×

 

• 

This house in 126 years old. In it live the family of Mr and Mrs R. G. Raine, the seventh generation of Saxtons to live in the home built by pioneer and noted artist and scholar, John Waring Saxton. The home and family have a fascinating history which space will prevent us from elaborating on. The home was pre-fabricated and brought to Nelson by Mr Saxton in 1842 and it has remained in the family right through the years (Mrs R. C. T. Raine, mother of the present owners, Richard and Jill Raine, was a Saxton), With the house Mr Saxton brought acorns and poplars and these have flourished. The oak grove is a particularly fine one. The original house contained 27 rooms (including servants' quarters), but Mr Raine dismantled about 14 rooms in 1942 to make the home more convenient. He lived in the house from 1929 to 1958. The original timber in it, Baltic pine, is as sound today as it was when first erected, and the Cornish slate roof is still in place. The house was once the homestead of a farm which took in 2500 acres of land in Stoke and Richmond. This fine house, a monument to early pioneers, stands at the top