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For Sale
Stafford
Place
Redwood Road, Appleby
Nelson, New Zealand
Area 5.3924 hectares |
Contact
Michael Mokhtar
Harcourts, Richmond, Nelson
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| Construction
is of kauri, totara and matai, New Zealand’s premium
building timbers. It sits on brick foundations
with matai bearers. The floors are also of matai,
30mm thick and as good as the day they were laid.
The staircase and banisters are kauri and were
said to have been carved in Britain and reassembled
here, but we have no evidence of that. Where we
have stripped the wall lining to install a new
kitchen and en suite bathroom the studs were found
to be 6”x 3” heart totara and matai at 15” centres,
without any trace of borer. The wall lining is
lathe and plaster. Doors are of totara.The house
is massively over strength to withstand earthquakes,
of which there have been many during its lifetime. The house has a burglar alarm system and hard wired fire alarms. New fuse box, wiring and meters have recently been installed. Broadband communications are available. |
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Stafford Place, built in 1866 by the Redwood family, is one of the few remaining well preserved historic houses in Nelson.
New Zealand Historic Place Trust has recently granted Stafford Place Category One historic building status and classifies it as a “New Zealand Carpenter Gothic” style dwelling.
To quote Historic Places Trust this does not “create regulatory consequences or legal obligations on the property owner.” Also it “can provide heritage funding opportunities.”
A full description of the house and its history has been prepared by the NZHPT and is available on request. |
House
Interior
The fitted kitchen is 12 months old. The
bench top is Corian and molded in one piece with a double sink
bowl. The stove is a gas/electric Rangemaster, with double oven,
warming plate and five gas burners.The drawers are the magic type
that close themselves. There is a marble slab in one of the under-sink
cupboards, used for thawing and storing. The breadmaker stows
away on a hinged shelf.The kitchen looks out onto the garden and
lawn.
The original stable block
was built around 1850 from bricks made in the Redwood’s own kiln.
In 1929 it was damaged by a massive earthquake and demolished.
Its replacement was on the same footprint but of timber and corrugated
iron. In 2006 we started restoration of the building to put it
back to its 1850s glory, based on photos from the Nelson museum.
Two years and 12,000 bricks later it was completed. Much of the
original heart matai timber has been used for the interior framing
as it was in perfect condition. Bracing is heart rimu salvaged
from a woolshed on DÚrville Island. The total floor area is 190
sq m. Three phase power is installed.
So far we have used it
for private weddings and parties but with local council consent
and additional work it could be used for other purposes.
Double garage, office,
store room and wood storage with a total area of 85 sq m. New
weather board walls and automatic doors.
Built we think about 1950.
It is rimu framed with a corrugated iron roof and has a floor
area of 90 sq m. A lean-to roof attached to it gives a further
60 sq m for tractor and equipment storage. The floor and piles
were replaced 5 years ago. It has a large solid work bench down
one side. There is 3 phase power to the shed. Good place to build
a boat.
Woodshed
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This is 23 sq m and takes about
5 years worth of firewood. There is 1-2 years supply of
blue gum and oak left in the shed and would go to the purchaser.
There are dead, dry blue gums left standing and will supply
firewood for years to come.
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Water supply
Water is from our own well
and provides superb drinking water. The aquifer is only down 10
feet into shingle and has never been know to dry up. We have an
allocation of 1295 cubic metres a week, which far exceeds any
possible requirements. We have two 50mm mains from the pump house
feeding a dripper system to 80% of the olives. The flower garden
has sprinkers installed.
Looking to the future Tasman District Council is building a large
water storage dam in the foothills to release into the aquifer
during dry spells.
The Olive Grove
We have surrounded the property
with 750 olive trees and another 80 down the drive. They are
mainly Italian and Spanish varieties, leccino, pendolino, frantoio,
minerva and manzanillos. The manzanillos are pickling olives and
the others are for oil production. Harvest starts in autumn.
We have shares in a coop
oil press which would be passed on to a purchaser
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| We grow potatoes and onions
between the olives |
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Garden & Surrounds
We have native tuis, fantails,
wax eyes and up to 20 white faced herons roosting in our trees.
The garden is full of blackbirds, thrushes, swallows and sparrows.
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| Swimming hole at Waimea
River |
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Rabbit Island
Great for recreation, walking the dog or
riding your horse. Safe clean beach 10km long.
Machinery included in the Sale
- Iseki 6500 tractor with Roll Over Protection
- Grader blade
- Trimax 2.82 orchard mower
- Front End Loader
- 400 Litre orchard sprayer
- PTO compressor and pneumatic olive rake
- Olive picking nets & Olinet harvester
- Heavy duty ripper & pipe layer
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Click to Enlarge
History
The Redwood family,
from Tixall in Staffordshire, arrived in Nelson in 1842
with eight children, lived in a 60 foot tent for a year
while they cleared the land and built a rammed earth house,
which survived until the 1929 earthquake. The present Stafford
Place homestead adjoined the original building. The youngest
Redwood son, Francis, became the Catholic church’s youngest
archbishop and died as the oldest. The eldest son, Henry,
bred race horses and was responsible for establishing racing
in Nelson. He shipped horses to Australia and raced them
in the Melbourne Cup on several occasions. His stables were
demolished brick by brick and rebuilt as the Stables Restaurant
in Richmond around 1990. The Redwoods were very successful
farmers and left Nelson in 1877 and moved to Marlborough
where they increased their land holdings. A son-in-law,
Joseph Ward, who traveled out with them to New Zealand,
became the local MP.
The rose gardens surrounding the north and west sides of
the house were planted 60 years ago and are old English
varieties.
Author Linda Burgess
recently published a book entitled Historic Houses, a guide
to early New Zealand houses and described Stafford Place
as “one of the prettiest houses we saw on our travels, and
exquisitely restored, Stafford Place’s charm is not only
in its graceful storybook gabled roofline and delicate verandah,
but in its beautiful detail”.
In 2002 we won Tasman
District Council’s Heritage Structures Environment Award
for restoration work on the house and grounds.
Possibilities
Holiday accommodation
could be built on an area near the property entrance. Local
council have been approached in the past and gave tacit
consent.
We operate Stafford
Place as a B&B. This enterprise could be expanded as
we do not spend much time on promotion. Our main push has
been with the UK market through the Greenwood Guide. www.greenwoodguides.com
If olives were of no
interest the land could be used as a vineyard or to grow
fijoas or other crops.
Should the property
be used for agricultural or business purposes Goods &
Services Tax (VAT) can be claimed back.
Links
www.doc.govt.nz
for national parks and recreation
www.tdc.govt.nz
for local authority, Tasman District Council
www.nelsonnz.com/nelson
introduction to Nelson
www.maps.google.com
Google Maps
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