Stanton Bed & Breakfast

“Roll back the carpets and let’s dance!” At least that’s what used to happen in this room.

Soon after we had completed the renovations/restoration, I invited the stalwart volunteers who staff the New Norfolk Visitor Information Centre for morning tea and a look around the house, so as they could be more informed when talking to tourists.

One of these good folk asked, “Where is the ballroom? And the music room?”

Such is the ‘mythology’ of houses which haven’t been open to the public and haven’t had many visitors for the last forty years.

We’ve been told that the formal living room was indeed used for old-fashioned country dances, with all furniture and carpets removed, a band in the hall next door, and a groaning supper table for after. (No doubt a couple of kegs outside, too!)

Stanton has always been, at heart, a party house, and again, there are adults in their 50s who can remember visiting as small children, attending one of these dances, and probably running around on the verandahs too!!

I haven’t worked out the music room reference, but can only think that perhaps the dance band in the hallway might have some connection? …

In any case, we have a music room of sorts today in the living room, where my piano sits waiting to be played by anyone so inclined.

My grandfather was a rather good pianist and I’ve inherited a lot of his music, so please feel free. We’ve always felt Stanton inspires the creative streak in people, and so, in order to foster this, we’ve provided as many different opportunities to ‘set the scene’.

A couple of whistles and recorders are on the piano, but I also have a bodhran (one of those rather basic but terrifically evocative Irish hand drums), along with a book and cd instructions, and a recent addition, a beautiful guitar, courtesy of good friend and musician extraordinaire, John Allen from Brisbane. (Watch this site for upcoming sound bytes of John’s music.)

If you’re a guitarist on holidays without an instrument and are starting to fret, then look no further. By the same token, if you’ve always wanted to teach yourself a few chords but haven’t had access to a guitar, then I have a few manuals to help out. Go on holidays to Stanton and return home with Jimi Hendrix-type delusions! Then there’s always air-guitar, assisted by a CD player and an eclectic collection of compact discs with which to pretend.

If music isn’t your thing, then the large wooden chest is filled with jigsaw puzzles, games, magazines, cards, chess set with which to wile away the time in front of the fire, ably assisted by port and sherry decanters on the sideboard.

I suppose dancing isn’t completely out of the question still …

Okay, so you’ve given the password, the front door has opened, and you’re in. Relax - the biggest decision you’re going to have to make is whether you want tea or coffee on your tea tray, and what time you think breakfast should be served.

But be warned, those who have procrastinated (or don’t sign the visitors’ book), have been known to languish in the cellars below this hallway and the living room.

Through a large trapdoor just behind the oval table, and down to a fairly large cavity, complete with barred window, sandstone shelves on either side of the chimney breast and supposedly manacles set into the wall down at ankle level, this was at times used to keep convicts confined, although I can’t believe that this was their permanent subterranean abode, but more a punishment.

Also, given that the arm of the law would have been quite a stretch away, the cellars were also used as a pseudo watch house for neighbourhood miscreants. At present this area has been partially filled in with dirt, but it is still possible to go down with a torch and have a look, and one of our plans for the future includes a ‘cellar party’ - BYO bucket and spade!

At the moment, our wine is kept in the cupboard to the left of the dining room door, under the stairs, but one day … please, can I be sent to the cellar as punishment??

Gotta love that Georgian symmetry. Now if i could only get the hydrangeas to co-operate….

Okay, I know that under the ‘History’ heading you can find out all about Stanton’s beginnings and everything in between, but this photograph prompts a quick architectural/veranda explanation.

When Stanton was first built in 1817, and as evidenced by other historical photographs and paintings, she was a typical rectangular symmetrical unpainted Georgian house, built from convict bricks produced on site … and … no verandahs!

The rather wonderful sandstone steps, worn to a frazzle by 188 years of constant to-ings and fro-ings, are original, but when, around 1940, the new owners, the Cockerills, decided to graft wooden verandas to the front and two sides, the steps were fortunately moved and re-used.

Waste not, want not. In 1940, the new flooring was wooden, both top and bottom, and the only access to the upstairs veranda was via an external wooden staircase which snaked around beside the chimney breast at the rear of the house (think about it, or have a look at the floor plans we’ve included somewhere in this site).

