History of the land
Conveyed rural section 193 to Augustus Alport, being highest bidder for £150. The size of Rural Section 193 (RS 193) was 50 acres. Alport subdivided his section; in 1859 he sold part of RS 193 to William Oldfield a farmer for the sum of £100.
Between the years 1859 and 1868 Oldfield built the house that still stands. William Oldfield is recorded as owning land on RS 193, 501 and 1, the latter with a garden and grazing land and RS 193 had a house and paddock.
'The Story Of Lyttelton’ (1952) J. Johnson p.231 dates the house at the end of Cornwall road at this stage in 1952 was occupied by Mrs Boyd, as being 93 years old which would mean it was built in 1859.
The 1878-1880 Burgess lists records:
- 1878 – 1879, William Oldfield farmer, house and land RS 478 and 193.
- 1879 – 1880, House and land Brenchley farm and there are by this time three properties on Brenchley farm.
Occupiers and owners
Augustus James Alport was born and married in England. He came to Lyttelton when Captain Thomas was getting the port ready for settlers and his name appears in the Canterbury Association books. He married Susannah a sister of the Bishop brothers at St Mary’s, Islington. She was born in Maidstone in September 1812. The first job the Lyttelton Times press did in Lyttelton was to print an import form for him. J.L Compton advertised in the first issue of the Lyttelton Times that he had made arrangements for the carriage of luggage from Lyttelton to Heathcote and that Alport was his agent. He was the auctioneer who sold the first town sections in Lyttelton and Christchurch.
In 1858 Alport was elected president of the Lyttelton Colonists society, which had lately received a grant from the provincial government, and had extended its library. When the Chamber of Commerce started in 1859, he was elected deputy chairman and the following year was chairman.
In September Alport leased to R.B. Dalgety and George Buckley part of town section 2 fronting Norwich Quay with a building and store on it for years. This was the beginning of Dalgety and Co. in Canterbury.
Sewell in his journal says he was a bustling active man, well to do in the world.
He was a land man, a follower of Sir George Grey. His fees for selling Church land were £135; Godley thought this was exorbitant and declined to pay them
Alport ran into trouble of some sort and disappeared from Lyttelton – the only reference was from Torlesse’s diary – ‘the Lyttelton Alport has disgraced himself and bolted’. Soon after this his brother sold his property Brenchley farm.
Alport’s wife Susannah died in Lyttelton in 1863. He had two sons, Augustus Frederick Clark and Edward Bishop. There were three daughters.
William Oldfield – Came out to Lyttelton on the Cressy in 1850 with his wife Harriet and family – Charles (4), William (2), and Charlotte. He settled in Lyttelton and worked as a day labourer, he was an industrious worker and he saved for and bought land on Mt. Pleasant with a few cows. In Lyttelton he worked up a very successful milk round, he lived at Brenchley Farm (Sons Charles and William Oldfield had a sawmill at Oxford forest.) Daughter, Charlotte married Robert Crosbie in 1867 at Little Brenchley, Lyttelton.
William Oldfield died in 1884 at Brenchley farm, Lyttelton, aged 71. His widow Harriet died in 1893 aged 76.
Oldfield sold the same land, RS 193 on which the house at 44 Cornwall Rd stands, to Captain John Scouller (Master Mariner) and his wife Caroline Anne Scouller.
In 1908 Caroline Anne Scouller sold the 44 Cornwall Rd to the Mutton Brothers, William Samuel and Albert Thomas Mutton who were builders in Lyttelton. They built on some of the land, and sold it to the Blackler’s (John Edwin and Annie) who owned Blacklers Farm at the top of neighbouring Canterbury Street. In 1924 they sold the property at 44 Cornwall Rd to the dairy farmers.
Donald John Boyd and Gladys Boyd (nee Meyrick). The Boyds had come to Lyttelton in 1910 from the Isle of Harris (Scotland). Gladys was the daughter of Mr and Mrs Meyrick of Brenchley Farm (now Brenchley House). Their daughter Kate was brought up here and remembers their original dairy house and her grandparents’ house very clearly. She and her sister used to take a billy of fresh milk from her parents dairy up to the quarry above their cottage for the quarry workers morning tea. The dormer windows facing south from the original cottage gave her and her sister a great view from their attic bedroom.
Gladys Boyd gave her time to many organisations, the North Canterbury Hospital Board, Ambulance, Fire Board, along with her work with the Maori Women's Welfare League, Labour Party.
In 1947 she and Mrs J.A. Gilmour were the first women to be elected as a Borough councillor, Gladys served on Council for eighteen years, until her death on 6th December 1966.
The Boyd Cottages are in Winchester Street, the first Council pensioners cottages that Gladys Boyd saw the need for and dedicated to her for the many years of tireless dedication to the people of Lyttelton.
Architecture
Style: Typical small timber house with a steep roof gradually sweeping to the low back of the house.
Built in c1860 and constructed with straight rough sawn clapboard. The steep pitch that the roof used to be is evident, along with the small windows and small panes, and the veranda. The south facing 2005 photo shows the original cottage much as it was before extensions were made, these are evident from the side view and are sympathetic in character and material to the original which remains central.
Internally lined with lath and plaster, covered with tongue and groove panelling and scrim and paper. The lath and plaster was sighted in the roof following the original steep line. Originally the house ended in the present hallway, and this was the site of the scullery with a door leading off it. The framework is of Kauri as are some of the floors.The attic rooms are neatly folded to the roof shape, with the two windows replaced in the style of the original ones.In other areas of the house windows were replaced with a later style casement. In the living room an original bay window remains. The panes in some of these original windows show the imperfections in early spun or blown glass and are a feature well worth preserving.
