Cottage

28 Camden Street, FEILDING

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The cottage at 28 Camden Street, Feilding was likely constructed circa 1874 and is a representative example of the simple box cottages erected during the early colonial period, with designs based on Georgian symmetry and simplicity. It has historical significance for its association with the early years of colonial settlement in Feilding, the first town established on the Manchester Block by the Emigration and Colonists Aid Corporation. Manawatū was first settled by Rangitāne o Manawatū who migrated south from the Heretaunga area and trace their origins back to Kurahaupō waka. They settled around the Manawatū River and established settlements all along the river which was the main route for both transport and communication. Rangitāne o Manawatū were later joined by Ngāti Kauwhata and Ngāti Raukawa following invasions from Waikato tribes in the 1820s. The Crown acquired large parts of Manawatū during mid-1800s, some of which it aimed to sell to colonists. In December 1871 Colonel William Feilding, Director of the London-based Emigrants and Colonists Aid Corporation, purchased some 106,000 acres of mostly bush-clad land between the Rangitīkei River and Ruahine Ranges which became known as the Manchester Block. Surveying of the block commenced in 1872 under the leadership of John Tiffin Stewart and was not completed until 1874. Stewart was responsible for laying out the block’s first township (named in honour of Colonel Feilding), which was situated on a natural clearing to the west of the Oroua River. The new township of Feilding was one square mile and laid out in quarter-acre, half-acre and one-acre sections. The first colonial settlers arrived in Feilding in January 1874 and were initially settled on country sections where they were to build themselves temporary accommodation. The Corporation’s Resident Agent Arthur William Follett (‘A.W.H.’) Halcombe quickly realised though that the separation and isolation of settlers in this way ‘would be fatal to the prosperity of the settlement’ and decided instead to settle the new arrivals in town. He arranged for the ‘immediate erection’ of two-roomed 20 x 10 foot [6.1 x 3 metre] weatherboard cottages with shingled roofs and brick chimneys, and whilst these were being built the settlers were accommodated in bell tents and bark huts. The cottages were to be placed on £10 1-acre sections round the outer part of Feilding township and by early May 1874 the Corporation had erected the first forty cottages. Tenants would pay a weekly rental of six shillings and would own the cottage and acreage outright after three years. Section 348 Town of Feilding was a one-acre section on Camden Street off Denbigh Road in the north-west corner of Feilding. It was owned by the Emigrants and Colonists Aid Corporation until August 1879 when it was transferred to William Baker. The small weatherboard cottage on the property likely predates Baker’s ownership though, and was probably constructed by the Corporation circa 1874 as settler housing, given the style of the cottage and its location on an outlying 1-acre section. In 1919 Section 348 was subdivided by then owner Joseph Darragh (of Feilding merchants Joseph Darragh & Sons) into five lots – Lot 5 was on-sold whilst Darragh retained ownership of Lots 1-4, with the cottage on Lot 4. The cottage has undergone various modifications over the years, including the addition of a bullnose verandah with timber fretwork brackets in a sunburst motif along the street frontage, which likely dates to the early 1900s. The porch in the lean-to at the rear was extended in the 1960s and around this time an outbuilding to the rear of the cottage may have been demolished. The original brick chimney had been removed by late 1992 when the cottage was renovated, with works including re-piling and re-roofing. There now appears to be a roofed outdoor area extending from the rear porch.

Cottage, 28 Camden St, Feilding | J Barnes-Wylie | 09/10/2022 | Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga
Cottage, 28 Camden St, Feilding | J Barnes-Wylie | 09/10/2022 | Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga

Location

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List Entry Information

Overview

Detailed List Entry

Status

Listed

List Entry Status

Historic Place Category 2

Access

Private/No Public Access

List Number

1234

Date Entered

7th July 1982

Date of Effect

7th July 1982

City/District Council

Manawatū District

Region

Horizons (Manawatū-Whanganui) Region

Extent of List Entry

Extent includes the land described as Lot 4 DP 4395 (RT WN504/26), Wellington Land District and the building known as Cottage thereon. Extent does not include the garage to the rear of the Cottage.

Legal description

Lot 4 DP 4395 (RT WN504/26), Wellington Land District

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