Avebury Park Property Report

A 2-page sample from the report: a plant list of one of the garden beds. left, and a mixture of photos of the garden, both current with the report, and historical. Where possible I have replaced poor photocopies of the old photos with better quality scans.

In the Richmond History Group collection at Avebury House is a poor-quality photocopy of a detailed horticultural assessment of the grounds at Avebury. The undated report was compiled by Bede Nottingham of the Christchurch City Council and identifies individual garden borders and lists the plants in them. Unfortunately, the City Council have been unable to supply a better copy of the report, or indeed, any other information about the document — not even the year it was produced!?

The 26-page report includes 11 pages of photographs; some apparently taken at the time the report was prepared, and some being historical images of the garden — mostly taken around 1920 — when the house was still the Flesher family home. But sadly, the images have not come through the photocopy process at all well.

In the document below I have tidied up the photocopied text as best I can, but many of the images are in their photocopied state: just a batch of black blobs on white paper…a shame. However, I have been able to find better photographic copies of fourteen of the historical images in our collection, and I have super-imposed these images in the report, replacing the photocopy versions.

The report may be from the late 1990s when the City Council assumed management of Avebury House after the Youth Hostel Association ended their occupancy of the property. Or, perhaps some time earlier — who knows? Nevertheless, the document is a fascinating read for anyone interested either in the history of Avebury, or indeed in garden history in general. The historical images show how much the garden has changed over the years, and the exact identification of the planting makes the report a real snapshot of the garden at one point in its development…we just don’t know when that point was!?

If anyone can shed any more light on the report, or indeed, offer any more information about Avebury House or its garden, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Avebury House  (admin@aveburyhouse.co.nz).

David Hollander
Richmond History Group

avebury_park-nottingham_report-edited_version.pdf
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