Wilfrid John (Dick) Thornley had a home built by local builders Le Plastrier and Sutherland at 83-87 Natimuk Road which he named Pen-y-byrn.
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Stone masons from Kew also worked on the house. Son Peter believes it was built about 1940.
Dick Thornley had a street named after him in the Jenkinson Estate in Horsham West, in recognition of his involvement in community events. He was a good all-round athlete and taught swimming in the river.
The Jackman family owned Pen-y-byrn owners in the late 1960s and renamed it Como Lodge.
It was owned by Denis O'Brien from 1986-2004 and Ken Dodds, 2004-05.
When Como Lodge came onto the market in 2005, the house was described as a stately Tudor-style homestead with a large garden equipped with a tennis court, a 10m in-ground heated swimming pool and a large number of mature European trees, once the site for elegant garden parties.
The interior of the house comprises of five bedrooms, a huge sitting room with open fire, dining room, den and rumpus room, kitchen and two bathrooms.
Today it is owned by Nola Brown. The block has been subdivided and a building now stands on the site of the tennis courts.
Thornley developed Horsham's largest cordial business, starting about 1920 when he took over a small factory in Wilson Street from Jack Head.
Thornley moved from Sale, where his father owned a cordial factory, beginning in Horsham with a horse and dray, washing lemonade bottles in a trough.
He built a house and factory in Wilson Street and developed the business with a Warracknabeal branch, which operated for 30 years to the mid-1950s.
Son Peter said four tons of marble bottles were buried in the old rubbish tip near the river when new bottles with crown seals were used.
After World War II, there was staff of 15 to 20, four trucks on deliveries, awards for Thornley lemonade and regional distribution for Passiona that was made under licence.
A favourite Thornley product was called Ica, a cola-style drink.
Len Dougherty was eight years old when Dick Thornley gave him a job, standing on a box labelling bottles and stirring sugar into the soft drink.
He said Thornley made about a dozen lines including dry ginger, ginger beer, brewed hop beer called Win Ale, tomato sauce, lemonade, soda water, vinegar and even snowballs.
Saccharine in the drinks was the secret of the taste.
The Horsham factory closed in 1973, when the business was shifted to Hamilton. The firm distributed Zest brand with a bottle deposit of sixpence until Schweppes bought the Hamilton factory two years later.
The Wilson Street factory site became part of Weights Hardware.