Yep, no doorway through the now library upstairs, that was just a window. (According to my neighbour Phil, who is a past resident of Stanton, the many kids who lived here used to careen around the veranda, jumping in and out of each other’s bedrooms and generally causing utter mayhem, and scaring the living daylights out of any visitors — nice touch, I think.)

When the Rumley family bought the property in 1988, Ian Rumley set about correcting that access with the conversion of the window to French doors upstairs, and replacing the by-then rotting downstairs floorboards with the beautiful and immense sandstone blocks you see today.

A visitor to Stanton soon after we arrived asked whether we were going to be ‘Georgian purists’, and remove the verandas altogether, in addition to stripping the paint off the bricks, and return her to her ‘former glory’.

“Mmm … no”, I said. Most houses grow with their owners and their needs and budget, even the brilliant ones like Entally and Clarendon up near Launceston.

The symmetry of Stanton is not lost by their addition, and the living quality, which is after all the important thing, is enhanced. The house seems to sit comfortably with her new protuberance, and since arriving, we have replaced the rather dangerous upstairs floorboards and joists, and installed lighting both upstairs and down.

Our neighbours joke that when the lights of Stanton are a-glow, the whole valley suffers a power melt-down, but it is a magnificent sight to behold (and the pizza man can’t miss it on a dark night.)

As for removing the paint from the brickwork, I have yet to be convinced that the cure is not more dangerous than the disease, since convict bricks shatter and fall to powder much easier than their modern counterparts, but who knows, maybe one day …

Meanwhile, follow the trend of family, friends and guests alike, and take your drink/nibbles/book/crossword/newspaper/guitar/camera out to the verandahs and enjoy the view. The builders of Stanton would surely approve.

Late in the afternoons, the light in the Back River area is a visual feast. In 1817, the Shone family originally built the house facing north/south, which is the optimum arrangement in the United Kingdom for light and warmth, but not ideal for Australia.

By the 1830-40s, the colonials had worked it out, but by then Stanton was well established, so north/south it is. This is not without its advantages. We face down the valley towards Mt Field in the southwest, and so are witness to the most amazing sunsets.

The only thing that could be better is sunsets over water, so some kind soul created the front dam! (At least they didn’t have to go to the lengths that some gentry did in the English counties, which involved moving whole villages which were blocking their outlook.)

The addition of willows, poplars and other deciduous trees only enhance an already spectacular view, framed as it is by the surrounding hills and mountains. We have many plans to increase the number of trees at Stanton, especially varieties like Japanese maple, silver birch, crab-apple, liquid amber, and other colourful autumnal celebrities.

The “Autumn in the Valley Festival” in April is the most important in the area, and not without cause.

The Derwent River is blessed with wonderful treed banks, craggy cliffs, energetic rapids and artistic bends, forming the backdrop to the festival which is held on the Esplanade in New Norfolk.

The river is central to the town’s existence, its importance deriving originally as a transport and logging route, but now as a recreational venue, never more in evidence than at the festival when many Hobartians and tourists alike arrive via ferries and sailing ships from Hobart.

Good music, local food and wine, produce and artworks, and a chance to spend a day ‘at play’ with the locals. Highly recommended.

Okay, so this year we’re going to both give up our jobs, sell our house in Brisbane, move to Tasmania, buy a big house in the country, spend a lot of money renovating it to become a B&B, and then we’ll think about next year. And so we came to Stanton.

We are not strangers to Tasmania, indeed we moved here directly after marrying in December 1980, and spent five happy years in Hobart, with Mark attending the University of Tasmania.

The mid 80s saw us having to reluctantly leave for employment, like so many young Tasmanians, but with a quiet vow in my heart to return. I didn’t forget that vow, but it’s strange how fate creeps up on one, and says, “Alright, you asked for it, here it is.” Kapow!

City life and its attendant stresses had wreaked havoc on our sanity and health, so a move was certainly on the cards. It wasn’t until I visited my very first psychic, Jenny Roach, in Brisbane in early 2003, that it became clear the way it might be.

“So when are you moving to Tasmania?” “I’m not really sure we’re going.” “Of course you are. Here, let me show you on a map.” And with that, she drew a quick map, pointed out where New Norfolk lay, then proceeded to draw a rough sketch of Stanton.

I recognised the house from an internet picture I had seen, but discarded since wonderful pictures plus “Price on Application” usually translate as unaffordable in my book.

Jenny insisted that the house would be ours if I came down, made an offer, and proceeded to tell me the circumstances around which the previous owners were selling, and further, the ease with which we would sell our home in Brisbane and for how much.

