19th and early 20th Century Glebe houses display a variety of boundary fences, most commonly wooden pickets and iron railings. Apart from security and delineation, fences give a uniform appearance to a street – especially with a run of identical terraces or houses; and complement their wooden and iron lace verandahs.
The Victorian iron fence and gate was usually constructed using wrought iron for the horizontal bars and palisade rods and cast iron (moulded) for the spearheads and finials.
Although the iron fence is a feature of many Glebe buildings there is a range of spearheads used with some common forms such as the fleur-de-lis and a few that are more individualised. The first two photographs are of Margaretta Cottage in Leichhardt St and Emslee in Mansfield St. These two early Glebe houses have simple but substantial spearhead designs. Later Victorian designs were more decorative.
If your property has yet a different iron fence top, we’d love to see it. Email your photo to editor@glebesociety.org.au.
(Images by Peter Crawshaw)
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Hello again
Correction to my post regarding the Sunnyside mansion at Petersham. I have been informed by the Petersham Historical Society that a land titles search reveal the mansion was probably built around 1870 and not 1855.
Hello
At Petersham on Trafalgar Street adjacent to Petersham Station is a set of terrace houses, built possibly around 1900 on the site of an old mansion called Sunnyside which was a “Gold Rush” house built around 1855. The fence of Sunnyside was retained and a gate for each terrace house built into the fence. The fence therefore has spears from around 1855. If you examine the fence you will see it has been adapted to suite the terraces.