Briars Inn Burradoo

A large two-storey structure, with a low hipped roof extending its deep eaves over the walls, it was built of brick on a stone foundation with a stone-flagged front verandah. The original shingled roof was replaced by an iron roof system. At the rear of the 12-room house was a courtyard formed by a two-storey brick wing on one side and a single-storey kitchen on the other. There were also outhouses, stables, coach house and a large slab-built barn.  The excellent proportions of the house make it seem smaller than it is. The chimneys were finished with a slight embellishment of a course of brick dentils and the house interior is fitted throughout with excellent cedar joinery, including six-panel doors and a staircase with turned newel post. During the 1880s verandahs became fashionable. An 1896 photo of The Briars shows verandahs had been attached the upper and lower storeys.

By 1940, it was very dilapidated and renovations were undertaken to remove the separate kitchen at the back along with the rotting front balconies and the external brickwork was painted a dusty pink.  In 1958 The Briars was bought by Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar School to enlarge their Moss Vale School and until 1974 was used to teach the art of housekeeping.  It was then home to successive families with the land being leased out for farming.

In 1979 new owners were granted, under the “Historic Inns Act” and with the approval of the National Trust, the renewal of the original licence which allowed the premises to reopen as an inn, with tavern & restaurant.  In the 1990s, the Briars Country Lodge was built at the rear of the site providing 30 rooms of accommodation.

Some of this history is is based in part on research by local historian Sally Darling and sourced from the archives of Berrima District Historical & Family History Society.