I still don’t know if the psychic fraternity/sorority is usually as uncannily accurate as Jenny, or whether I was led to her, but her foresight has been exact in every way. Probably the best thing she said was, “It’s going to make a great B&B!”

At which my mouth dropped open , since I hadn’t mentioned that possibility, or indeed Tasmania, to her at all. After expressing some reservations as to whether the whole idea would work. having worked with people and in hospitality, but never to this extent, she simply smiled and said, “Build it, and they will come. People will be drawn to Stanton and to you, to the point where it will become a special place to many people, who will return time and again. The house will enjoy the company and the energy, and you will both be the happiest you will ever be.”

That’s enough for me. She has been right on every count.

Simple, efficient, elegant, modern — with a salute to past eras.

One of the more amusing stories came when, prior to dividing a larger bedroom into two mirror-image bathrooms, a gentleman was shown around the house, and said, “Well, of course, you’re going to put in authentic Georgian bathrooms, aren’t you?”

Slightly stunned, I thought he was having a go, then realised, no, he’s serious.

“What, a pot under the bed, a tin bath in front of the fire, and a jug and basin in the corner, with the use of an outhouse during the day?”

Spluttering, he recovered his equilibrium, and joked it off, for of course, he had meant a Victorian bathroom.

Another well-meaning friend was adamant that we should have large spa baths in the bathrooms, but I replied that I thought guests would understand that the integrity of the house, and indeed the skillion roof, didn’t leave enough room for these, and besides, we have the heated spa house in the garden which is a much more social way in which to “spa”.

Stanton bed and breakfast library (pic to come)

Little did we realise that we would tap into such a common vein of desire as when we decided to turn what had been a little bedroom into our library!

Without exception, this room inspires strong responses, ranging from a bemused “Where do I start?” to “That chair is mine!” to “You mean you trust people with your babies?!” to “That’s it! I’m never leaving!”

Without fail, when guests are in the house, the single glass next to the port decanter in this room is used, and I smile when returning books from their bedside sojourn to their usual home.

Thirty years of collecting is reflected in the wide variety of topics represented on the shelves, and we are comfortable in guaranteeing that everyone will find something of interest here.

Setting the breakfast and waiting on table isn’t a chore in Stanton’s dining room.

I feel a long line of women standing behind me during the daily rituals of handling Wedgewood china, polishing silverware, arranging flowers from the gardens, starching table linen, replenishing fruit bowls, hand washing the older china and glass.

Since one of the windows faces the east, the room in the morning is awash with sunlight (except on those ‘soft’ days, as the Irish so romantically call them), and on the colder days, the open fire gives off a comforting glow.

Breakfast is an event here, in which everyone has a part to play, as large or as cameo as they can cope with before their first cup of coffee.

Discussions of the day’s planned activities, recommendations, must-see attractions, the finding of common interests/friends/occupations — the table welcomes it all.

Architecturally, Stanton has several stand-out points, the most obvious being the staircase, the fireplaces and chimneys, and the beautiful pit-sawn floorboards.

There are only three sandstone cantilevered staircases in Australia, and this is one of them. (I believe there is one other in Tasmania and the other in Sydney.)

When the Rumleys arrived in 1988, a length of plumbers’ pipe was used as a railing, and so Ian Rumley sourced the present simple wooden banister from an old house, Belmont, in Hobart which was being restored.

I was therefore really chuffed when Mrs Helen Andrews (nee Shone) visited and mentioned that, when she lived at Stanton as a girl, the original banister was very similar to the present one. Some things were obviously meant to be.

The five chimneys of Stanton accommodate seven fireplaces, and five of the surrounds are unusually made of sandstone.

In Georgian times, these would often have been painted to highlight the stonemason’s skill with carving, and we have left the fireplace in the living room in its original form, warts and all to illustrate that fact.

Interestingly, it wasn’t until a former resident of Stanton gave us a scanned copy of a watercolour from pre-1940 times that we realised that there had been a sixth chimney, in the now extended single-storey wing in which Mark and I live.

This housed the washhouse, and the chimney serviced a large boiler. At the same time, a newspaper photograph taken from the rear of the house in 1935 showed an open but covered walkway across the rear of the house, leading to that washhouse.

It is gratifying to know that these areas, and indeed the extension, lie over the site of a similar structure.