For Sale

Stafford Place


Redwood Road, Appleby

Nelson, New Zealand

Area 5.3924 hectares

Contact

Michael Mokhtar

Harcourts, Richmond, Nelson

Email Address:
Phone:
Mobile:

mokhtar@xtra.co.nz
03 544 4441
027 443 2703

Link: www.harcourts.co.nz  
Quicksearch Number RC2442


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.   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.

Main Lounge Main Lounge Hallway
Stairs Lounge & TV Room Bedroom 1
Bedroom 2 Bedroom 2 Bedroom 3
Bedroom 4 Bedroom 1 en-suite Bedroom 1 en-suite

Stable Block

     
 

 

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.


Garage

     
Double garage, office, store room and wood storage with a total area of 85 sq m. New weather board walls and automatic doors.


Woolshed

     
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

 

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.

     


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

   
We grow potatoes and onions between the olives    

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.

Sheep Gum Tree
Swimming hole at Waimea River    

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

     

    Location


    Stafford Place is down a 400m drive lined with olive and native trees on one side and a leylandii hedge on the other. The house is surrounded by old blue gums, oaks and native trees and is far away enough from roads to be peaceful and quiet. Very safe for children and pets.

    Nelson is one of the most attractive and safest places in the world to live. Our sunshine hours average 2400 per annum. Our average summer temperature is 21.5 degrees C and winter averages 12.8 C. Annual rainfall is 970mm. The population of the Nelson Province is 90,000, 2.1% of New Zealand’s population of 4,300,000. The total for the South Island is about 1,000,000, so there is plenty of room.

    • Appleby primary school is 5 minutes away with Waimea College 15 minutes. There is a pre-school and local sports ground 5 minutes from here.

    • Our quality of life is unbeatable, with uncrowded beaches, forests and national parks.. Just down the road, 4 km from Stafford Place is 10km of unspoiled beach on Rabbit Island, deserted most of the time.

    • The nearest house to Stafford Place is about 200m. To the south there is a 24ha vineyard, to the west is a mixed sheep and cattle farm, and to the east is one of Nelsons biggest apple orchards. On the other side of Redwood Road are large vineyards and a dairy farm.

    • We are 45 minutes from the Abel Tasman National Park with golden sand beaches and forest walks.

    • An hour's drive gets you into the Kahurangi National Park where an easy hour's walk takes you to the snowline of Mt. Arthur.

    • Our swimming hole in the Waimea River is 5 minutes away.

    • Golden Bay is a two hour drive and Farewell Spit about three.

    • South of Stafford Place an hour and a half’s drive takes you to Lake Rotoiti and the head of the Buller River in the St Arnaud National Park.

    • The Marlborough Sounds are two hours drive from here with marinas at Havelock and Picton. Nelson City has two very secure marinas.

    • Bests Island golf course is 10 minutes away.

    • The equestrian centre on Rabbit Island is a five minute drive.

    • Richmond, our local shopping centre, is 10 minutes drive from Stafford Place and Nelson City is 25 minutes away. Our local airport is a 20 minute drive. If you need an international flight there are Wellington and Christchurch airports with very regular local connections.

    • We have a great licensed restaurant just around the corner, a pub 3km away and a vineyard restaurant 1km from here.
     

    Google Earth Coordinates:

for Stafford Place:

-41° 18' 23.84", S
+173° 6' 8.83" E

Rabbit Island beach:

-41° 15' 51.70",S
+173° 9' 6.57"E

Equestrian centre:

-41° 16' 29.16",S
+173° 7' 7.61"E

Bests Island golf course:

-41° 17' 26.23",S
+173° 9' 8.20"E


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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