“The Oaks”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29537, 12 June 1961, Page 3

“The Oaks”

Str,—Your correspondent, N. E. Avery, is not quite ißorrect I quote dates from a letter to “The Press,” September 21, 1949, written by my mother, G. M. Ensor. “The Oaks” must be 97 years old, at it was built in 1665 by Sir Michael and Lady Elizabeth le Fleming on land owned by brother-in-law Edmund S. Ensor, who, in 1852, had bought land from Ferry road to the Heathcote river, and lived on Ensor’s road. Sir Michael built his home with a room to imitate Rydal Hall, his ancestral home in Cumberland, so they were not a French family, having been in England since 1066. Subsequently Thomas Hassall bought and built the southern and largest wing, as your correspondent says. The’ gum trees were gifts to Sir Michael from Dr J. S. Willis, “Hawford,” Opawa. who grew seedlings from a box of seed imported from Australia. The gum trees at Riverlaw also came from the same seedlings. Sir Michael bought “Riverlaw” from Colonel Alexander Lean. My grandmother helped plant them all, with her father Dr. Willis.—Yours, etc., RUBY le FLEMING BEDFORD. Darfield, June 8, 1961.