Demolition Of Old House On Early Hornby Farm

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30178, 9 July 1963, Page 15

Demolition Of Old House On Early Hornby Farm

An old homestead being demolished on the Branston subdivision is built on the first land taken up in the Hornby township, according to Mr A. C. Loach, who is compiling a history of the township. He says that everything points to its being the first house in Horniby. The construction of the house is typical of early building. The middle wall and part of the outside wall are filled with cob —a mixture of pugged clay, soil and tussock —and matohiined inside. Weatherboards are used outside. Hand-forged nails were used in the older part of the house, and Mr Loach found the corrugated iron on the roof and part of the internal walls remarkably well preserved. The ground floor of the old homestead dales back to 1858-59.

Mr Loach’s research shows that the subdivision’s history began when Edward Cooper received a Crown grant of two rural sections. This, together with 30 acres bought from David Barker, made up a holding of about 230 acres extending from Shands road across Springs road to Wilmers road—the total cost being less than £5OO. He called the farm Ablington. On June 18. 1861. Cooper sold the property to Frederick LeCren. the Christchurch postmaster. for £lBOO. LeCren held it until 1864. when he leased the farm to Richard Morten Morten bought it two years later for £2070. and made it his headquarters until 1874. Mr Loach believes that it was during this period that the second storey of three rooms and an attic was built above the nine ground-floor rooms. Extensive stables were built about the same time, with wails of Port Hills stone probably obtained from the same quarry where Morten got the stone for Morten’s Buildings—now the United Service Hotel. Morten built the estate up to about 420 acres, giving it a quarter-mile frontage to the Main South road, and renaming it Broadlands. In 1874 the Southbridge railway dissected his property and the disgusted Morten sold the property. Edmund Amyes bought it for £9OOO

and renamed it Oakham,pton.

Mr Loach says there is a belief in the district that Edward Jerndngham Wakefield once lived at Ablington, and he may indeed have rented it from LeCren, but nothing appears in the land records. The homestead block was sold again about 1898 to James Corbett, who in turn sold it to the trotting trainer. James Bryce, about 1914. The last owner was Mt L. W Stephenson, who initiated the present subdivision. He called it Branston Farm.