Cottage Museum, Rylstone

The Rylstone and District Historical Society precinct is located in the main street of Rylstone and consists of the Cottage Museum, the Thyme Out Community Garden and the handsome heritage listed Bridge View Inn.

The Rylstone district was explored soon after the settlement of Bathurst in 1818. In search of good grazing land, explorers pushed north and found the rich Capertee, Cudgegong, Lue and Bylong valleys. Flocks and settlement followed. The village developed as a centre serving large pastoral properties. By the 1870s and 80s, wealth from fine wool, horse breeding, fat cattle and the nearby Turon River gold fields saw Rylstone become a social and government centre, with numerous Victorian sandstone buildings that continue to give it great charm today.

The Cottage Museum is housed in a simple 1890s weatherboard home built for local blacksmith, James Nash. The museum displays focus on domestic and rural life. They include costume, rustic furniture, kitchen and small farming tools, schooling and musical instruments. Also on display are photographs of pioneers, the town and district encompassed by the old Rylstone Shire boundary.

The Bridge View Inn hosts a yum cha café, wool and yarn shop, barbershop and B&B. The two storey sandstone inn was built in 1871 and the dining room features one of Australia’s few surviving murals of the period. The mural is believed to have been painted by Augustus Baker Peirce (1840 – 1919) and was conserved in 2013.

The Society hosts lectures, workshops and exhibitions; organizes excursions and heritage events; and continues to research local and family history drawing on the resources of the community as well as the Society’s archives and collection.