Milton Road House

Description

From Bryan Presland –

“This photo of an old house in Napier was taken around the early 1950 period. The Presland family lived there from around 1943 thru to possibly mid 1950s period. The house was owned by a man named Thompson who I think lived nearby on the hill above us. An old man who lived across the road from us told us he had been born in the house which he said was built in 1876. He also said that he thought the house was built on the floor of an old quarry. I noticed a for sale of property in Milton road recently and saw that number 25 Milton road was for sale and that in the property details that that particular house had been built in 1880. When we went to live there in early 1943 the house number was 31 Milton road and in the following years the number was changed to 29 Milton Road. I think it was possibly due to a house being burnt down and the vacant section was joined with another title in the street.

We had constant slips from the high banks above that filled our backyard with limestone rocks when we had very heavy rain. Our landlord Thompson was always growling about the Napier city Council allowing a house to be built there. I think numbers 25 and 27 were built at same time – 1880 and that probably their land sections were formerly part of a quarry.”