to Windsor / Richmond route and one of the earliest licensed premises in the colony , dating to 1830 .
It ’ s unusual that an operating inn still remains at this location . Its Georgian sandstone frontage and elegant verandah facing Windsor Road is a vivid reminder of the inns that were once plentiful along Windsor and Old Windsor Roads . The property is privately owned and was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 .
Rouse Hill was first referred to by Governor King in relation to the clearing of land at Castle Hill in March 1802 . Originally the locality was known as part of Mulgrave Place . It was changed to Upper Nelson when the original Hawkesbury Road was constructed .
The convict uprising at the Government Farm at Castle Hill and subsequent events in 1804 , known as the Battle of Vinegar Hill , saw the locality become known as Vinegar Hill for a time , before being changed to Rouse Hill following a request by local landowner Richard Rouse . Rouse had occupied his grant from 1813 , although the official grant was not made until sometime later .
The site containing the former Royal Oak Inn was originally part of a 15-hectare ( 36-acre ) grant to Charles Davis on 13 January 1818 . ( Portion 80 in the Shire of Baulkham Hills , Parish of Castle Hill ). It was bound by Thomas Kelly ’ s land to the north west , Windsor Road to the south west , Lucy Mileham ’ s land to the south east , and the Chain of Ponds ( Caddies Creek ) to the north east . Davis arrived as a convict in the colony on the Hillsborough in 1799 and was granted a conditional pardon in 1812 .
By 1818 , Windsor Road was still a track and Davis held a total of 33 hectares ( 82 acres ) of which 19 hectares ( 46 acres ) were cleared and 6.1 hectares ( 15 acres ) under cultivation . He had two horses , 18 head of cattle and employed labourer John Dunn . A house was located on the property by 1823 at the intersection of Windsor Road and later Commercial Road , since demolished .
In 1829 he leased part of his land to William Cross who constructed the White Hart Inn , one of the earliest licensed premises in the colony . A publican ’ s license , the first for the site , was issued to Cross for the inn in 1830 . Davis was farming elsewhere on the site .
Convicted London joiner and carpenter , James Gough , 1790-1876 ) who arrived on the Earl Spencer in 1813 and got a conditional pardon in 1821 won a private commission for the White Hart Inn between Parramatta and Windsor .
By 1839 John Booth was the licensee for the White Hart and on 3 March 1841 Davis leased the inn site to Booth , a former convict who married Sarah Tighe in 1839 , and the licensee for the inn between 1832 and 1834 .
The inn license changed hands several times before returning to Booth . John Booth bought the Davis land and inn during 1841 and changed the name to the Queens Arms . He renamed the inn the Royal Oak in 1845 . Davis continued to own and farm the surrounding land .
During the 1840s depression Booth found himself in financial trouble and his creditors foreclosed on his property , selling it to George A . Sheffield in 1852 . Booth died in 1866 and was credited as being the first person to carry mail from Sydney on the Bathurst and Windsor Roads . In 1853 Davis leased an adjoining 45 hectares ( 110 acres ) which he worked as Vinegar Hill Farm .
John Seath purchased the inn in 1858 and had changed the name back to the White Hart Inn by 1865 . He had arrived as a convict on the Minstrel in 1825 and was assigned as a carpenter to William Cox . He married in 1839 and was included as a member of the Hawkesbury Agricultural Society when it was formed in 1850 .
He also purchased the license and additional lots adjoining Davis ’ original holding to the north and east of the property . He ran the inn until his death in
Front façade of The Fiddler .
1876 . It was during this period that there was an expansion in railways and rail transport which saw a decline in the role of roadside inns for transport and travelling purposes . For example , the rail connection to Windsor was completed in 1864 .
Following Seath ’ s death the property passed to his wife , Ann , and son , John Seath Junior , and the inn license lapsed . It does not appear to have been reactivated in the district for a significant period . By 1900 the inn property appears to have been subdivided and part of it , including the weatherboard house sold to a Mrs E . Miles and later Mrs E . Verdon remained in the house until her death in 1936 .
The inn site remained in the property of Ann Seath until her death in 1916 when ownership passed to her sons , John Junior and Charles Seath . They transferred the property to Thomas Alfred Paterson of Rouse Hill who consolidated this parcel with his other holdings to the east to create a 40-hectare ( 98-acre ) property .
Peterson , a contractor and poultry farmer , undertook many changes including upgrading the former inn to become a residence between 1916 and 1925 . Work included replacement of the original shingle roof with tiles and repairs to the brickwork .
In 1941 Petersen subdivided the land into two allotments . Lot A was sold to Petersen ’ s wife in 1949 and the land previously sold to Mrs Miles . It is believed to have probably been the site of Davis ’ original home constructed in 1823 . Lot B , the former inn site , was sold to John Cooper from the Parramatta Hotel in 1947 . Cooper sold the property in the same year to Stuart Lester Binns , a dog fancier from Gosford who operated the building as a restaurant , antique shop , refreshment
The Old Royal Oak still hangs at The Fiddler .
rooms and residence between 1947 and 1963 .
In 1962 Windsor Road was realigned , widened , straightened and sealed , and appears to have been the impetus for Binns to subdivide the inn site into at least five allotments under deposited plan 30916 . Lot 4 contained the former inn . All the other allotments had been sold by 1964 .
In 1966 Emanuel Schembri , a sign writer from Prospect , his wife , Catherine , and Dominic Schembri purchased the inn site . The leased it to Graham Bridgewater and Kiaran Warner who renovated the inn and operated it as the licensed restaurant , The Royal Oak Inn .
It was during this period that the first car park was constructed . It was later used as an antique store before being returned to use as a restaurant again . In the late 1970s the property was advertised as the Windsor Wayhouse offering hayrides followed by a meal by the fire .
From 1977 a series of reconfigurations of the former allotments comprising Lots A and B created by Petersen in 1941 have taken place . This has allowed the construction of the rear machinery shed to form the Vinegar Hill Woolshed in 1985 , and a wedding reception hall to the northeast of the old inn in 1986-87 . Some land was lost to road widening in 1977 and there has been further lot reconfiguration since the 1980s .
The Old Windsor Road had a major upgrade in 2006 when significant works were undertaken along its length .
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