Reminders of pastoral history recommended

Press, 20 June 1984, Page 29

Reminders of pastoral history recommended

Several “outstanding” reminders of Canterbury’s pastoral history have been recommended for classification by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. The trust’s board in Wellington will consider C and D classifications of Canterbury buildings and statues next month. It would probably be at least a year before A and B classifications were known, said Mr Jim Gardner, a regional committee member. The board will consider the recommendations of a building classification committee that earlier this month visited more than 100 buildings and statues in its first tour of Canterbury in four years.

There were some “outstanding” memorials of Canterbury’s “great pastoral days,” recommended by

the committe, including the Esk Head homestead in North Canterbury and the Highfield woolshed in Waiau, he said.

The Esk Head homestead was one of the oldest cob houses in New Zealand and the Highfield woolshed was possibly the oldest in Canterbury. Both were built in 1867.

Another reminder of this pastoral heritage was the Moorhouse Avenue wool store of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency, built in 1881 by the prominent industrial architect, W. B. Armson. The trust was not only interested in stately homes. Working men’s cottages in Addington, Kaiapoi and particularly Rangiora were a heritage from the 1870 s when Canterbury had seemed a working man’s paradise, Mr Gardner said.

Other buildings recommended for classification include the limestone block Hurunui Hotel, the St Helens homestead at Hanmer Springs, the nineteenth . century Fishers building in Hereford Street and the Godley Statue in Cathedral Square. The remains of a rabbit fence at Horsley Downs might also be classified. It was evidence of another aspect of station life, the rabbit invasion, said Mr Gardner. The building classification committee had been impressed by the work of the Kaiapoi Borough Council in “recycling” the building, formerly used as the Kaiapoi Woollen Mills. At least 20 different businesses were now using the building and it could become an example for the use of historic buildings elsewhere, said Mr Gardner.