Why is this place significant?

Why is this place Category 1 / Category 2?

The Kakahu River runs through a rocky gorge area and then through a productive valley in South Canterbury, inland from Winchester. The original Kakahu run was taken up in 1853 by Captain Richard Westenra with other farming settlers following into the district, exploring it carefully and gaining knowledge of the natural resources available. Kakahu was prized by Maori as a food gathering area and there are several rock art sites in the region. Geologically the place is significant as it goes back 310 million years with rock outcrops, the oldest in Canterbury, containing unique fossils of long extinct marine creatures. Stories have been told of early European settlers seeking gold, oil and even opals here, though the only substantiated finds are of a few 'pea sized' gold nuggets . A good clay for brick making was also available, but through the latter decades of the nineteenth century it was the rich limestone deposits which brought activity to Kakahu. Lime burning is an ancient practice with the Cretan civilisation using lime as masonry mortar some 3,000 years ago. It was widely used by Roman times and the first record of kilns built for burning lime is 184 BC. Various shapes and types of kilns developed, the most common in new Zealand being the 'pot kiln' in which the fuel was layered at the bottom and the lime stone added at the top. It was convenient to locate the pot kilns adjacent to a hill for ease of top loading, with the construction sometimes being partly integrated into the hillside itself. In the United States these were referred to as 'groundhog' kilns. The lime burning industry was widespread throughout New Zealand in the nineteenth century, providing both an integral component of the traditional mortar used for bonding masonry and brick work and later, lime for agricultural purposes. Three kilns had been constructed in Nelson by 1843 and numerous others were constructed through the country, though not a great number have survived . Demand for lime for building purposes led to the limestone/marble country of the Kakahu Valley and Gorge becoming the centre of a thriving lime-burning (and brick-making) industry from the 1860s. The lime industry began here in 1867 when George Meredith started burning limestone which produced an adequate but relatively low quality building lime. In 1874 Alexander Fergusson, a Scottish stonemason, in partnership with George Munro, a monumental sculptor, established the 'Pioneer Limekiln, Kakahu' close to marble outcrops from which a superior grade of lime could be obtained, as it was 95 per cent pure carbonate of lime. They advertised their product as 'the best lime ever used in Canterbury' . There are records of a total of six lime kilns operating at Kakahu through the 1870s, though establishing their precise history has been a continuing challenge to the NZHPT since 1970 because of a dearth of documentation . There is documentation for the establishment of the Walker and McDougall kiln in an article published in the Timaru Herald on 30 January, 1880. It states that the two men, 'who have been burning lime in the Kakahu Gorge for some time have lately built a new kiln close to the quarry whence they obtain their stone for burning'. The item describes the kiln and the site, confirming that this surviving structure is the one referred to and it indicates that the two men had begun their project in 1879. The two stone masons had travelled together from Scotland on the 'Canterbury', arriving in Lyttelton on 3 September 1874. They have been credited with building the Halls Road (Cat. I) kiln, which is of very similar construction though there is some dispute about its date. It may have been built in 1876, in which case the contract for this kiln could have brought Walker and McDougall to the area. Another date suggested for the Hall's Road structure is 1881 which does not discount the two masons having built it . Information on an old map at LINZ shows that in 1877 McDougall leased 26 acres of land which had been granted to the Superintendent of the Canterbury Provincial Council for Educational purposes. This land was to the north of the Hanging Rock-Winchester Road opposite where the Fergusson and Munro kiln was sited. (See sketch map, p.27). It is not known what the reason was for leasing this land. Perhaps they were working on other projects in the area and perhaps they considered building a kiln for themselves here, and then obtained access to the site closer to the quarry. During their time at Kakahu their occupation was given as 'lime-burners' in LINZ records. It has been difficult to unravel the ownership of the land concerned as the quarry was on one title, owned by Henry Le Cren, whereas the kiln and associated buildings are on the adjoining land then owned by John Studholme and Joseph Banks. Walker and McDougall never had title for the kiln site, but they did purchase the 20 acre (8.09 hectares) quarry block on terms in 1881, mortgaging it to John Shears in that year. In 1888 John Shears' son Benjamin foreclosed on the mortgage, repossessing the quarry property and selling it to David Ross, a land broker. The association of its builders with the kiln and quarry may well have ceased at this time, as both had apparently shifted from the area by the mid-1890s. Ross later went bankrupt, and in 1893 the quarry block was sold to William Studholme (the son of John Studholme), who had sub-divided the kiln block on a separate two acre (0.8 hectare) title in 1892. Studholme sold the quarry block to Benjamin Shears in 1896, but retained the kiln block and rights of access to the quarry . It seems probable that the kiln continued to operate after Walker and McDougall's time, because of the agreement with Benjamin Shears for continued access to the quarry and the subdivision of the kiln site in1892. Although there is no documentary evidence to support Shears' involvement, in 1973 the Shears family held a reunion at the lime kiln site, claiming that the kiln, dwelling and stables were associated with their ancestor. Shears was a brick maker whose brickworks in Timaru were described in 1876 as 'the largest in South Canterbury' . His interest in the quarry site may well have been more closely concerned with the availability of good quality clay for brick making. There is no evidence that Studholme or his agents used the kiln either, and as profits for lime burning decreased through the 1890s (with the increased use of cement for the building industry) it seems likely that a suggested date of c.1904 for the cessation of operations is reasonable. A recorded recollection is that after the kiln closed the adjacent buildings were used in conjunction with a coaching business, but the out of the way location of the buildings makes this unlikely . By 1904 some of the other Kakahu kilns had already failed and been dismantled, in some cases because the hardness of the 'marble' made the quarrying and crushing of the raw material too labour intensive and costly. There have been several changes in ownership of the Walker and McDougall kiln site through the 20th century. When Ian Morrison purchased his farm block in 1966 he drew the attention of the South Canterbury Branch Committee to the two surviving Kakahu kilns on his property and suggested their preservation. The Halls Road example was chosen because of its easy access sited alongside the relatively busy Halls Road, its good state of repair and its imposing appearance. The NZHPT classified the kiln 'B' (Category I), the site was gazetted a historic reserve on 12 March, 1976 and an interpretive panel was erected. It was always intended that the other kiln, Walker and McDougall, which is of similar significance, should be added to the NZHPT Register.

The 8.9 metre high round kiln is built into the rocky hillside so that only the thick, outer circular wall had to be constructed of random rubble stone. Two heavy stone flanking buttresses support the structure at the base and there are two smaller ones further up the hillside. The main body of the hollow pot-shaped kiln is of random blocks of stone with a demarcation at mid-height where larger regularly shaped stones are used and the arched opening to the firing chamber at the base is similarly defined. The kiln's interior is brick-lined. Because the opening at the top of the kiln was directly accessed from the hill top, no connecting ramp was required as at the nearby Halls Road kiln which is a free standing structure adjacent to the hill side. The 'L' shaped stable/dwelling building is sited some three metres from the kiln, and consists of five rooms, the largest being the stable, and the smaller rooms living quarters for the workmen. The building's walls were constructed of stone rubble with dressed limestone blocks used for the doors and windows. The walls now remain approximately 1.9 metres high. There is no knowledge of the roof's material as no elements have been discovered on site. It was probably corrugated iron on a timber frame, removed in the past for re-use elsewhere. CURRENT PHYSICAL CONDITION: The kiln is largely intact though some deterioration has been noted over the past 30 years. The adjacent building is a roofless ruin. In 1992 a Task Force Green project removed weeds and gorse from the buildings and site, reducing the progress of decay.

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A fully referenced registration report is available from the NZHPT Southern region office Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rarangi Korero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions.