Woodend Orchard House at 128 Main North Road, State Highway 1, Woodend, is architecturally and historically significant as an early double brick house constructed around the 1860s by pioneer settlers, Thomas Ayers and his son Samuel as their family home. The Ayers’ made a significant contribution to the building technology in North Canterbury in the second half of the nineteenth century.

In 1858 Thomas and Elizabeth Ayers (née Gibbs) immigrated to New Zealand with their family and settled in Woodend. The tiny settlement was initially called Gibbs Town or Gibbstown, since Elizabeth’s brothers had already established themselves there, but by March 1859 it had become Woodend, in recognition of the place where the native bush ended. Thomas Ayers was a Bedfordshire stonemason who continued this trade in New Zealand and also became a bricklayer. His sons, Samuel and Thomas junior, also became bricklayers. Thomas Ayers purchased land in 1860 and later he and Samuel constructed the family home. The exact date of construction is not known but the earliest part may have been built in the early 1860s.

The Woodend Orchard House is a two storeyed cottage of double brick walls with a front facing gable and an ogee shaped verandah and corrugated iron roof. Concrete or plaster has been used in some areas to cover the brick, which was painted in the early 1970s. The interior includes panelled doors and kauri lined ceilings. Associated buildings at the rear (east) are a cookhouse and stables/timber drying shed, both constructed of red brick.

As well as being involved in the construction of a number of brick structures in the Waimakariri, including Ohoka Homestead (built early 1870s, List No. 274) and probably Haskell House, 250 Williams Street, Kaiapoi (built 1865-6, now demolished), Thomas Ayers was particularly active in the temperance lodge and Methodist church community. Thomas died in July 1886 but the house remained in the ownership of his descendants for many years. In 1911 an extension was added to the north-east, incorporating new bedrooms. In the 1950s the interior was remodelled on the ground floor. The original slate roof was replaced with corrugated iron. The original red brick exterior was painted around the 1970s. A bay window on the main elevation has been replaced with casement windows.