YE WAYSIDE INN

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 100, 30 April 1931, Page 9

YE WAYSIDE INN

VANISHED HOTELS

WATER REPLACES WHISKY]

Kecent and old-time flooding .in .th» Hutt Valley was the subject of an interview recently in "The Evening Post" with Mr. A. J. M'Curdy) who incidentally called to mind that the sita of the old Barley Mow Hotel, Silverstream, is now monopolised by the Hutfc River. And that observation prompted other memories. Mr. M'Curdy, stated that in the old days of Wcllington-Wai-rarapa traffic, via Hutt Valley, the chain of hotels in the valley, frorii north to south, was:— ■ Golden Fleece, Mrs. Wagg, on- ris« where the main: road runs down to the Pakuratahi River. On right hand side of road, looking south. [The site can still be traced, through cellar pit and remains of foundations. The hotel-is mentioned by the. Grey town pioneers, who mention it as the last hotel before crossing Riniutaka divide in 1853.] ' Mungaroa Hotel, Mrs.:.Gollens, near where the -Mungaroa tributary of" th« Hutt crosses the main road.. UPPER HUTT EIGHTY YEARS AGO. Shepherd's Rest, James Brown (senr.), Upper Hutt. Mr. M'Curdy remarked that Mr. James Brown was Hit father of the late Mr. George Brown,of Upper Hutt, Hutt county councillor. [Mr.. Brown and his hotel and Upper Hutt are also mentioned in'the Greytown records of 1853.] The hotel was situated in Upper Hutt on the left-: hand side of the road, looking south; and the site is now occupied by Mr." Cotter's plumbing premises. The hotel was afterwards known as .the Criterion Hotel. Highland Home, ,S. M'Hardy, on. main road at Wallacevillo, near tha site of the "Old Blockhouse." ■ The "Old Blockhouse," with its loop-holes," is still standing,l and a signboard on tlio main road directs sightseers to 'this relic of Maori War scares. , Barley Mow, Mr. Wyeth (senr.), tlia site of which one-time hotel is surveyed, consciously or unconsciously, byj every railway passenger who looks upriver as the train swings over Silverstream railway bridge. This hotel used to be on the left-hand side of the roadlooking south, and the river used to flow west of the hotel and the road. /In its' eastward swing the river has taken the place of both hotel and road, and ,-th'a latter was moved eastward to'its present .location. Moving the- road, said Mr. M' Curdy, simply meant laying out' a deviation through the paddocks to the east, and it was done so quickly; that they discovered years'afterward* that the road sito at this point had, never been properly conveyed. •_ Traveller's Rest, Mr. -, Taita, left side of main road looking south. After that, the Lower Hutt Vliotehj' awaited the thirsty coach -traveller. A VICTORIOUS RIVER. "If anyone wishes to locate.the Barley Mow site more exactly,"l added Mr. M« Curdy, " all he has to do is to look up-river as he crosses Silv'erstreain. railway, bridge, and he will" see, a few yards upstream,, one little willow treat close to the river channel, but west of it, and quite distinct from the row of willows east of it. This willow springs from an old stump that used to flourish: as a tree in the yard;of the Barley Mow. The willow was east of the Hutt River until- the river decided) Otherwise. It-will be seen that on the western side there is still a channel in which the Hutt flows when in flood. That channel crosses the toe 'of a. moraine or fan of material carried down from the western hills. On this fan used to be a whare; it has gone where a Hutt flood took it. Another whare, further east, was also '■'■ carried away by flood. "It may also^be of interest to know* that the above-mentioned Highland Home Hotel, Wallaceville, was afterwards called the Railway Hotel. Thrf railway was being built at the time and it was thought that Wallaceville would be the principal station. But the late Hutt county, councillor, George Brown, gave, the Department of Railways 28 acres of land at Upper Hutt adjacent to the Rhodes estate, and Upper Huts became the principal station. 'Land for railway purposes at Silverstream was given by Mr. Todd, and that fact helped to secure a station: there. CANOEIK& IN UPPER HUTT. "Talking about big. floods ' in th« past, would it,surprise you to knoir that on' one occasion the Maoris of Maori Bank (no Maoris there no.wJ)' came to the Upper Hutt saleyards sitr in a canoe V