Teenage first-home buyer relocating and restoring one of this town's oldest homes

A petite three-bedroom cottage, thought to be one of the oldest in its Wellington neighbourhood, has been lifted off the land where it has stood for at least 160 years.

Its new owner, 19-year-old apprentice builder Taylor Henderson, plans to relocate it from Lower Hutt to a section in Featherston and restore it to its former glory.

The first home buyer could not be more stoked with his purchase. “I’ve always had the idea to get an older house,” he said.

The cottage, which formerly sat on a corner site at the High Street and Daysh Street intersection in Lower Hutt, Wellington, could be one of the oldest surviving and unaltered pioneer cottages in the area.

A settler called John Clement was living in the house in the late 1850s, according to records, though it is not completely clear when the home was first built.

But it has not been heritage listed. “The cottage was assessed by Historic Places Trust (now Heritage NZ Pouhere Taonga) in the early 1990s and at the time a decision was made not to list the building, despite its age,” said Felicity Wong, chairwoman of Historic Places Wellington.

It also does not appear to be protected under the Hutt District Plan.

Henderson planned to preserve the home, although he needed to move it further north to in order to afford a piece of land to put it on. The house will enjoy a short stint in storage until he finds it a new location in the country.

“I absolutely did not want a new house. Old houses have got more style and love in them,” he said. “I like the character and style of old things. I’ve got an old car too – a 1957 Vauxhall Victor.”

He declined to say how much he paid for the house, but said “it’s been hard-earned money well-spent”.

His plan was to keep as many of the original features as possible and Henderson was most excited about sanding back and varnishing the tongue and groove hardwood. “That will look really, really nice.”

The original wallpaper and a couple of other details may have to go so that he can bring the building up to council standards: “But I’m young and eager to get my hands dirty.”

Henderson left school early to start on his trade, and has been building for almost three years. He is the second oldest of four brothers, but the first to reach for the property ladder.

History of the home

Records indicate that the house was lived in by John Clement in 1859, but he was not the original owner-occupier, according to historian and author George Kaye.

Over the years, it has been suggested that early settlers John and Eliza Daysh, who arrived in New Zealand on the Gertude ship in the early 1840s and had 14 children, may have been the cottage’s first owners, but this is disputed. John and Eliza later settled in the Hutt Valley, farming on land now occupied by Naenae College.

“Whether [the house] was occupied by and belonged to the Daysh family is a question that remains unanswered,” wrote Kaye in 1949.

In the 1990s, two Daysh great-great grandchildren, Ron and Christina Powell of Belmont, said they believed the house had belonged to their family, and wanted to see it listed and looked after.

“Even if it’s not the Daysh cottage it’s still a historic place, and it would be great to preserve it,” Ron told Hutt News at the time.

But Lindsay Daysh, of Incite resource management consultancy and a “great-great-something” descendant, is convinced the cottage that Henderson bought was not occupied by his family.

“It’s something that has gone into local folklore because the house is on Daysh Street, but the council records of our family home show a layout that is completely different to the cottage, and a house that looked completely different,” he said.

An 1855 map also shows the original Daysh homestead was on a site further north, he said, which was demolished in the 1960s. “It’s well gone.”

Either way, the High Street cottage which Henderson has bought “looks to be very old and might compare to the oldest surviving buildings in Wellington City,” said Wong. She was sad to see it moved from its current site.

Local historical groups had been trying to “save” the building for many years, but an earlier project to shift it to a site near the historic Taita Church (also connected with the Daysh family) fell through, she said.

“The early pioneering history of the Hutt is being erased by ‘progress’ and development, and by the need for new housing,” Wong said. “Many old buildings end up being shifted to the Wairarapa.

“It is a shame we don’t make space for them in our modern environment.

“It’s good the building is not being demolished, which would be the total destruction of the memory, but by shifting it, the links with its family and the people of that place are nonetheless erased.”

The sellers of the cottage have also been approached for comment.