Historic hall will find new purpose

It was a school for decades and has always been a community facility, now a farmer will turn it into a home, writes Joanna Davis.

Medbury Hall has been the local school, and has hosted dances, playgroups, Country Women’s Institute meetings, and Anzac Day commemorations. Now, it will be turned into a family home.

The property, at 447 Medbury Rd, in Hawarden, Canterbury, sold at auction last week to a local farmer who plans to slowly renovate it and make it a home for himself, his partner and teenage daughter.

Scott Harrison, who manages a high country cattle farm across the Hurunui River, said he bought the property as a medium-term, possibly five-year,

project. ‘‘I’m not planning on leaving where I am, but at the same time, you never know what’s around the corner. I love that place, I love the building.’’

He said he would not make changes to its exterior but had plans to make it more liveable on the interior, such as by adding a mezzanine floor at one end, and turning one of the two toilets into a bathroom.

His plans were ‘‘still a wee bit up in the air at the moment’’.

‘‘I will do something very interesting and make it a home.

The people I bought it from are happy because I don’t want to flatten it and build something fancy.’’

Harrison planned to do much of the work himself, on evenings and at weekends.

‘‘I’m going to start slowly working away at it,’’ he said.

The hall, which the real estate agent described as ‘‘famous in Medbury’’, is 134 years old, and was a rural school for the first 40 years of its existence.

Medbury School closed in 1927 after four local schools amalgamated to form one school in Hawarden.

At some point in the 1900s, the hall was bought by James Spence for £50 and donated to residents for use as a community gathering place.

It was eventually renamed Medbury Hall.

It has been a community facility for all of its existence, and was sold by trustees.

Listing agent Maria Rickerby, from PGG Wrightson Real Estate, said the trustees were ‘‘stoked with the sale’’ and that the buyer would retain the hall look but turn it into a home.

‘‘There was a huge local turnout at the auction, which was great to see,’’ she said.

Five parties bidded on the property, including one by phone from Auckland.

Medbury was once a township, but is now better described as a settlement, just off State Highway 7 near the Hurunui River.

The property’s listing suggested it would appeal to heritage-lovers.

‘‘This may just be the place to make your mark and although there is undeniably some work to be done to make this dwelling a habitable residence, with consent from the local council, the rewards would make it more than worth it.’’

Features include cathedral ceilings with exposed trusses, sash windows, timber flooring and a newly-installed log burner.

The building does not have a heritage listing. However, because the area is zoned rural, resource consent will be needed to change the use of the building.