Māori historic relationship with the area
The vast network of wetlands and plains of Kā Pākihi Whakatekateka o Waitaha (Canterbury Plains) is inherently important to the history of its early occupation. The area was rich in food from the forest and waterways. Major awa such as the Rakahura (Ashley) and the Waimakariri were supplied from the mountain fed aquifers of Ka Tiritiri o te Moana (Southern Alps) while other spring fed waterways meandered throughout the landscape. The rivers teemed with tuna, kōkopu, kanakana and īnaka while the forest supplied kererū, tūī and other fauna as well as building materials. Ōhoka is situated on the edge of the historic 18,000 acre swamp that lay between the Waimakariri and Rakahuri rivers providing a good supply of wading birds and fibres for weaving, food and medicine. Ara tawhito (travelling routes) crossed over the landscape providing annual and seasonal pathways up and down and across the Plains. The resources supported the nearby Kaiapoi pā, a vibrant and successful pā which was a thriving trading centre for a range of goods, including pounamu.
Colonial Settlement
From the mid nineteenth century, Pākehā missionaries and immigrants settled in the Canterbury Plains, many arriving as part of the Canterbury Association settlement programme. In the Waimakariri district, small colonial towns and settlements developed in the 1850s and 1860s, including at Ōhoka. By 1866 there were some 25 farms established in the Ōhoka area. One such farm, established by J. S. White, soon became particularly well-known.
J. S. White’s Ohoka Estate
In circa 1856 Josiah (Joseph) Senior White arrived in Canterbury from Australia, where it was rumoured that he had been involved in some controversy or scandal there. In New Zealand, White prospered. He established a number of businesses in Kaiapoi and Saltwater Creek, including a chain of stores known as 'Beehive Emporiums' located throughout North Canterbury.
In 1866 White established a large farm at Ōhoka and was given Crown Grant in 1867. Known as Ohoka Estate, the station was bounded by what is now Whites Road, Mill Road, Jacksons Road and Tram Road.
As an experiment, J. S. White imported over 100,000 oak, elm, ash and beech seedlings and planted huge wind breaks, shelter belts and ornamental plantations. He also arranged the erection of a brickmaking kiln, which produced the bricks for his Ohoka Homestead (List No. 274). Built in the early 1870s, the two storeyed, brick Ohoka Homestead is Gothic in style with steeply pitched slate roofs, fretted bargeboards, finials and arched windows. Nearby, a timber stables and dovecot building was built, possibly around the same time as the homestead (List No. 3347). Further away from the homestead and stables, at the original access point to the estate on Whites Road, a timber lodge was built for the gate keeper.
J. S. White’s first wife, Eva Elizabeth, died at the homestead, aged 29, on 29 March 1883. He remarried in the 1880s and the new Mrs J. S. White continued a key role on the large estate. With her husband, she was involved in the employment of the estate’s many staff, including gardeners, ploughmen, fencers, coachmen, parlourmaids and housemaids. On a number of occasions, J. S. White looked to selling the property but this did not eventuate during his lifetime.
Ohoka Gate Keeper’s Lodge
The Ohoka Gate Keeper’s Lodge was the main entrance to White’s well landscaped park-like estate and a curved road on the property led from the lodge to Ohoka Homestead, some 600 metres to the east. Surrounded by trees yet visible from the road, the Lodge was set back inside a curved corrugated iron fence, approximate one metre high, which was topped by a broad timber capping. At the centre was an iron gate. The Lodge was set inside to the south of the curved fence. The original was probably built in the late 1870s or 1880s.
The role of the occupants of the Lodge was to manage traffic and visitors coming to the estate. Traffic was generally by horseback, horse and gig or horse and coach. There was a separate entrance, some 50 yards (45 metres) away, for working horses and drays, which gave access to the stock yards and farm buildings. The occupants of the Lodge had the job of opening and closing the gate for the head of the estate and visitors. This saved time for horses and gig type traffic without loss of control – all they had to do was call out ‘coo-ee’ and usually the gate would be opened.
Fire and Rebuild of the Gate Keeper’s Lodge
In 1891 a fire destroyed the Lodge and nearly all its contents. The cause of the fire related to an attempt to rid of a colony of bees established within the walls of the house using sulphur fumes.
The Lodge was soon rebuilt on the same site, reputedly as an exact replica of the original. The exact date of the rebuild is not known, but conceivably this happened within a year or so of the fire.
