The Westbury Village Green is a place of entertainment, relaxation and inspiration for the local community. On the third Saturday every March, it is a sea of orange, white and green as the community celebrates their Irish heritage at the annual St Patrick’s Day Festival. Be sure to come along this year on Saturday 15th March for a day of great music, yummy food and fun entertainment.
The Westbury Rotary Club holds their annual car show on the Village Green – a great event for local car enthusiasts with old classics and late models cars on show. This year, the Car Show will be held on Sunday 30th March.
At other times of the year you may find members of the community playing croquet on the Village Green, relaxing with a picnic or enjoying the barbeque and playground facilities. Local artists have found inspiration in the history and beauty to create memorable works of art.
However, the tranquil community setting of the Village Green hides a very different past. In the 1830s, the location was the centre of a military establishment. The location of the current playground was once the site for the military officer’s barracks. The stocks and gallows were located at the northern end of the Village Green. In the later years of the nineteenth century, archery was practised on the Village Green. Sheep were permitted to graze for the purpose of keeping the grass down, however it seems that other animals were also grazing there. A letter to the editor of the Launceston Examiner in December 1896, noted that ‘the beautiful village green is neglected and is covered with the manure of cows and horses illegally at large, many of them belonging to the officers in authority’.
Other newspaper articles from the late nineteenth century speak about the stench from the slaughter yard that was located near the Village Green. One tourist was quite descriptive in their letter to the editor: ‘The tourist to Westbury is excited, perhaps exalted, by the beauty that surrounds them. They are moved to further admiration as they come to the town, by the fine old trees, the well-kept hedgerows, the trim countryside and the unique village green. Then, when they are wondering what further touches can be added to so lovely a scene, they find themselves face to face with the slaughter yard. What a change of mood must they feel, what a revulsion of feeling! From admiration to disgust, from a sense of the picturesque to a scene of the sickening.’
Fortunately, there is no longer a slaughter yard in the vicinity of the Village Green. Today, only the trees remember the notes of the bugle, the flight of the arrow and the aroma of the animals.
From the early twentieth century, the Westbury Village Green has been a location to remember and memorialise important events and individuals. The earliest memorial, dating from May 1902, recognises the date when the town water scheme for Westbury and Hagley was turned on. The ceremony for turning on the water was completed in Westbury by Mrs Burke, the wife of Warden Daniel Burke; and in Hagley by Mrs Hardle, the wife of the Reverend.
Probably the more well-known memorials are the military memorials including the Cenotaph, the Gallipoli Rose Garden dedicated to the War Widows of the Westbury Region, the Peace Garden for the Centenary of Armistice, and the Battle of Beersheba Memorial. Other memorials celebrate individuals and community groups. For example, in 1997, the Lions Club of Westbury buried a time capsule, located next to the replica stocks. It is intended that the time capsule is uncovered in 2047, fifty years after its burial.
The Westbury Historical Society recognises the significance of the Village Green to the local community. They are currently compiling a book to showcase its history and importance. They would love to hear from anyone who has a story, a memory or a photograph to share. Perhaps you have a story of a past convict ancestor, a memory from the time capsule burial or a photograph from an event on the Village Green. Please contact Amanda on 0467 097 791.
