Short History of Stortford Lodge, A

A SHORT HISTORY OF STORTFORD LODGE

IN 1888 the ORIGINAL Stortford Lodge Hotel was built by William Stock in Maraekakaho Road near Gordon Road approx 2kms south of the hotel’s last site.

The 2 Storey Block was shifted to the Stortford Lodge Corner in 1907 and a matching 2 Story Block plus extra Bars below and bedrooms above were built.

William Stock was born in Bishop’s Stortford in Hertford-Shire in England. The town is on the road from Colchester to Braughing. The road was build by the Romans in AD 41 it was called Stane Street – Now it is the A120 Highway.

This area was invaded twice by Julius Caesar in 54 and 55 B.C. but was beaten off both times – Also by the Romans in AD 41 – they left Britain in 410 A.D. Next to invade the area was the Saxons in 449 A.D. followed by St Augustine in 597 A.D. who was subdued by Alfred the Great. – William the Conqueror came, saw and conquered. He built a castle on Saxon foundations and gave it to Maurice The Bishop of London whence the prefix Bishop’s before Stortford was established. 2 of Bishop’s Stortford most famous residents of the past century are Sir Cecil Rhodes and Sculptor Henry Moore.

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The Saleyards built in 1903 by the Auctioneers Assn after Closing their small yards in the Centre of Hastings.

Such firms as Williams and Kettle, H.B. Farmers Coop Assn, Dalgetys, Murray Roberts, N.Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency, de Pelichet McLeod and Co. and to a lesser degree Beck and Co, W.A. Beecroft, A Jones and Co and Wellwood’s were the Stock and Station Agents in Hastings between 1882 and 1903.

Stortford Lodge became a Secondary business Centre because of its proximity to the Saleyards, Frimley Orchards  and Canning Factory, Hortons Nurseries. In 1899 William Stock built a Country Store with living quarters above on the second floor. This store was built on the Hastings town side next door to the Stortford Lodge Hotel. The store was sold to a Port Ahuriri man William Lynch in 1905 who later shifted to a brick building (LATER This store was occupied by Sawyer’s Furnishings, about 1960) of 3 shops next door. These shops were destroyed in the H.B. Earthquake of 1931. In the mid 1930’s Lynch built a new shop on the Pakowhai Rd – Omahu Rd corner. This shop closed down and was demolished in 1974. It is now the site of Tommos Restaurant and Bar. William Stock proposed to start a Dairy factory in opposition to the Heretaunga Co-op Dairy Company. After touring Dairy factories in Taranaki he built a large Factory in Plunket St and called it

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The Mahora Dairy Factory. It was opened by the Minister of Lands on the 1^st October 1900. The 1^st Shipment of butter was exported to London in November 1900. The factory delivered butter to Hastings homes twice a week at 1/- a pound in Winter and 10d a pound in summer. The directors of the Heretaunga Co op Dairy Co now faced strong opposition plus the prospect of an outlay of approx £2,500 for enlarging their factory on the Corner of St Georges and Havelock Rds and purchasing new machinery. 2 factories 2 miles apart seemed suicidal. Amalgamation was estimated to cost £2,600. William Stock was willing to advance £1,000. 3 months later Heretaunga Dairy Factory Shareholders agreed to purchase William Stock’s Factory with a bank overdraft of £2,000 and Share capital of £2,500 also to lease the combined business to L.D. Nathan and collect 1/- for every 80 gallons of milk supplied for 3 years. By the time Nathan’s contract expired the Company’s debt was reduced and the factory’s output had doubled and they employed 74 suppliers. In the last … the  100 year old building has been occupied by Richmond Meat Offices and meat processing plants plus a Retail Shop.

Across on the Corner of Omahu and Maraekakaho Rds Archie and George Lowe established a Butchery and Small goods delivery (Horse and Carts) business in 1910.

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In 1913 they built a Coolstore with a Butchers Shop in front. They also delivered ICE to homes. In 1917 this business was taken over by Carl Vogtherr who renamed it The Elite Bacon Company.

German born Carl went to England and became a Pork Butcher

He came to Palmerston North to go into Partnership with an Uncle in the Kiwi Bacon Company in 1914. At Stortford Lodge he ran the retail side of the business, his son Ernie ran the Wholesale and the Lowe Bros supplied the steam and refrigeration. In 1926 Carl purchased the rest of Lowe Bros property with a Mortgage from Meat Exporter W Richmond and Co. When Carl retired Richmond’s took over the Coolstore, Stortford Bacon Co and The Wholesale Trade.

