OLD CHRISTCHURCH—VII A VEBURY PARK YOUTH HOSTEL

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32050, 26 July 1969, Page 20

OLD CHRISTCHURCH—VII A VEBURY PARK YOUTH HOSTEL

(Specially written for "The

Press" by

J. A. HENDRY.

F.N.Z.1.A.)

The Civa Wilding Youth Hostel in Avebury Park stands on part of what was rural section 197. The original purchaser of this section for £l5O from the Canterbury Association in September, 1851, was John Seayer Grundy, of Sydney Street, Brompton, England.

This land was bounded by the present River Road to south and east, and Rural Section 41 and Hills Road to the West and included Eveleyn Cousins Avenue. Moreover, the original parchment deed signed by John Robert Godley and W. Guise Brittan is still extant in the Lands

and Deeds office in Christchurch. Grundy eventually returned to England and through an agent sold some 25 acres, up to about Medway Street, to William Flesher for £5OO in 1871. By 1882 the value had increased to £l5OO. On Flesher’s death in 1889 his widow and his son, James, inherited and after James’s death in 1930 it passed to Hubert de R. Flesher, who in 1945 sold some eight acres including “Avebury” to the Crown. In 1951 this was transferred to the Mayor, Councillors, and Citizens of Christchurch for recreational purposes, the house becoming a Youth Hostel and the grounds an attractive park.

The house dates from about 1885, when it was designed for William Flesher by James Glanville, architect, and then comprised a large two-storey house with a front veranda and a single storey service wing at the rear, which incorporated an earlier house. There had in fact been a still earlier cottage. Then in 1907, just after the Great Exhibition, the tower was added and verandas and projecting bay windows of the North front altered- Later still the verandas were glazed in, the service wings removed and replaced by the present ablution blocks, but the old concrete foundations may still be seen.

In the main, the east and west elevations are much as originally designed, the double-hung windows being encased in moulded frames with attractive hoods and supporting brackets, while the slender string-course and slight eaves with paired brackets add another distinctive note. In fact there is a dignity to these areas which is lacking in the rather too fussy front, even allowing for the disfigurement of the glassed-in verandas. The oddly stressed first floor window does tie in quite well though with the lower bay window and certainly is a counter to the corner tower and its unusual capping. Stressing the front entrance in addition to the broad flight of steps is a wide, deep porch, obviously a later addition but quite adequately sheltering

the five-panelled door with its coloured leadlights. Internally, there is still enough left intact to evoke memories of what it was once like. A very wide, lofty entrance hall with a good comice gives, under a moulded archway with carved corbels to the stair which rises in two easy flights to the first floor. They are of the cut string type with slender moulded balusters and a beautiful handrail wreathing up to and round the first floor landing in a continuous sweep. To the left of the hall is the former large drawing room, with a bay window and seat to the north shielded by a pierced archway and another smaller square bay with a panelled ceiling on the east wall. Although a fine comice and ceiling rose remain, the original fireplace and surround has given way' to a modern and unsuitable: arrangement. Behind this i lay another, smaller room, I now. enlarged to be a com-1 munal kitchen and on beyond I were cloaks, pantries and the remaining services.

To the right of the hall was the dining room which had the tower room off it, but this is now subdivided into the matron’s flat. Behind this is another large room, with a dado of heavy embossed paper and the remains of a tiled fireplace. This acted variously as nursery, den and breakfast room.

On the first floor, which has a lower stud height, are five bedrooms, and a former bath-

room, lavatory, none of which is outstanding except the main bedroom over the drawing room. Firesurrounds here were timber, with carved corbels now, alas, vanished. The only really interesting note is produced by the doors which are normal four panel types, but paint grained to simulate different woods and very well done. Throughout, original door furniture and fingerplates remain white and; gold for the. first floor and black and gold for the ground < floor.

“Avebury's” greatest glory now lies in its wide, smooth lawns and fine trees.