Stokes Valley History

We continue with the sixth in our series of short articles on the history of Stokes Valley. This month we look briefly at early houses in Stokes Valley.

Appreciation and thanks is extended to Poppy Watts from whose book Stokes Valley Through the Years this information has been lifted with only slight modifications. If you would like to purchase either or both of Poppy's books, please e-mail editor@svn.co.nz for details as to how you may do so:

Stokes Valley Through the Years [1953] by Milton and Poppy Watts $10.00
This Was Speldhurst (The Story of an Early Stokes Valley Family) [2001] by Poppy Watts $16.00

Early Houses

When the floor of the Valley was dim with the shade of mighty trees and tangled with the tentacles of creeping vines, when great ponga ferns and nikau palms dipped their graceful fronds to the cool, damp earth, and native birds joyously sang to a silent land, people came and let in the sun. Here and there appeared great holes in the dark green forest and in these clearings were built the first of the pioneer homes. And so the great forest drew back to make way for man that he might till the soil of a new land.

Men toiled and sweated to produce pit-sawn planks for their homes from the great, age-old trunks now felled and dying. The earliest dwellings were primitive and crude, some merely shelters, and sometimes while the timber was being cut men lived in mud huts.

To these homes came women. not timidly, not afraid, but with great hopes, for there was no room for fear in the pioneer heart and they became used to the monotonous silence of the forest.

The land was gradually cleared and permanent homes took shape. Small gardens grew in the virgin soil and where had been the damp, cool leaf mould of the forest floor sprang the green of grassy fields flung wide to the blazing sun.

Most of the original homes were destroyed by fire or those long standing vacant were demolished to build cowbails or woolsheds.

The First Homestead

The first homestead in Stokes Valley was built in Kamahi Road around 1863 by Mr. Edward Russell on his farm from pit- sawn timber cut in the Valley. When his son Charles married he took over control of the farm. He occupied this home and an additional house was built for his parents. Eventually Russell's family occupied both houses.

After the sale of the Russell farm to Dr P Knight in 1910, the house was occupied successively by his managers, Messrs F Bould, Mr Foster, C. D. Fendall, and R. Tomkins.

In 1921 Messr. G. Parker and W. Graham, employees of the new owner, Mr S.D. Thomson, resided in the homestead and it was afterwards occupied by Mr. Thomson and his family until the completion of their new residence.

Delaney's

In a bush clearing near the site of the second oldest house, a whare was erected between 1855 and 1860 and was the home of a man named Derenze and his young son. The spot being known as Derenze's Clearing. This man was a wagon driver and carted timber which had been cut in the valley. The property on which this whare stood was purchased by John Walker in February, 1865, and, using pitsawn timber, he erected a house which, in the 50s was the oldest portion of Mr Delaney's home. In 1874 the house was vacated by the Walkers and leased to the Bates family, who resided there for many years. Subsequent occupiers have been Messrs. Furner. Mailer. Pickering, and I. Jenner.

In 1907 Mr. Delaney purchased the property from the Rev. F. Sherriff and during his occupancy carried out various additions.

Third Oldest

The south corner of Main Road and Milford Road was the site of one of the oldest houses in Stokes Valley. It was occupied by the Nelson family who farmed the property until it was taken over by Henry Tobin in 1900. From 1903-1908 this building was Stokes Valley's first Post Office. The Tobins had boarding with them Miss Prendeville, the local school teacher, who later married a brother of the Rev. D.C. Bates, purchaser of the Tobin farm in 1908.

Subsequent owners of the house have included Messrs Rothney, Thorpe, Sowerby, Menzies, Emeny, Young, Lemberg, Tredrea, Crosbie and Shaw.

Speldhurst

The earliest known residents of the house once occupying the site where Speldhurst park exists today were Charles Hamblin and his wife, who from the late 1870s resided there with their daughter, Mrs. Mundle, and her son. The property was then renowned for its wonderful apple orchard. After the death of her parents Mrs. Mundle continued to live in the house for some years, the property being leased from the Walker Estate.

In 1901 Christopher Miller, who had recently arrived in New Zealand, leased the property from the Rev. F. Sherriff, who had introduced the name Speldhurst after a village in Kent. Having married soon after his arrival, Mr Miller brought his wife and his brother Robert to the four-roomed cottage on the farm, where they resided until early in 1906.

In May 1913, Mr. M. Gribble and his son-in-law Cecil H. Young purchased the house and property. After additional rooms had been built those residing in the house were Mr and Mrs M. Gribble, Mrs Gribble's parents, Mr and Mrs L. Parsons, Mr and Mrs C.H. Young, and their two children. During the years rooms have been added and internal alterations carried out until today every appearance of the original cottage has disappeared.

Tainui Kennels (originally Squires')

This house was situated on the rise on the northern side of Glen Road, near its junction with the Main Road and was built in 1892 for Mr George J. Squires and his family, the previous home on that site having been destroyed by fire.

Mr Squires, who carried on mixed farming, died there in 1900. His wife continued farming until 1905, when she left with her family for Whitemans Valley.

That same year the new owners, the Salisbury family, took possession and began poultry farming, which they continued there until 1913, when they moved to Upper Hutt after the sale of the farm to Dr C. Prendergast Knight.

During his period of ownership Dr Knight and his family resided in the homestead at weekends and holidays. Mr S. D. Thomson, ~who purchased the property in 1920, resided in the house for a short period. In 1922 the School Concert was held on the spacious veranda. Subsequent occupiers have been Messrs. Emeny, L. Scoullar, Chamberlain, Green, McGuinness, and Beaumont.

Mitchell's

The original 11-roomed house on the Mitchell farm, which had been built as a hotel, was from 1862 - the home of the owner, Mr G. Sykes. Before this it accommodated wagon drivers taking stores to the Wairarapa and was also a stopping place for coaches, the stables being located across the old Main Upper Hutt Road and directly opposite the hotel. After the departure of the Sykes family the old house was occupied by Messrs. W. and J. Rickard.