Rangiora hotel sold

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32494, 2 January 1971, Page 14

Rangiora hotel sold

The Red Lion Tavern in Rangiora—the town’s earliest public house, which has stood at the comer of High Street and Ivory Street for more than 100 years—has been sold to Mr and Mrs A. Spark for a six-figure sum. Mr Spark said that he and his wife would take over the premises from Dalkeith Holdings, Ltd, on March 31. He did not want the purchase price to be made public. Mr D. M. Corbett, a director of Dalkeith Holdings, Ltd, which also owns the Plough Inn in Rangiora, had no comment to make other than to give the date of change of ownership.

The Red Lion Tavern began as the Lion Hotel in 1857, when Captain T. W. Foster obtained a licence for! an iron shed. This was re-! placed by a typical hotel of the time: a wooden structure! of two stories with dormer! windows. While it was the! town’s only hotel, it was the official depository of electoral! rolls, and official notices, as well as advertisements for

social functions, were posted there. The first stock sale in the town was held in the hotel yard in 1858, 52 head of cattle being offered on December 13. Horse sales were held there also from 1859. The old hotel was burnt to the ground in 1874, but the owner, Mr James Bassingthwaite, had a two-storey brick building put up on the same site. This building comprises part of the existing tavern premises. Dalkeith Holdings, Ltd, bought the Red Lion Hotel in 1968, and almost two years ago the Licensing Control Commission granted a tavern licence for the premises. Major alterations have been undertaken more recently. These include the construction of a new bar, removal ■of the street verandah, and 'lchanging the exterior paintwork from the familiar red to ja beige colour. The new owners were for- : merly in the Canterbury liHotel, Methven. Mr Spark is ;iwell known in trotting circles ■i in Canterbury.