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The Burnt History of the Elderslie Estate.

4/6/2011

13 Comments

 
Picture
Peter & the Elderslie Mansion
Bev and Peter Rodwell are today’s guardians of the Elderslie Estate. They live in the old coach house and carefully tend the organic gardens, which are remnants of a John Reid’s Victoria masterpiece. In 1864, John came over to New Zealand from Elderslies in Scotland and he began to acquire his 35,000 acres while working for the New Zealand Company.

The original Elderslie mansion was completed 1874 and became the home of the Reid family and their seventy servants. The prized gardens were landscaped and planted over two years before the house was built. These grew to include sunken, herb, vegetable and rose gardens, and a 100 metre long hot house. A number of old world trees were planted by international dignitaries, and Peter with his ride on lawn mower has added his own touch by creating a labyrinth.

The homestead was the entertainment hub of Oamaru’s high society. The ballroom had a sprung floor, the dining room table could seat 24 people, and the banquets were legendary. Distinguished guests included Governor Grey, and Lord Kitchenr. Perhaps the most famous gathering was the 1876 garden party for over 3,000 people. This was held in celebration of the first rail expedition reached the Waiareka Valley.

The estate was also the birthplace of Phar Lap, and Peter has photos of Night Raid (sire) and Entreaty (dam) amongst his memorabilia collection. The stables are still standing (just), and the coach house is not only Bev and Peter’s home, it is also the pack house for organic walnuts and other goodies.

The original Eldeslie mansion was destroyed by fire in 1957. In a roundabout way, the buildings demise occurred because of alcohol, or lack of it. In the 1950’s Oamaru was caught up in prohibition and the owners of the estate decided to create a ‘Cabaret’ in the main homestead. This would allow the white-collar workers of Oamaru to drink while they recreated. In the rush to refurbish the original copper wiring from 1939 was not replaced. It is thought that the fire was caused by electrical arching.

Photographs of the blaze suggest that a mountain of marshmallows could have been toasted that evening. Especially since the fire brigade did not believe that the building, which was supposedly made of stone could burn down. It turned out that after an earthquake in 1882, the original stone in the front part of the building was replaced with wood made to look like carved stone. A timely reminder to check your wiring!

Picture
The Original Homestead
Picture
The Head Gardeners House
13 Comments
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7/8/2012 06:52:58 pm

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Reply
Timberframe barn builders link
7/15/2012 06:02:26 pm

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9/27/2012 06:30:46 pm

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Reid
9/8/2014 12:38:06 pm

Hi
This post was really interesting. I'm a descendant of J.Reid of Elderslie but do not have a lot of information about them. I would really appreciate any information/photos etc of the family or estate you may have?
Regards

Nick Reid

Reply
Alexis
12/5/2015 01:36:59 pm

Hi Nick-
A close family friend of mine is also a descendant, and I've been doing his family tree. There are a lot of old newspaper articles for free online- have you seen them? There's a great one about their 50th anniversary in 1895. Here's a link to John's obituary:
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=ST19120817.1.5&e=-------50--1----0John+reid+Elderslie+--

If link doesn't work or I can help at all, reply here and let me know... Fascinating history!!

Alexis

Reply
Vivienne
12/17/2016 05:01:06 pm

Hi Alexis - I believe I am also a descendant of this family as my great grandmother was Ellen Reid (born in Oamaru), her father was John Reid and her mother was Letitia Hayes. I don't have other info except Ellen had a sister called Eliza Ann. If you have any info that helps I would love to hear from you, Thanks Vivienne

Brian Reid
2/26/2017 02:50:21 am

Can you all please drop me an email.
John Reid was my great great uncle
Love to connect with un known family

Reply
Hamish
3/23/2018 09:07:54 pm

Hi Nick, and other Reids.
John Reid of Elderslie was my great, great grandfather, and his son John Forrester Reid was my great grandfather.
Happy to connect and share info.
Cheers

Reply
Alexis
3/24/2018 09:03:44 pm

For those researching the Reid family, I have found quite a few articles in old newspapers online (at paperspast) that I’m sure you’d find interesting- about John and Agnes’s golden wedding anniversary party, for instance, as well as John’s work with refrigerated cargo... my email is family.ajk@gmail.com, maybe reply here too if you email so I don’t miss it.

Cheers!

Steve Quirke
1/19/2017 05:58:29 am

The Elderslie Estate was owned my myself in the 80's. The coach house is on a separate title which I purchased for about $70,000.
I then put a manager into the coach house with instructions that should the old estate grounds of 70 acres every become available it should be made known to myself. Back then it was owned and used by a local family who agisted sheep on the property and was generally over grown with hemlock. As it happened after a few years the owners had a daughter who was getting married and they needed funds for the wedding. We negotiated a sum of $35000 and from that day on the estate was back in together once again. I have many good memories of Elderslie, such as one day while ploughing a field near a tree planted by Lord Kitchener the tynes hit on something metallic and there sticking out of the soil was a spike. It turned out to be a spire from the burnt out estate house. It stood in ornate splendour, about a metre high, and looking further I found another five or more. All identical. They can he seen old photos crowning original house.

Reply
Carron Stevenson
3/8/2018 11:47:14 am

Thank you so much for your excellent article. I stumbled on it while researching Enfield for a book I'm writing. My great grandfather Louis Frederick Elliott was head gardner so I was delighted to see a photo of his home. One of his duties was to provide fresh flowers to the house early each morning. He lived to his hundredth birthday, an interesting man by all accounts. He passed away in September 1959

Reply
Steve Quirke
3/8/2018 04:24:55 pm

Just a little more information from memory. The grand gates at the entrance to the white stone driveway (that is still there under about 8" of dirt) were donated to the Oamaru Botanic gardens. They are still there today. Behind the original house where some concrete pits that were partially excavated in the 80's yielding among other things many colored bottles from the 1800's. Down at the man made 3 acre lake there is a holly grove that cows used to weather the rain in creating a beautiful holly grove cave. Also up on the top meadow very spring there was the most wonderful display of yellow tulips and daffodils. Some of the finest I have seen.

Reply
Hamish
3/24/2018 10:23:07 pm

In addition, the Elderslie summer house is in the Oamaru Botanic Gardens, and the Oamaru stone entrance-way to Centennial Park are from the Elderslie entrance-way.

Reply



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