The history of Adelaide’s grand Carrick Hill
Many love Carrick Hill for its sprawling gardens and views to the city and the sea – as well as its Story Book Trail and pretty picnic spots. But who built it? Who lived there? We take a trip down memory lane to remember the history of the grand old mansion.
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When Edward (Bill) Hayward married Ursula Barr Smith in Adelaide in 1935, one newspaper of the day reported the marriage as “Heiress Marries Shopkeeper”.
Bill was the younger son of Arthur Hayward, chairman and managing director of John Martins department store, while Ursula was the youngest of six children born to the wealthy pastoralist and financier Tom Elder Barr Smith and his wife Mary.
Ursula had been raised in the family mansion of Birksgate, at Glen Osmond, while Bill was born and reared in Kent Town.
As a gift to the newlyweds, the bride’s father gave them 100 acres (40ha) of land at Springfield, an old dairy farm, on which to build their new home.
While on a year-long honeymoon in the UK, the couple came across the demolition sale of Beaudesert, a large Tudor mansion in Staffordshire, dating back to the 13th century.
At auction they purchased a substantial quantity of oak panelling, including doors, windows and the so-called Waterloo Staircase, with a plan to ship it back to Adelaide to be installed in their new home.
On returning, the Hawywards designed a magnificent Jacobethan-style home to be built on the property.
They named it Carrick Hill.
Although the building was completed in 1939, World War II had started and Bill, having enlisted, took up duties with the AIF. In 1940, he was stationed in the Middle East, serving with the 2/43rd Battalion.
He saw action in Tobruk and Libya, before returning to Australia in 1943 as a lieutenant colonel.
Ursula, in the meantime, had moved back to Birksgate to live with her parents, and so the couple were not able to take up residence at Carrick Hill until 1944.
Over the next 30 years, however, Bill and Ursula lived life to the full in their outstanding new home.
They entertained the rich and famous from all parts of the world and held extravagant parties for visitors and guests.
They filled Carrick Hill with a magnificent variety of art, including paintings, sculpture, antiques and drawings covering several hundred years of creative works.
It was a decidedly personal collection and described by art lovers and critics as an “interesting mix of Georgian and Victorian pieces”, many inherited from Ursula’s family.
They also set about finding and accumulating Jacobean oak furniture to match the historic interior.
Many famous visitors stayed at Carrick Hill over the years, including movie stars, such as Sir Laurence Olivier and his then-wife Vivien Leigh, actor and director Anthony Quayle, South Australia’s own Dame Judith Anderson and Sir Robert Helpmann, as well as actor John McCallum and his British wife, Georgette “Googie” Withers.
The Haywards’ wide circle of artistic friends also included many fledgling artists, such as a young Jeffrey Smart, Sir William Dobell, Sir Russell Drysdale and Sir Jacob Epstein, as well as celebrated local painter Sir Hans Heysen and his daughter, Nora Heysen.
The attraction for unearthing and collecting new art pieces even led Bill to open his own art gallery in John Martins in 1945.
For some years it was Adelaide’s only commercial gallery, and the National Gallery of South Australia (now the Art Gallery of SA) purchased works there.
As well as furnishing her home and collecting art, Ursula set about designing a formal garden, in keeping with the historic character of the building.
Her vision encompassed a variety of roses and many unusual trees and plants, and allowed for stunning views out over the sprawling lawns and terraces to the city and coast.
Tragedy struck in 1958, when fire destroyed the priceless library, which contained an assortment of valuable books – many written by or about very close friends.
The Haywards carefully and painstakingly rebuilt the collection, recreating the room as closely as possible to its original state.
By 1970 – the year of Lady Ursula’s death – the decision had already been made to bequeath Carrick Hill, all its collections and its land, to the people of South Australia.
Bill remarried in 1972 but when he died suddenly at Carrick Hill, in August 1983, the property and the majority of its contents were handed over to the state.
The Carrick Hill Trust Act was passed in state parliament in 1985 and the property was formally listed on the Register of State Heritage Items in August the following year.
The property now draws up to 72,000 visitors a year.
It has even been called Adelaide’s own Downton Abbey and is a leading wedding reception venue, with a range of tourism experiences, such as walking tours, guided house tours and picnic areas, and hosts a range of events annually.
Bob Byrne is the author of Adelaide Remember When and posts memories of Adelaide
every day on facebook.com/adelaiderememberwhen