Old Stables

Statement of Significance

Old Stables was once the outbuildings for the Blackwood Inn and illustrates the use and care of horses for transport and construction methods in the early history of the state, practices that are no longer in use. It also has associations with early settlers John and Mary Ann Bovell. The stables fulfilled an important role in the day to day working of the Inn, stabling horses of the guests and visitors travelling along the Blackwood Road, as well as providing blacksmithing facilities when necessary.

Physical Description

Old Stables is a single storey brick building with a moderate to steeply pitched gabled corrugated iron roof. Once the outbuildings for the Blackwood Inn, Old Stables is now on a separate title on the opposite side of the South Western Highway. The original stables were built from bricks made of clay from the property, fired on the spot, one side being built of a Flemish bond pattern and the other of English bond. The foundations were built from 16 courses of bricks. The structure of the gable is supplemented by timber. The jarrah roof beams were notched out to support a shingle roof which has since been replaced by iron. All but 3 of the original beams remain. The original earth floor has been replaced with bricks and the original loft has been removed. The building has been substantially extended and altered. A separate rammed earth house and brick workshop has been constructed at the rear.

History

In 1866, John Bovell was the first settler to take up land in the area of Mullalyup, and it is believed John Coverly built the Bovells’ family home on Location 23 in the 1860s. In the late 1880s, when John Bovell retired from the police force, the place was licensed as the Blackwood Arms Hotel (later known as the Blackwood Inn), to serve as a staging place for road travellers, accommodate visitors to the district and as a social centre for local people. The stables (which are at the opposite side of the road) were constructed of bricks made from clay on Bovell’s property and were built to accommodate travellers’ horses and had a loft at mezzanine level for storing feed. In the c. 1960s-1970s, A. Dell’Agostino and family owned and occupied the Blackwood Inn. They used the stables building for various purposes including as a slaughter-house, for sausage-making and wine making, and the original earth floor was replaced with a concrete skim floor. In 1988-89, alterations and additions converted the stables to become part of a flourishing pottery (1990s). The loft was removed, a brick floor was laid, and a replica verandah replaced the timber lean-to at the northern end of the stables. A large new extension was built at the rear comprising studio and reception area with and a display gallery and two storerooms at the mezzanine level. In the studio/workshop constructed of bricks of a similar colour to the stables, large white gum poles, about 100 years old, from a piggery at Boyup Brook, were used to support the roof, and recycled timber window frames also came from the Boyup Brook Co-op. A separate house of rammed earth construction roof was built behind the workshop/studio. Buildings no longer extant included a barn farther up the hill a milking shed in the area occupied by the workshop.

Integrity/Authenticity

Moderate. Extensions 1988-89

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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