New Bletchington zone proposed

The Bletchington Heritage conservation area is a new area that is an extension north from the Dalton HCA. This includes an area north of Prince Street and is predominantly a projection of the eastern half of the Dalton HCA towards the north focussed on the area between Hill and Peisley Streets.

BLETCHINGTON ZONE: Bletchington is a new heritage conservation area, consisting of properties north of Prince Street, up to Margaret Street, primarily between Clinton and Peisley Streets.

Prince Street north has several excellent examples of important mid-Victorian Italianate residences and some that need some work to bring out their best. There are also several excellent examples of Federation Italianate cottages, many Interwar bungalows and some late 20^th C residences.

It has very few post-war residences.

The entire area north of Dalton Street was granted to Simeon Lord, and this estate was not subdivided until the “Bletchington Estate” was released in a fairly consistent and slow release method spanning mainly from 1910 until the mid-1950s.

Thomas Dalton sold less than 5 blocks in a small subdivision around Thomas Street in the 1890s, but it was his 2nd wife who established the major subdivision of the area in 1909.

As such the Bletchington Estate started to develop in that boom time after 1905 and the area of the HCA had largely filled in by the end of the Interwar period in 1945.

There are a few Federation Italianate buildings spread out in the HCA. By far the most prominent period of buildings are from the Interwar period, as Californian Bungalows.

Unlike the other HCAs, which have an irregular extent of infill across their areas, the Bletchington HCA is a bit like a patchwork quilt, reflecting the piece by piece way the land was purchased in a series of mini-estates.

This seems driven mainly by the desire to live in areas already settled by others. There are pockets with a run of Federation period houses in Anson Street, Lords Place and Dalton Street. This indicates that Anson Street and Lords Place must have been extended as the first roads through the new estate.