Airlie Mount Homestead looking for new owners

Airlie Mount, Waipukurau, after a snowfall in 1926.

The origin of Airlie Mount’s name has been lost in the mists of time, but family who grew up in the much-loved historic home have solid memories of the house and its magical gardens.

A Waipukurau icon, Airlie Mount Homestead is up for sale, 144 years after it was built on the corner of Porangahau Road and Ruataniwha Street by Cole Brothers Builders and Joiners.

The home was built for Alexander Jones and his wife Jessie. Jones emigrated from Scotland to work for Waipukurau founder Henry Russell as a blacksmith and wheelwright and later worked selling farm implements to the runholders in Central Hawke’s Bay.

Blacksmithing must have been a lucrative career, as the home has a formal dining room, traditional front parlour, billiard room, five bedrooms (three upstairs, two down) and two bathrooms. A sweeping stairwell of native timber connects the two levels, while the fretwork-adorned verandas wrap around the north and east-facing sides.

Airlie Mount in 1980.

Now an Historic Place Category 2-listed property, a little-known nod to Airlie Mount’s historical legacy remains with titled alleyway access through to the main street.

For 49 years Airlie was home to the late former Waipukurau mayor Harry Winlove, his wife Joan and their family.

The Winloves originally lived on Herbert Street, with members of the extended family having homes and businesses all along the road. But after a devastating flood in 1938, Harry and his family headed uphill, buying Airlie.

“It was very much a family home,” says Harry and Joan’s son, George Winlove.

“There was no service lane then, just trees all the way to the back of the shops. We made tree huts with Morse code systems between the huts. There’s a massive tree on the corner - it has a covenant on it now - that we used to climb. We hammered railway spikes into the trunk so we could climb to the first branches.”

Despite being right next to Waipukurau School, the children were forbidden to play on the school grounds.

“You got the strap for that,” says George.

Many celebrations have been held in Airlie Mount’s formal dining room. Photo / Finn Kennedy

“I remember playing tennis on the school grounds and getting called to the headmaster’s office on Monday and getting the strap. Yet we had a trolley cart with a lawnmower motor on it and we hooned around the school towing each other, and strangely there was no strap for that one.”

There were consequences when the trolley was driven across Bedford Terrace and on to Wellington Road.

“We got pulled up by the traffic officer. He spoke to my father and was told, ‘Go and take it up with his uncle George - he built it!’”

Despite living next to the school, George was always late. “The late Mrs Winlove was disorganised.”

There were pets, chooks and possums, “a farmyard in the centre of town” and a huge terraced vegetable garden on the eastern side of the house. Rows and rows of vegetables that Harry gave away all over town.

George remembers a huge garden party with all the councillors when Harry was elected mayor of Waipukurau. There were other parties too; weddings, anniversaries, 21sts and garden parties, Tommy Adderley and his band coming up from Wellington and playing on the lawn. “Everybody dressed up and dancing.”

The house was a social hub. Many country friends would call in for a cuppa when they came to town... it was a long journey to town on shingle roads, and cafes were few.

“Dad had made alterations to the house - moved the kitchen to the front, which left the old kitchen at the back ideal for a flat. There were bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. The flat was let to young people - teachers, dental nurses, a banker all came and went. We had a teacher and a nurse staying there when two of our country boys came to visit - two brothers. They met the girls and the result was two weddings.

The traditional front parlour at Airlie Mount. Photo / Finn Kennedy

Two students from Kenya boarded in the flat while they did their final college years at Waipukurau High School. They went on to study at Victoria University and one became an engineer in Nairobi.

George says Harry was an incorrigible joker.

“He was renowned for scaring children. School students who kicked a ball into the garden of Airlie Mount were terrified to ask for it back - he played the grumpy old man very well. He’d scare grandchildren with his roars of ‘Who’s been eating my porridge!?’

A sweeping stairwell of native timber connects the two levels of the historic home. Photo / Finn Kennedy

“We children weren’t entirely innocent of scare tactics. There was a door on the east side of the building that led under the house foundations - sort of a tool shed. We’d take unsuspecting children there and make ghost noises.

“Actually, there are no ghosts in the house. To me, even though it’s had three owners since my parents, it’s still home.

“When we had a 150th celebration for our business, we arranged with Airlie Mount’s owners to take the family through for a tour. Many of the younger ones hadn’t seen it.

“It would be great to see it continue its legacy as a wonderful family home.”