20 Apr 2023
Words
Finn Coleman Hawkesbury Gazette
'It's time we went': the historic Settlers Arms Inn is for sale
The historic Settlers Arms Inn in St Albans has been put on the market for the first time in 35 years.
Originally purchased for just £4 by the Sullivan family, the property is now expected to fetch a multimillion-dollar price.
The Settlers Arms was first built by John Sullivan in 1836 as a way station for coaches to and from the Hunter Valley. It was an opportunity for coach drivers and travellers to refresh and swap the horses over.
The Sullivan family operated the inn for 20 years before selling it to the Jurd family in 1856 who held in until 1939. The Jurd's 84-year tenure was so long the inn was known for decades as "Jurd's Hotel".
In 1939, the Aerodrome Hotel at Clarendon, near Richmond, took over the Settlers Arms hotel licence and used the property as a boarding house.
The property reopened as a public tavern in the 1970s and since 1988 has been owned and operated by Ian and Gabriel Burns-Woods, who after 35 years, are now retiring and have listed of this historic property for sale.
"Three generations of us were running it for a while and then I guess the kids became too well educated and decided to pursue their own careers," said Mr Woods-Burns. "My wife and I, having come here originally and started it with [the kids], have decided we could retire.
"And since there's nobody in the family who wants to take it, or is able to take it over at this stage, we thought we better sell it."
"We'd like to move to the Central Coast, that's where the family is ... but we have other interests. I like writing, I've written a couple of novels about [the Settlers Arms], about the [MacDonald Valley] and my wife is very interested in cooking still. So we've got a few interests to pursue. And it's time we went."
The two-story sandstone inn has barely changed since it was built in 1836. Intact are its original low doorways, worn and creaking wooden floors, and original open fireplace.
No longer in use, but still displayed on its walls, are the original "Rules of this Tavern", including "No more than five to sleep in one bed" and "Organ grinders to sleep in the wash house".
Mr Burns-Woods worked as a marketing consultant prior to operating the inn, while Gabriel had a travel agency. They decided, as an investment, they'd like to own a country hotel/guest house.
On a trip returning from the Hunter Valley, they stopped at the Settlers Arms and thought "this is exactly what we are looking for".
"It wasn't for sale at the time," said Mr Burns Woods. "And two months later, I picked up the financial review and there it was for sale. So it all worked out quite well.
"We never actually intended to run it ourselves. It was after the recession ... we decided to move out here and run it ourselves."
Mr Burns-Woods said they had always been particularly interested in old buildings.
"Its simplicity and permanence with the effect that it's a sandstone convict built ... I think it was it's the heritage of the place that's always been intriguing to us," he said.
"Plus the fact that there are a few ghosts around ... I've recorded a lot of quite interesting and fun tales of this place, particularly about ghosts, and experienced some of the odd sort of things that have happened.
"On a daily basis, something happens with a place like this, where you're not on town water, you've got to do a lot of innovation yourself, because there are the usual facilities that come with a large village or a town or urban situation."
"And we've managed to find a lot out about nature itself. We love the birds that come here and just being within major national parks."
One of Mr Burns-Woods favourite memories from the inn is the annual Folk Festival.
"That's been a lot of fun for us. In fact, one of the bands from the Folk Festival, we feature every month, they come up and stay the weekend and play throughout and they call themselves the Settlers Band. So that's that's been very worthwhile for us.
"We've tried to encourage an atmosphere of good family fun in particularly. We have peacocks and chooks.
"We've had a lot of fun with the locals. And we've seen a lot of characters come and go. It always brings back a lot of memories when people come back and say 'hello' after a few years.
"We've enjoyed the kids growing up here, including our grandkids, and to see them playing in the river and taking an interest in nature has been a great joy to us."
Mr Burns-Woods said owning the Settlers Arms has been an enjoyable part of his career.
"I never expected it would happen. We feel we've been very lucky to have had this opportunity," he said.
"We are fortunate to have this pristine situation right around us.
"Even though it can cause problems with bushfires and floods, the fact remains that it's a beautiful place to live, and we'll certainly miss it when we go."
