Newspaper Article – Link to Napier pioneer

Link to Napier pioneer

By staff reporter
MARY HOLLYWOOD

The only house on the hill top of Middle Hill, Napier, for many years was that of William Colenso. It was built on a 12.14 hectare property which stretched between Milton Road and Faraday Street.

That block is now divided, appropriately, by Colenso Avenue.

Later this week the house and last parcel of land of the original Colenso property will be sold and although the present home contains little of the original building, the little structure to the side of the present two – storey homestead is believed to have been Colenso’s home for several years.

A home from where Colenso administered his affairs, sent prolific numbers of letters and viewed the property below planted in native and exotic trees and shrubs for which he had a deep love and of which he had a profound knowledge.

The first Colenso home was built before 1858. Late in that year, Colenso warned residents through the newspaper that he would not tolerate trespassers on his property.

In 1859, he fenced part of the estate.

CLEARED IN 1860

In 1860, Colenso advertised for “spade labourers” to dig, level and clear about three acres of the land adjoining his Napier home.

Colenso’s single-gabled home was later attached to a larger portion built later. It is believed to have been two rooms and an attic. Later it was attached to the new part by a glassed – in passage.

Most recently, it was the kitchen and storeroom, a gardener’s cottage and “the maid’s room”. It is still on the same site but has had a room added.

When Colenso died in 1899, his property was divided into building sections and sold. Two nephews came from England to organise the sale.

Records show the Plowman family, well-known soft drink manufacturers in the town, bought the homestead lot for $1050. Mr Plowman pulled down the main part of the house, left the floor intact, lifted it on to new piles and built a larger house. He used both the old and some new material.

FLOOR REMAINS

Four of the large windows – each with six rows of four panes – were used on the western side, and the front door with its large lock. The original floor was retained and this still shows the marks of the earlier dividing walls.

That is about all the homestead that can be identified today as Colenso’s.

However, Colenso left one relic of his presence. On one of the small rear windows his spidery signature is cut in the glass.

There is another signature on the window in a slightly more flambuoyant [flamboyant] style but definitely showing the surname – Colenso. Whether this was done by a nephew or is an amateur copy of Colenso’s hand, is not known.

The house built in 1901 is now an apartment house and is in no way reminiscent of the original homestead.

During the 1931 earthquake the much-prized “never failing” well on the homestead property was heard to empty. A resident in the house heard the water run away as though a crack had opened in the bottom.

The well was partly under the house and partly outside. After the earthquake it was filled in and covered with a rock garden.

Further extensions to the building left only a small section of the well surround showing.

Eunice Plowman, a 15-year-old daughter of the owner, was found drowned in the well in 1905 after the family returned from a family picnic.

Eunice is buried in the old Napier cemetery on Hospital Hill – not far from William Colenso’s own grave.

MEMORIAL WINDOWS

Two stained-glass windows, made as memorials to the girl, are still intact in the present home.

When the Plowman family sold the home in 1920 it was bought by the Brewster family, who still own the property.

Many of the original walls have been extended and the veranda surrounding much of the house has been glassed-in.

With the imminent sale of the property there is concern that the valuable link with Napier’s early days might be lost.

The Napier City Council this week resolved to place Colenso House on the historic places register of the city’s district scheme.

The council is to ask the Historic Places Trust to investigate the possibility of the trust purchasing the original portion of land on which the cottage stands.

Photo captions –

SOUTHERN end of Colenso’s cottage, built in 1858. Under the floorboards are the original cobblestones and the house itself is resting on hand-cut pumice blocks. Extensions have been added to the north and south walls of the cottage and a conservatory links it with the main house.

THE spidery signature of William Colenso is still evident on a window pane incorporated in the present Brewster homestead.