Built circa 1875, the timber one and a half storey cottage at 93 Champion Road is a reminder of the Richmond area’s former horticultural focus. This building was used for its original purpose, as the homestead for families working associated orchards, until the late twentieth century. It has local historic importance because of these longstanding families and has architectural value as a good example of a representative modest Victorian homestead.
The east Waimea plain was surveyed to create accommodation blocks in 1842. These were 50 acre rural sections allocated to new settlers as part of the New Zealand Company’s land package. With its fertile soil, orchards characterised the Waimea plains from the Nelson settlement’s inception. The Crown Grant for 93 Champion Road’s original section was issued in 1871 to important early settler, explorer and surveyor, Thomas Brunner (1821–1874), who had recently retired. At the time he lived at Brookside in Nelson, but he had various land holdings, such as this Richmond property. Thomas’ wife Jane subdivided the property after his death.
It is likely that 93 Champion Road’s house was constructed around the time the Eyles family acquired the property in 1875. William Eyles (1823–1875) was a young agricultural labourer when he arrived in Nelson in 1842. His family retained the property until 1903 when it was sold to Samuel George Woods (1851?–1910). Woods worked in the North Island before coming to the Nelson region, where he learnt orchardist skills in Stoke and then purchased the Richmond house and orchard. The next owners, from 1912, were James Francis Childs’ (1869?–1961) family. The property was referred to as Stepaside by the early 1920s. The Childs were active in the wider Nelson community, through the Anglican church, charitable activities and the local fruitgrowers’ association. In 1941 the property passed to their daughter Lorna (1900–1990) and her husband Frank Fullford, a local farmer.
During the Childs/Fullfords’ ownership, orchards were becoming increasingly concentrated further from Nelson, in places like Moutere. Lorna sold the orchard section after Frank died and retained the house until the 1980s. This area of Richmond retained its rural character until residential subdivision intensified in the late twentieth and the early twenty-first centuries, such as at the former Stepaside orchard. The remaining homestead section is comparatively large, with mature plantings include heritage trees.
This is a typical late nineteenth century one and a half storey cottage, with large central dormer and concave verandah. The majority of the subsequent large addition, extending from the rear/south of the original homestead, was created by the mid twentieth century. There are several similar style and era timber buildings represented on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero within the wider Nelson region, at places such as Brightwater, Motueka and Uruwhenua. The house at 93 Champion Road is the only example in Richmond and is a legacy of the previously strong horticultural focus of the area.
The east Waimea plain was surveyed to create accommodation blocks in 1842. These were 50 acre rural sections allocated to new settlers as part of the New Zealand Company’s land package. With its fertile soil, orchards characterised the Waimea plains from the Nelson settlement’s inception. The Crown Grant for 93 Champion Road’s original section was issued in 1871 to important early settler, explorer and surveyor, Thomas Brunner (1821–1874), who had recently retired. At the time he lived at Brookside in Nelson, but he had various land holdings, such as this Richmond property. Thomas’ wife Jane subdivided the property after his death.
It is likely that 93 Champion Road’s house was constructed around the time the Eyles family acquired the property in 1875. William Eyles (1823–1875) was a young agricultural labourer when he arrived in Nelson in 1842. His family retained the property until 1903 when it was sold to Samuel George Woods (1851?–1910). Woods worked in the North Island before coming to the Nelson region, where he learnt orchardist skills in Stoke and then purchased the Richmond house and orchard. The next owners, from 1912, were James Francis Childs’ (1869?–1961) family. The property was referred to as Stepaside by the early 1920s. The Childs were active in the wider Nelson community, through the Anglican church, charitable activities and the local fruitgrowers’ association. In 1941 the property passed to their daughter Lorna (1900–1990) and her husband Frank Fullford, a local farmer.
During the Childs/Fullfords’ ownership, orchards were becoming increasingly concentrated further from Nelson, in places like Moutere. Lorna sold the orchard section after Frank died and retained the house until the 1980s. This area of Richmond retained its rural character until residential subdivision intensified in the late twentieth and the early twenty-first centuries, such as at the former Stepaside orchard. The remaining homestead section is comparatively large, with mature plantings include heritage trees.
This is a typical late nineteenth century one and a half storey cottage, with large central dormer and concave verandah. The majority of the subsequent large addition, extending from the rear/south of the original homestead, was created by the mid twentieth century. There are several similar style and era timber buildings represented on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero within the wider Nelson region, at places such as Brightwater, Motueka and Uruwhenua. The house at 93 Champion Road is the only example in Richmond and is a legacy of the previously strong horticultural focus of the area.