Commercial Fruit Growing on Modern lines was largely developed by 2 large Landowners and Sheep Farmers. J.N. Williams of Frimley and H.S. Tiffen of Greenmeadows. They both independently visited California in 1890 and on their returned laid out small Orchards and Vineyards. Their 1^st experiments were objects of derision to Orchardists of the Old School until they succeeded and awakened local interests in the prospects of fruitgrowing and processing on the USA plan

An American Mr A.E. Spawn visited H.B. later on in 1890 and exhibited his evaporators for drying fruit. He saw no reason why the district

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should not become “the San Jose of the South Pacific”

H.S. Tiffen died in 1896 and his 50 acre Orchard and 10 acre Vineyard were taken over by the Meeanee Mission. When J.N. Williams visited Europe and U.S.A. in 1890, he visited Apple, Pear and Peach Orchards near Bordeaux in the South of France and then orchards near Niagra [Niagara] Falls in the U.S.  Aboard a train to California he met an Englishman who invited him to visit a fruitgrowing district which turned out to be very much like the Heretaunga Plains, surrounded by hills and plentiful supplies of Artesian water. He found a fruit township with a 30,000 population entirely supported by the fruit Industry. After gathering all the information he could find he returned to Frimley and planted his Orchard and Vineyard of 10 acres. Originally the Frimley Estate of some 2000 acres was swampy and treeless so over the years he drained it and planted rye and clover and clumps of artificial bush and long lines of shelter belts. J.N. Williams established the Frimley Canning Factory in 1904 on 2 acres of ground in Frimley Avenue

The buildings cost £800 and the machinery cost £800. The Orchard had 60 rows of Peach Trees each one mile in length, which created a magnificent sight when the trees were in Blossom. In the 1^st year the factory employed 60 women and girls and 60 men and boys

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& produced 150,000 cans of peaches, pears, apricots and tomatos and fruit pulp. The fruit pulp went to Auckland for Jam Production. Demand and Supply greatly increased and by 1906/7 season 200 women, girls and boys were employed. In 1911 a frost of 11 degrees occurred in October resulting in a loss of £10,000. The factory was sold to Kirkpatrick and Co in Sept 1913.  Mr J.N. Williams died in 1915.

Frimley House was destroyed by fire in 1950 and J.N. Williams’ daughter Elsie and sons A.B. and H.B. donated the 47 acre block to Hastings City. So Frimley Park was created in memory of J.N. Williams and family.

The expansion of orchards encouraged the development of local nurseries

When J.N. Williams began to plant Frimley Orchard, he had difficulties in procuring sufficient trees. In 1896 Thomas Horton of Premier Nurseries in Pahiatua visited Hastings to establish an agency. He advertised that he had 400,000 trees, both fruit and ornamental for sale and that he could deliver by train. He became so successful that he purchased in 1905 20 acres of the Frimley Estate situated on the Corner of Pakowhai and Lyndhurst Rds. To cope with an increasing demand he purchased a further 15 acres in 1906 and formed his business into a Limited Liability Co. His fellow directors were J.N. Williams, W.H. Hartgall, and EJ Wall. This Co

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was formed in 1909. Thomas Horton was a Pioneer in the Export Fruit Trade. In 1909 he arranged for the 1^st Trial Shipment of H.B. Apples in Cool chambers via Melbourne to London.

He exported trees to Australia – Great Britain – North and South America and South Africa. In 1914 he sent his 1^st large shipment of trees and took a big display of apples to Buenos Aires on the Eve of W.W.I. which unfortunately cut off any future trade. However the Hastings Nurseries expanded to 75 acres in 1916 and a 63 staff. and sold up to a million trees of all varieties. Thomas Horton won Gold Medals in Melbourne and more from the Royal Horticulture Society of England and established a excellent reputation throughout the world. A former employee of Hortons Nurseries G.D. Wilson took over the Nurseries after Thomas Horton retired. Today it is known as Palmer’s Garden World.

Frimley was taken into the Borough of Hastings in 1959.

Annual Rates for a ¼ acre section were in 1951 17 shillings and tuppence. H.B. County Council
Annual Rates for the Hastings Borough £3-12-6 per Annum

Annual Today Rates for Hastings District Council are $1539.94 Per Annum.

I might add when Frimley was taken in to the Borough we did get concrete footpaths – Sealed Roads – Water and Sewerage connections and Rubbish removal ea [each] week

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I became interested in collecting Old Historical Photographs after setting up as a photographer in the Stortford Lodge Area in 1964.

A customer asked me to copy a collection of Old Photographs belonging to Ernie Vogtherr. These Photographs show the buildings on Maraekakaho and Omahu Rds Cnr. when Lowe Bros Butchers Shop was there and later when Ernie Vogtherr’s father Carl had the Elite Bacon Co. and later on when Ernie established a Service Station selling petrol brands such as Union – Plume – Big Tree Texaco. Today the site is now The Cumberland Court Motel.

Other Industrial firms in business in Stortford Lodge included, Harris Machinery – Farm Products H.B. Cooperative, – Attwood and Reid – General Carriers, – Awatoto Shingle Co, – Concrete Products Manufacturers, – U.E.B. Industries – Packaging Products – Morrison Industries Motor Mowers Manufacturers. – J.C. Mackersey Construction, Greens Laundry. – Hastings Memorial Hospital now HB Regional Hospital, is also in the Area as is Hastings Girls High School – Heretaunga Intermediate School and Frimley Primary School and Lindisfarne College for Boys.

After Ernie Vogtherr commenced selling Petrol and Oil, another Service Station was established at Stortford Lodge Corner by Chas Martin in the 1920s. This station was purchased by Douglas Round in Dec 1930 and was operated by Douglas and his wife and son Fred.

Petrol Brands sold included Voco – Big tree – Hercules – Shell – Imperial – Atlantic – Texaco and Europa. Younger son Les joined the Premier Service Station as a mechanic later. Caltex purchased the Premier in 1970

Today Mobil Oil B.P. and Caltex Stortford operate on Stortford Lodge Corner.