Fiona Wycks and Anna Crighton05:00, May 29 2021
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Severely damaged by the Kaikōura earthquake, Montrose Station Homestead was designed by architect Cecil Wood at a time when he was considered the leading domestic architect in Canterbury.
After Covid-19 restrictions last year saw the Canterbury Heritage Awards diverge from their usual biennial format, the awards return on June 11. Fiona Wycks, of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, and historian Anna Crighton highlight some finalists. In Canterbury and Christchurch the 10-year timeframe, symbolic as a clear demarcation between pre and post 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, reveals an optimism which has inspired us to relish and celebrate our cultural heritage.
The builder was Rene Voets, with input by conservation consultant architect Tony Ussher. The cottage has a Category 2 heritage listing with Pouhere Taonga Heritage New Zealand. Its extensive renovation has made it a finalist in the 2021 Canterbury Heritage Awards, in the “domestic saved and restored” category. The house is at the beginning of the Bridle Path, the track taken by early settlers over the Port Hills to Christchurch. The trek from Lyttelton took about four to five hours in the mid-19th century.
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This photograph of Lyttelton, showing Islay Cottage at left, is thought to have been taken in about 1905.
The other finalists in the category are Islay Cottage, Montrose Station Homestead, The Britten Stables and Thornton Earl Manor. The Barkers, Michael and wife Brigitte, bought the building, the former St Mary’s Church Vicarage, in December 2017. It is a category two listed heritage building, opening it as accommodation in October 2019. The heritage competition attracted more than 60 entries, with a judging panel of four selecting 30 finalists. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on June 11, in the Christ s College dining hall. Judges were Andrew Coleman – Chief Executive of Heritage New Zealand; Ivan Thomson – an urban and regional planner and Fellow Member of the New Zealand Planning Institute; Clare Kelly – an architect specialising in Heritage Conservation; and Andrew Marriott – a structural and civil engineer and director at Batchelar McDougall Consulting.