New owner Isobel Creswell (left) and publican Bronwynne Bowles are preparing to open The Woolshed at Hunterville's Station Hotel. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown
New owner Isobel Creswell (left) and publican Bronwynne Bowles are preparing to open The Woolshed at Hunterville's Station Hotel. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown
Rangitīkei town Hunterville has a new pub celebrating the area’s shearing and farming identity.
The Station Hotel, built in 1885 on its current site, has a new owner and bar aimed at adding to the town’s revitalisation.
Isobel Creswell has taken over from previous owners Sandy and Bryon Beaman.
href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/whanganui-chronicle/news/huntervilles-station-hotel-on-the-market-for-first-time-in-21-years/JISZX7K3VFC3ZK4T3VTYFCW66Q/" target="_self" rel="" title="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/whanganui-chronicle/news/huntervilles-station-hotel-on-the-market-for-first-time-in-21-years/JISZX7K3VFC3ZK4T3VTYFCW66Q/">The Beamans owned the property since 2003 and completed renovations to put “the old girl right”.
Cresswell credited the previous owners’ “amazing job” of restoring the building and their long tenure.
Creswell said the new bar was for everyone and hoped it would give the community a revitalised space to socialise.
It will mainly open on weekends, with live music most weekends and brunch and lunch options.
The existing Station Hotel bar would remain open during the week, Creswell said.
The Woolshed is shearing and farming inspired, with tallies, station stencil and other memorabilia scattered through the pub. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown
“I’m excited because I like making something work and it will be good for the community,” she said.
“It will be good to service the brunchers, the lunchers, the live music and the children and families.
“That is pretty cool to be able to do that – it gives you a bit of a kick.”
Creswell said The Woolshed would be dedicated to the “hard-working shearers and farmers”.
“Once you are a shearer, you are always a shearer,” she said.
“These are good people here. They have been very supportive and happy with the changes that we are making.”
Shearers have been donating memorabilia to the new bar since learning of the plans, with tallies, historic station stencils and photographs on the bar’s walls.
