×

 

• 

From the balcony of the second storey room of this house at Stoke, Captain Nicholson, owner of the property, used to sit and watch his horses training on his private race track. The main highway through Stoke passes through the race track now, but the 117-year-old home of the Captain, with its 3ft-thick cob walls, still stands. Captain Nicholson came to Nelson in his own ship, the Woodstock, in 1848, and he built his home in 1850. The house was later-bought and used by a succession of owners (Messrs Innes-Jones, Bushby, Jacka, Reynolds and lastly Mr Herbert Edward Stephens became the owner in 1920. It has been in the family ever since and today is the homestead of Mr and Mrs E. H. Stephens, orchardists, of Stoke.