Wairau Valley

This story will cover an area on the south side of the Wairau River from the Waihopai Valley to the Wash and across the river to Northbank. 

In the middle of the 19^th Century, a village, to be known as Tewkesbury, was planned for the middle of the Wairau Valley.  About 400 acres were allotted to George Freeman of Gloucestershire, who did not come to New Zealand but bought the land in the New Zealand Company’s Nelson settlement as an investment.¹

By 1850, settlers in the valley included E.D. Sweet at Hillersden, C.F. Watts at Lansdowne, D. Monro at Bankhouse and C.A. Dillon at Leafield.  Many of the sons and daughters from the small holdings in the area worked on the larger estates.²

The 1906 Cyclopedia of New Zealand described the Wairau Valley as the centre of an extensive sheep farming and flax milling district with a church, school, hotel, post and telegraph office. The Hillersden Flaxmill was the leading flaxmill in the province, employing 25 people.  Most of the flax came from the Hillersden Station, a 155,000 acre farm at the head of the Acheron River.

In 1906, the flaxmill and farm were owned by the Carter Brothers,³ but soon the Lands for Settlement Act (1894) required the breakup of the estate to meet the demand for land as New Zealand’s population grew.⁴  It appears the manager of Hillersden (possibly Ernie Williams featured in the photograph on the left) was discourteous to Government officials who inspected the property in 1911.⁵   In 1913, following the Government purchase of the estate, the Hillersden flaxmill was accused of not shutting down during the winter to give the green fibre a chance to rest: “When the small settlers come onto their sections…..flax would not be ‘fit to cut for the next five years.”⁶

In 1914 it was reported there were 2588 applicants for 43 Hillersden sections, with the land ballot held on 5 March, 1914.⁷  Descendants of some of these families still farm in the area today. They include the: Scherps (The Springs), Rentouls (Wye Hills), Fowlers (The Bounds) and Slow/Andersons (Anderbrook).⁸

Working on the land or in a flaxmill could be dangerous.  In 1892, “Arthur Hoase - whose arm was torn from the socket by the scutcher in a flax mill in Wairau Valley - died on the way to the hospital.”⁹  Hillersden settler, Frank Newcombe was killed in 1933. “He was rolling a field when his horses bolted, threw him from the seat and dragged the roller over him….cause of death was a fractured skull.¹⁰  In 1924, Thomas Jones lost his left hand in a chaff cutter at Hillersden.¹¹  

As settlers came into the valley, they worked hard and made their own fun.  There were races in the valley from the 1880s,² cricket matches were played at various locations¹³ and the Scottish community extended a ‘Caledonian welcome’ to a Scottish concert at Hillersden in 1918. “A large number of Scots and their friends from Seddon, Blenheim and surrounding districts made the journey by motor-car…...”¹⁴

After World War 1, the community raised about £500 to build a hall in the Wairau Valley township to commemorate the celebration of peace. Settlers from throughout the district attended the opening, which featured a minstrel troupe, a concert, a supper and a dance.  The Marlborough Express noted: “The building, one can see at a glance, is there to stay, being stoutly built and large enough to accommodate a gathering of substantial dimensions.”¹⁵  The hall in Morse Street is still used by the community.

A meeting was called by the Wairau Valley Settlers’ Association in the Hillersden Hall in July 1920 to discuss the construction of a light railway line between Blenheim and Birch Hill - again a project which did not come to fruition.¹⁸

Northbank across the Wairau River had schools, flaxmills, farms, gold mining and a lively community life.  Twice weekly an open coach left Wairau Valley at 5.30am, drawn by two heavy horses.  Mail and passengers were collected from Northbank and taken to the Wairau Valley from where a service left for Blenheim at 10am.  Travelling at 8-10 miles/hr the trip took three hours.

The mail and passenger service was run by Henry and Fanny Wadsworth who lived in the coach house in Church Lane.  Fording the Wairau River could be dangerous and Henry wrote of his closest call: “The river rose…and I knew it had got deep. I went in upstream of the ford so that I would come out in the right place, but the horses missed their footing and missed the get-out point.  We floated downstream quite a distance and were lucky to get clear.” ¹⁹

For more on the Wairau Valley read Stella Wadsworth's story: A Woman of the Wairau

2014 (updated 2021)

Story by: Joy Stephens