Historical information

in 1882 Thomas Maidment paid the Society of Jesus £5,750 for nine allotments along Barkly Road (now Glenferrie Road). Maidment, who had arrived in Australia from the Glastonbury district in England in 1858, owned and managed a number of sheep stations in Victoria and subsequently became an '... eminently respectable ...' member of District society. In 1883 the Rate Books list Maidment's land in Barkly Road as the 'Buxton Hill Estate' and it was given an N.A.V. of £90, while in the following year his property attracted an N.A.V. of £160, suggesting that substantial improvements were taking place. Maidment's two-storey mansion, named 'Butleigh Wooton' after his birth-place in England, was completed in 1885 and was given an initial N.A.V. of £420. While Maidrnent is recorded as the owner of the building until at least 1896, Jane Maidment, his wife, continued the family ownership of the twenty-six roomed house with its extensive grounds until at least 1910. (Sanderson P. City of Kew Urban Conservation Study Vol 2)

Physical description

Butleigh Wooton is a substantial two storeyed house built in the Italianate style common in the 1880s. Its walls are rendered and it has limited applied decoration that includes brackets to the eaves line and engaged ionic columns under a broken pediment over the front entrance. The bowed window unit is of particular distinction and is not at all typical of this type of building. This interior by John T Collins is a view of the staircase from the first floor landing. (Sanderson P. City of Kew Urban Conservation Study Vol 2)

Inscriptions & markings

Reverse: "JOHN COLLINS / 11 Anderson Road / Hawthorn East, 3123 / Film 395 Exposure 21A / Kew / Butleigh Wooton / Staircase / 8-4-79