Newspaper Article 2011 – Slice of history for sale

Slice of history for sale

By Morgan Tait
[email protected]

A piece of Hawke’s Bay’s history is on sale for anyone interested in owning a scenic slice of the past.

Built in 1879, Mangawhare homestead has been owned only by three families, and was once in the hands of George Waterhouse, the seventh Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Wine Country Real Estate MREINZ agent Jock Hewitt said the Glenross Rd, Sherenden house still had original interior fixtures, making it a unique home in Hawke’s Bay.

“It’s so unusual to step into a house exactly as it was 100 years ago,” he said.

The second storey of the house was added in 1907, and that bit of history was featured on a special wooded curved mantelpiece.

The owners of the home are asking $670,000 for the 2ha property that has been farming sheep at the base of the Kaweka mountains for more than 100 years.

The story of Mangawhare Station, the homestead and the people and families who lived and farmed there has been well documented in two books – West of [to] the Annie: Renata Kawepo’s Hawke’s Bay legacy by the RD9 Historical Committee and Early Stations of Hawke’s Bay by local historian Miriam MacGregor.

Another historian who helped write West of the Annie, David Hildreth, said the homestead was one of the oldest slices of Hawke’s Bay history.

“It was one of the first stations built here,” he said.

“I used to live in it from 1928 to 1948, but even before that it was old.”

He said it used to be the only house on the only road from Hawke’s Bay to Taihape, and one of the first to get a phone line along that route.

“It used to be the place to stop off, and the man who built it built the closest hotel, too.”

For more information on the sale of Mangawhare Station, contact Jock Hewitt on 06 8738989

Photo caption – ON MARKET: Mangawhare, built in 1879 on the Taihape road is priced at $670,000.

PHOTO/PAUL TAYLOR   HBT104556-03