The Cricketer's Arms was built on part of the original 2000 acre land grant to Robert Lethbridge, which he called “Flushcombe”.
James Manning bought portion of this in 1877 and built the Cricketer’s Arms on the corner of what was the old highway and Flushcombe Road, facing Prospect Reservoir.
He also owned the land north to Lancelot Street, which he later sold to William Campbell, who built the magnificent mansion, “Flushcombe Turrets”. It is believed the Cricketer’s Arms opened in 1879.
It was described as a two storey brick and timber building with solid brick walls on the ground floor and timber walls on the upper floor, with dormer windows, a cellar under the bar, and a front verandah.
James Manning soon extended the building by erecting the Flushcombe Stores beside it, and built a racetrack and cricket pitch, which made the hotel very popular with locals.
The Stores were run by Manning and Neeve, another local family, and featured “lowest cash prices” in groceries, beef, boots, clothing and ironmongery. The hotel did well, partially because the Prospect Reservoir was then under construction
with its hundreds of workers.
One can imagine locals spending a hot day playing cricket, having picnics or watching the races, and of course partaking of refreshments at the hotel.
Win-win for hotel
And one could also make a purchase at the Flushcombe Stores. And visitors to the area could even take a room for the night. It was a win-win for the hotel.
When the reservoir was completed, business drastically declined and James Manning was forced to sell the hotel because of financial problems.
His daughter and son-in-law, E F Cooney, later bought it back and lived there for some years. After passing through further ownership, it became a tea room, having now been de-licensed.
The cricket pitch and racetrack gradually disappeared into the bush and the Flushcombe Stores were eventually pulled down.
In the late 1930s the old inn was sold to Ivan Posa and Ivan Segedin, and in 1941 to Posa himself. He conducted a market garden on the site, and used the inn as a residence for his family.
By that time nobody paid any attention to its history, it was just another old house on a local farm out in the bush.
Things changed drastically in 1963, when the entire site was purchased by Western Drive-in Theatre Pty Ltd, and the market garden was razed for a 700 car drive-in, one of Sydney’s largest, which opened later that year.
Thankfully the Cricketer’s Arms was not demolished, and became a caretaker’s cottage for the drive-in.
Heritage order placed
Eventually it stopped being used at all, and sat deteriorating and forgotten. When the old Great Western Highway was bypassed, few passing motorists now saw the old inn sitting on top of the hill, except those going to the drive-in theatre, and they would have paid little attention to it in the darkness anyway.
As the years passed, the cottage was abandoned as the drive-in no longer needed a caretaker, and it became vandalised and dilapidated.
Realising its importance, in 1989 the Department of Planning placed a heritage order on the building and bought the site because of its rarity as a Victorian era roadside inn.
In fact, it was the only remainder of the inns which had been located between Sydney and Penrith. Conservation and restoration work was carried out and then the hotel was put up for lease.
It has had a number of lessees since that time, but continues to function as a licensed hotel on its original site in the style of an old English pub. It became popular for its live music and trivia nights and is again being used for its original purpose.
The old winding section of the highway is now known as Reservoir Road, and the southern end of Flushcombe Road is now Cricketer’s Arms Road, having been bisected by the later highway by-pass.
Behind the inn, the Atura Hotel has been built, and the drive-in theatre also continues to operate, the last of its type in metropolitan Sydney, making the site a unique one in terms of cultural and social significance, with its links to the early
Prospect farming district and the Manning and Neeves families.
The Cricketer’s Arms, a building itself of historical and social significance now approaching its 150th anniversary, is one of few remaining structures relating to the original Prospect village, which has entirely vanished except for the former post office and St Bartholomew’s Church and cemetery.
Image below: Cricketer's Arms today.
