For over 60 years, the doors of Singleton’s prominent watering hole — known originally as the Freemasons Arms, later the Cricketers Arms and later again as the Club House Hotel — were helmed by three consecutive publicans who weren’t just local businessmen, but genuine pillars of the cricket community.
The unbroken lineage of bat-wielding landlords spanned from 1874 to 1936, deeply embedding the pub into the sporting fabric of the Hunter Region.
1. John Henry Sheehan (Host: 1874 – 1898)
- The Pioneer of the Pitch: James Henry Sheehan set the standard when he took over the license in 1874, famously changing the establishment’s name from the Freemasons Arms to the Cricketers Arms (which later transitioned to the Club House Hotel while retaining its sporting identity).
- Standing in the Local Scene: Sheehan was an exceptionally keen cricketer and a core, popular member of the Singleton Cricket Club. His passion for the game dictated the very theme of the pub, making it the unofficial headquarters for local players, fans, and travelling teams passing through the Hunter Valley.
2. Adam Mather (Host: 1898 – 1917)
- First-Class Pedigree: Adam “Donner” Mather took over the reins in 1898 and brought elite-level prestige to the bar. Mather was a genuine NSW first-class cricketer, having played representative matches for the state in the mid-1880s before an injury cut his top-tier playing career short.
- The Pub’s Living Museum: Highly revered across northern districts, Mather didn’t just leave his playing days on the field. Inside the Club House Hotel, he curated an extensive, celebrated gallery of cricket memorabilia, photographs, and framing dedicated to the national game and its legends. For Mather, running the pub was an extension of his lifelong love affair with cricket, creating a warm, community-focused haven for local sports enthusiasts until his passing in 1917.
3. Archie McPhee (Host: 1917 – 1936)
- Carrying the Torch: Following Mather’s passing, Archie Stoddart McPhee took over the license, ensuring the hotel’s long-standing connection to local sport and hospitality remained unbroken.
- A Beloved Community Hub: Like his predecessors, McPhee was heavily integrated into the sporting and social life of Singleton. Under his guidance (and later his family’s, who retained ties to the hotel for decades), the Club House Hotel maintained its reputation as a welcoming, community-driven institution where cricketers and townspeople alike gathered to celebrate a victory or commiserate over a duck.
Together, Sheehan, Mather, and McPhee turned a simple country pub into a legendary local landmark, proving that for over six decades in Singleton, the path to great hospitality always ran straight through the cricket crease.
By MICK ROBERTS ©
The Club House Hotel is a classic colonial-style pub located on John Street in the historic downtown precinct of Singleton, NSW.
Operating as a vibrant local watering hole and community hub for over a century, it sits within a town founded out of Benjamin Singleton’s 1820s riverside settlement.
The pub was first established on another site in John Street as the Freemasons Hotel when George Robert Miller was granted a license for a house in March 1863.
A fire almost destroyed the pub in 1871, before the license was transferred to its current position on John Street the following year in 1872.
The license was removed from the old Freemasons Arms to the site of the former Plough Inn on John Street and transferred from George Robert Miller, Junior, to Thomas Armstrong Filmer on October 8, 1872.
The ‘new’ Freemasons Arms moved into a renovated former Plough Inn, which had traded on the site from 1850 to 1868. The inn was operated by James Neal for the majority of that time.
Therefore it can safely be said that a hotel has traded on the current site of the Club House Hotel for over 176 years!
John Henry Sheehan acquired the property in 1874 and at the age of 30, with his wife Henrietta and children, became host of the Freemasons Arms. He would go on to host the pub for almost 25 years.
Sheehan, who was a native of West Maitland, was born in 1844, and came to reside in Singleton about 1865. He was a well-known figure in sporting circles, particularly as a cricketer, and for many years he was looked upon as the best wicket-keeper the district possessed.
There’s little surprise as to why then he gained approval from the courts in June 1874 to change the sign of his public-house in John-street from the Freemasons’ Arms to the Cricketers’ Arms.
Sheehan had the Cricketers’ Arms almost rebuilt in 1881 and engaged Maitland architect George Browne to design a grand two-storey hotel for the site. On completion late in 1881 he changed the name of the pub to the Club House Hotel.
After the death of his wife, Henrietta at the age of 51 in 1897, the publican retired from his hotel and transferred the license to Adam Mather in May 1898.
Sheehan went to England for a trip, and stayed in the old country close on a year before returning to Singleton, where he opened a tobacconist shop and hairdressing saloon. Ill health compelled him to retire soon after opening his shop and he died at the age of 56 in 1901.
Meanwhile, Adam Mather, who took over the license of the Club House Hotel from Sheehan, would, like his predecessor, have a lengthy stay as host.
Mather, who was likely handed the baton by Sheehan because of his sporting prowess, was publican for just short of 20 years, before his death while licensee in 1917.
Known as ‘Bonner’ Mather, so-called after George Bonner, a mighty hitter in the cricketing world, Mather was a versatile cricketer, and “played for Singleton in every important match”.
In a reminiscence published in the Singleton Argus on May 29, 1939, the former publican’s cricketing skills were described:
“That wonderful ‘snick’ through to the boundary coming from Bonner’s upraised leg was most confounding to the opposing players. In the prime of his cricketing days, and when on the verge of being chosen to represent Australia over in England, Mather met with an unfortunate accident in Mr Harry Pinchin’s cordial factory, which meant the loss of one eye.”
Born in Dungog, he was popular hosts of the Club House Hotel up until his death in 1917 at the age of 53, leaving a widow, and a son and two daughters.
Continuing the tradition after Mather’s death, another well-known Singleton cricketer took the reins of the pub. Archie S. McPhee was a native of Mudgee, and came to Singleton as a young man where he gained work at James Moore and Co., Ltd., a general department store and trading business known as “Universal Providers,” located on John Street. Established originally in the 19th century, it served as a major regional commercial hub supplying drapery, clothing, household goods, and produce. He worked in the manchester department for several years.
In his earlier years in Singleton McPhee was a keen cricketer, and afterwards took up bowls. He was host of the Club House when at the age of 48 in 1927 he suffered a stroke and became an invalid. Despite paralysis he remained licensee at the pub until May 1936 when he suffered another stroke and died at his John Street pub at the age of 57.
The Club House Hotel freehold remained in the ownership of the McPhee family into the 1970s. The last family member to host the pub was Bessie Kathleen McPhee, who died while licensee in 1973.
Over the decades, the Club House Hotel evolved from a simple country-town watering hole into a key social venue for locals, families, and travelers exploring the Hunter Valley region.
The property has undergone interior refurbishments and updates—featuring a bar, restaurant, beer garden, accommodation rooms, and a drive-through bottle shop facility—while maintaining its traditional local pub atmosphere.
© Copyright Mick Roberts 2026
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