Grant considered for historic Tiptree Cottage
Share this story
A trust hoping to re-open historic Tiptree Cottage to the public as a living museum has applied for a heritage incentive grant from the Christchurch City Council.
Tiptree Cottage, in Savills Rd, Harewood, dates back to the 1860s and is one of the few surviving examples of a colonial cob farmhouse.
Built as the home of pioneer farmer William Savill and his family, the cottage is classed as a Category 1 building by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (HNZPT).
Tiptree Cottage dates back to the 1860s.
The Savills immigrated to Canterbury in 1851 and spent most of their first decade in the province in Riccarton where William established a brewery and malthouse. In 1861 the family bought 61 acres of land in Harewood and built Tiptree Cottage.
Their farm was one of the first in Canterbury to use irrigation, with the Savills diverting water from the Waimakariri River using a system of channels and furrows.
William Savill died in 1868 but his family continued to live at Tiptree Cottage and farm the property until the 1920s, when it was leased by the neighbouring farmer, Spencer Whyte.
The Whytes bought the property in 1939 but did not live in the homestead. Unemployed labourers lived there for a period, after which it was abandoned and used only to store hay and shear sheep.
In the 1960s the farm was bought by George Gregg who, along with his builder son, Bruce, restored the cottage and began opening it to the public. The Gregg family subdivided the cottage from the farm and in 2010 set up the Tiptree Cottage Trust to maintain and administer it.
The cottage was moderately damaged in the earthquakes and needs about $237,000 worth of work done on it before the trust can realise its plan to re-open it to the public as a living museum.
The trust has already secured a $45,000 grant from HNZPT and is now seeking a heritage incentive grant from the Council.
On April 5 the Council's Social and Community Development Committee voted unanimously to recommend the Council's give a grant of up to $117,480.