Waimakariri Heritage

Houses of Waimakariri

Details

Datenot specifiedDescriptionOne can imagine the homely scene of the Torlesse house snuggling in a small cove on the northern edge of the Rangiora bush, with a sunny aspect and protected from the southerly weather.The site provided an attractive view north to Mt Grey and its Wakefield range. The home was handy to a good water supply close to the south bank of the North Brook. Timber was right to hand in the bush.
These are the things that made Rangiora a desirable settlement, with the added advantage of plenty of streams to provide industrial power as the settlement grew.
In retrospect, however, we can look back with regret at the sudden loss of the bush. Some consolation can be taken in that about 13 acres of former bush has been replanted as a native bush area known as Matawai Park within the residential area.
In spite of this, many of the early settlers must have been almost overwhelmed by the daunting task of setting up a home in a strange land.
Settling at Rangiora was not for the faint hearted. Those heading north from Christchurch faced, in the first few years, 20 miles of rugged travel over partly trackless country with streams or swamps to be crossed. Ferries were provided later at some of the more diccicult crossings until bridges were built.
Those arriving at Rangiora at the beginning of the settlement would have had to survive under temporary accommodation while they constructed something more permanent.
Some were fortunate to have tents. Others made do by fabricating rough A-frame huts from boughs thatched with whatever suitable material they could extract from the bush and swamps, such as flax, raupo and scrub.
Cooking would have been over open fires, with the more fortunate women having the benefit of camp ovens. Such primitive conditions, however, would have been dark, draughty, cold, damp and often decidedly wet in heavy sustained rain.
Some men left their wives and families in temporary accommodation in Christchurch or with earlier settler friends in Rangiora. For the women and children who, by choice or necessity, remained with their menfolk it would indeed have been a harrowing experience.
Some started with something more pretentious, such as a timber framed lean-to. Others made good use of the free materials ready to hand by building sod or cob homes, either as a temporary step or later enlarging them to meet the needs of their growing families.
The more wealthy may have been fortunate to engage an experienced carpenter to build with pit-sawn timber from the bush and a few used imported materials. As the settlement progressed, primitive homes were replaced and some of the more sustantial homes from last century have endured to today.
Extract from "Rangiora - An early pictorial record"

Documents

Ayers house (also Winskill house), Rangiora - Heritage Item Record Form

Turvey House, Rangiora - Heritage Item Record Form

Ashley Farm, former Smith farmhouse, West Belt, Rangiora - Heritage Item Record Form

Eyrewell Homestead (former Dixon homestead), Eyrewell - Heritage Item Record Form

Kaiapoi Railway Station, Kaiapoi - Heritage Item Record Form

Ohoka Gatekeeper's Lodge (also known as Ohoka Estate Lodge), Ohoka - Heritage Item Record Form

Ohoka Homestead, Ohoka N.Z. - Heritage Item Record Form

New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero – Report for a Historic Place Area 51 Futuro House, ŌHOKA (List No. 9870, Category 1)

Ephemera

'The Willows', Kaiapoi, c.1909

Railway Station, Kaiapoi, N.Z.

Collection

Houses of Waimakariri

Connections

CollectionHouses of Waimakariri

WaimakaririHeritage

Waimakariri Heritage

Menu

Houses of Waimakariri

Waimakariri
Heritage