The occupants of the Lodge (both original and as rebuilt) seem to have been the estate’s gardener or head gardener and his family. Mr A. Catchpole was the occupant at the time of the 1891 fire. Head gardener, Thomas Murray, his wife and eventually six children lived at the Lodge in the late nineteenth century, presumably after the new lodge was rebuilt, but it may have been the earlier one.
J. S. White died in 1905 and his second wife arranged for the property to be subdivided and sold – this occurred in stages between 1907 and early 1909. An advertisement in the Lyttelton Times on 12 November 1908 stated that 12 blocks of Mrs J. S. White’s Ohoka Estate were already sold and only two lots were remaining for disposal. Of the two remaining lots for sale, Lot 1 was the finest one containing the farmstead – its buildings comprised the two storeyed brick homestead, also ‘a capital comparatively new lodge, brick farmhouse, granary, stables and woolshed’. This description of the lodge as being comparatively new confirms it was much newer than the other (1870s) buildings on the subdivided property.
Mr W. A. Kelcher purchased Lot 1 with the buildings on or before January 1909. Several changes of ownership followed. In people’s memory, it was still the old J. S. White’s estate, even though Mrs White had sold and had been living in England for many years before she died in 1923.
Three Times Relocation of the Ohoka Gate Keeper’s Lodge
In around 1920 to 1930, the former Ohoka Gate Keeper’s Lodge was relocated to 127 Jacksons Road, on a separate private land parcel of what would originally have been on the eastern side of the larger Ohoka Estate. There is a story that it was gifted to the retiring gardener. It is thought that the first wallpaper might have been introduced at this time to cover any cracks or damage after moving. In its new location it functioned as a private residence throughout changes of ownership. It was in that location that the building’s heritage values were formally recognised in 1984 through entry on the Historic Places Trust Register (now the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero) as ‘Former Ohoka Lodge’ (List No. 3817).
In 1995 the building was again shifted within the same land parcel at 127 Jacksons Road to make way for a new home to be built. In this third location, some 130 metres to the north-east of its second location, it was painted and reroofed, given new piles, borer was treated, and a 1970s kitchen and chimney were removed. The building was unoccupied after the 1995 shift. It suffered some lath and plaster damage in the 2010-11 Canterbury earthquakes. In 2017 the owners decided to donate the damaged building to the community and so, in April 2018, with much excitement by the locals, it was shifted to the Ōhoka Domain.
At the Ōhoka Domain, the building is being repaired and restored by a group of volunteers, the Ōhoka Domain Advisory Group. Although twice shifted before it was again relocated to the domain, the building remains within what would have originally been the large Ohoka Estate.
Contextual Information
Gatehouses
Gatehouses were a sign of wealth and status that the property owners could afford to employ someone to open and close gates for themselves and their visitors. There are only a few gatehouses entered on the New Zealand Heritage List. They include Mona Vale Gatehouse, Christchurch (List No. 1799) and Vogel House, Cottage and Grounds, Lower Hutt (List No. 7757) Glenmark Lodge (List No. 1777) was the rural lodge for the Glenmark Station at Waipara. It was part of a complex designed by the architect Samuel Farr, although almost certainly influenced by North American ‘Carpenter Gothic’ pattern books. Ohoka Lodge is a more modest building, gothic in design like the Glenmark Lodge, but probably not the work of an architect. Rather, the style of its bargeboards suggest it is the work of a building familiar with the pattern books. There is also a gatehouse at the entrance to the grounds of the early twentieth century Government House in Wellington (List No. 218), this having a serious security function rather than being about a statement of the importance of an estate and boundary marker. The gatehouse which was part of the Elms Farm Complex (Former) in Kaikōura (List No. 7693) was demolished following the Kaikōura earthquake of 2017.
Relocated buildings
The New Zealand Heritage List includes a number of historic places that have been relocated. Relocation usually removes a building or structure from its historical context and tends to reduce its significance, but Heritage New Zealand considers relocated Listed buildings or structures on a case by case basis to determine what heritage values remain and if the place will remain entered on the New Zealand Heritage List. Ohoka Gate Keeper’s Lodge (Former) is one of many examples of relocated buildings. Some Canterbury ones include Akaroa Lighthouse (List No. 3343), Shand’s (List No 307), Oxford Lock-up (Former) (List No. 7196), St Luke’s Chapel (List No. 5328), St Saviour’s Church (List No. 1929) and Band Rotunda in Kaiapoi (List No. 3748). The latter three examples have, like the Ohoka Gate Keeper’s Lodge (Former) been shifted several times. This is part of their history.
