The ‘Ready-Cut’ Homes of George Hudson & Son Ltd

By Cathy McHardy, Hawkesbury Historical Society

 

‘We erect the buildings ANYWHERE’ boasted the 1915 edition of the cottage homes catalogue of George Hudson & Son Ltd.  Manufactured under the Hudson ‘Ready-Cut’ brand many examples of this pre-fabricated building technique still survive scattered through the hills of the Kurrajong and in all probability in other locations in the Hawkesbury District.

Hudson was not the originator of this type of building technique, as demountable buildings in timber, and later of iron, were imported from Britain from the establishment of the colony. However, by 1874, according to an article in the Sydney Mail, Hudson pre-cut cottages were sold far and wide including ‘New Zealand, New Caledonia and the South Sea Islands’.

George Hudson, born Redfern 1848, was the only Australian-born son of William Henry Hudson, son of a Plymouth cabinet maker, and Elizabeth Dugdale who arrived in the colony of NSW in 1846, after first trying their fortunes in New Zealand.  From a small workshop in Redfern, the business interests of the Hudson family grew and prospered diversifying into heavy engineering and pipe making.

Designed to be erected by unskilled labour, each piece of the kit was numbered and its position carefully identified on the plan. Mainly of timber construction, with weatherboard cladding and timber interior lining boards, exterior walls were sometimes composed of galvanised iron, and by 1915, purchasers were given the alternative choice of  asbestos cement sheeting for the exterior walls and asbestos cement slates for the roofing material.