Historic Amberley House
Amberley House was established in 1872 and even served as a school for several years. We find out a little bit about the life of this historic home.
Words: Lorna Price Photography: Lorna Price
Amberley House was first settled and farmed by John Woodhouse (senior) in 1872. Over the next 19 years he had a substantial 10-room brick house built, complete with a fruit and vegetable cool store and a dairy. There would have been an orchard and a substantial vegetable garden at the time, food production was essential to feed the growing family, the farm workers and domestic staff that all lived on site. By the time the property was sold at auction in 1891 the advertising said “no expense has been spared to surround it with every comfort and convenience”. In June of that year the Messer Burke brothers of Tai Tapu bought the property for 7425 pounds. It was Brother William along with his mother that would live at “Tarapunga”, as the property was now known. By this time the grounds were quite established and in Mrs Burke’s dairy she notes that the gardens are looking quite luxuriant with roses and ixias flowering in abundance and delicious strawberries.
In 1900 the property was sold again, this time to James Shaw who lived there for seven years. At the time of its sale in 1907 it was described as “the home being of substance and having delightful ornamental gardens.” From then on there was a succession of owners and by 1920 the property was sold to the newly formed Amberley House Girls School. The school allowed the girls to bring their ponies with them to boarding school. As the roll grew a second storey was added onto the original house and by 1927 a further third storey was added for an art room and extra class room. However, during WWII many of the girls were needed on the family farms due to the shortage of male farm labourers. So the school roll began to dwindle and in 1942 the school was sold.
The school property was then divided in two, with the house and 39 acres going to Mr Thomas Neale and Mr William James buying the other 98 acres, it seems that Mr W James may have lived in the old school buildings during this time.
In 1945 Frederick Evans Musgrove a builder from Blenheim purchased Amberley House with its 39 acres and the following year he bought back the 98 acres and old school buildings. Building materials were in short supply after WWII and it appears that the majority of the out buildings and parts of the house were asset stripped. Likely this included the milling of most of the mature trees.
More owners followed and by the time Doug Eaves bought the place in 1978 the house was in disrepair and the gardens non-existent with the paddocks, blackberryand gorse coming right up to the house. Over the next few years Doug ran a successful tree nursery and was responsible for the replanting of over 2500 trees and shrubs in the grounds around Amberley House. The lovely grounds and beautiful autumn colours we see today are a testament to his skill in the choice of plantings. Since that time Amberley house has had the good fortune to have a number of loving owners who have taken great care to renovate the house to a high standard.
Current owners Andrew and Angie Mason have been the owners and guardians of Amberley house since 2014. They run a successful sport horse stud based at Amberley House and Andrew has also recently written a book on the property – Amberley House: the story of a North Canterbury Icon.
The home and gardens will be a part of the Hurunui Garden Festival 1-3 Nov 2019.