Development near the five-mile peg

Press, 18 September 1976, Page 11

Development near the five-mile peg

W. J. HARRIS concludes his account of early Halswell. The pictures show, anti-clockwise, the Roman Catholic Church of St Agnes in 1895, Thomas Mullins on the white horse; the Junction Hotel in 1905—it was burnt down on October 28, 1954; and Halswell House in 1890, later known as Oaklands.

Thornley School and Rearsby township were among the unsuccessful ventures along the road to Halswell. By 1859 the road had been metalled as far as the five-mile peg which was near the present intersection with Dunbars Road. Two years later Edward Morgan, a teacher, opened a boarding school here — probably the Upper Heathcote Wesleyan School, reported as closed in 1863. During the 1870 s the Thornley private school at the corner of Dunbars Road taught girls only, at a fee of one shilling a week.

Mr and- Mrs J. Beverdige and Elizabeth Gardiner were teachers, and Rev. W. J. Habens conducted the 1871 examinations when pupils included members of the Aschen, Candy, Dunbar, Going, Moffett and Storry families.

A Wesleyan Methodist Church was built in .the early 1860 s opposite the school site in Lincoln Road but closed 10 years later.

Many of the farming families moved to larger holdings when more land

became available farther away.

Walter Lawry, John Silvester and Wilson Taylor, who founded the Halswell Church, took up land in the “Springs” 'station subdivision and established a similar church at Springston. The unused church was purchased about 1880 by the Roman Catholic community and moved to the corner of Nicholls and Halswell Junction roads to become the Church of St Agnes. Thomas Mullins, of the Junction Hotel, was a leading benefactor: others included the Burrows, Curran, McCarthy and Murphy families.

When a new church was built in 1900 the original building became known as “The Abbey”, being occupied by teaching sisters who came each week from Christchurch. The first hotel at Halswell was a cob building with a clay floor ‘or which William Craythorne received a licence in 1865. Later a twostorey wooden building was in use till destroyed by fire in 1954 after being owned by the Stevens family for 50 years. Craythorne, in 1863, advertised sections in

Rearsby township near his Junction Hotel, Halswell township, however, developed further out — at the junction of five roads.

Thomas Walker Wilkinson arrived in the Samarang in 1852 from England with authority to choose 100 acres in the Canterbury settlement. Learning that the prevailing opinion in England .was that the settlement was a failure — and disagreeing with this opinion — he wrote in 1854 a favourable report which was printed in the “Leicester Chronicle”. His Warren Farm, now part of Marylands, was cleared for ploughing at the rate of an acre every two days. After chopping off scattered flax and toe toe, he burnt the native grass.

He also farmed Hagley Park and was in a shortlived butchery business with George Ell. Journeys to town meant a stop at the toll gate erected in 1864 across the road opposite Spreydon Lodge.

The Rev. Laurence Ginaty was responsible for the establishment of the large Roman Catholic institution under the management of the Sisters of The Good Shepherd at Mt

Magdela. In the past the area was known as "The Mount”, being on a high point of ground. It forms the upper catchment of both the Halswell and Heathcote rivers, flowing in opposite directions. Opened in 1888 the property had an extensive self-contained farming unit which included a slaughter house and a brick bacon-curing house. A dairy herd was built up from pedigree shorthorns selected by Samuel Burrows.

On the Lincoln Road frontage there were large bluegums which overhung the road, and in which crows nested. Tom Mullins and Walter Streeter felled these trees for the wood in 1930.

David Lewis purchased part of James Gammack's farm in 1863. He imported, from England, timber and slates for a substantial two-storey homestead which, being built to Northern Hemisphere plans, faced into the south. It was known as Harwell House until purchased about 1914 by Peter Watson, of the Christchurch Dairy Company, who renamed the property Oaklands because of the long oak-

hned drive from the Lincoln Road entrance Charles Lewis, a Christchurch businessman and member of Parliament, occupied the house after the death of his father. The children of Charles Lewis were taught by a governess and the four daughters had a very sheltered life, being permitted out only

to attend St Mary's Church on Sundays. There has been some modernisation of this house which, with its pitsawn oak framework, is today part of the suburb of Oaklands.

Before the building of St Mary’s Church in 1863. the district was part of the Upper Heathcote Parish; the records date back to 1856. The church was erected on a Provincial Government reserve which was suggested as a site for the public school. This was first known as Rickmans Corner: and in 1857 the address of Frank and Robert Rickman was “St Mary's on the Halswell.” The Church of England did not obtain title to the land until 1871; and the inclusion of St Mary’s in the district name, several years before the church was built, remains a mystery.