History

In March 1842, a young man with a sense of humour built a hotel near the south corner of what is now Arbury Park. His name was Benjamin Dean and he named his inn The Rural Deanery.

In terms of the people who patronized it, any resemblance to a Deanery was somewhat more than remote. It had been originally established to cater for the passing bullock teamsters who battled their teams traversing the Old Mount Barker Road at the refreshing waters of Cocks Creek (later Cox's Creek), but it soon became the mecca for a clientele who consisted of a mixed bag of the toughest and most dissolute of early colonists.

The Tiers, as the Mount Lofty Ranges used to be called, provided the hiding place for ex-convicts, run away sailors and ne'er do wells of every kind, many of them dedicated to cattle rustling and extortion. Dean dispensed rum to these characters "in outsize pannikins" and they stayed to carouse until all hours.

Until a few years ago, a depression in the ground adjacent to the Deanery Bridge, which marked the site of the Inn could
still be detected. Today, no sign of the depression remains
and little of the tiny village of Cox's Creek that grew around the Inn.
Until about 1855 Cox's Creek consisted of a cluster of colonial cottages, a Post Office and a tiny school conducted by a Mrs Bruce, the wife of a local orchardist.

When, in 1853, the new coach road through Stirling and Aldgate (the present Mount Barker Road) was completed, Dean's successor, one Addison, moved his business there, lock, stock and barrel. Most of the village followed, and within 5 years the hotel on the new site became "The Bridgewater Inn", believed to have been so named after Addison's home town in Somerset.

In 1859, John Dunn set about building the Bridgewater Mill, the mill with the wheel next door. He had the land around the Inn laid out as a township, taking its name in turn from the Inn. That was the end of the old village of Cox's Creek.

So, for over 150 years, The Bridgewater Inn has traded on its present site, very much as it is today, as a congenial spot for a tasty lunch, hearty dinner, or a refreshing drink with friends.