Hope Cottage – A Bricklayer’s Pride in Temuka

By Roselyn Fauth

Behind a hedge on 36 Alexandra Street in Temuka sits a survivor from the 1880s. Hope Cottage, once known as the Lynch Cottage, was built around 1886 by George Henry Lynch, a bricklayer from Berkshire in England who came to New Zealand with his wife Emma and their young family in 1874. Larger than typical cottages of the era, the home has evolved over time with thoughtful updates

I recently had a look at a special bluestone historic house on 10 Claremont Road that was owned by the Fyfes. My friends Leanne Penderville who is an agent for Raine and Horne told me about it. I asked if they had any other older buildings on the market currently and Renée Hayward invited me to have a look at Hope Cottage in Temuka and kindly shared their marketing photos for a WuHoo Blog about the people and place. So this is the result... thank you Raine and Horne for sharing the story and images of this property with me.

Hope Cottage began its story around 1886, though back then the name did not exist. The land had only recently been part of the Arowhenua Township Immigrants’ Sections, laid out in the early 1880s as Temuka began to grow. A man named George Henry Lynch, an English bricklayer from Berkshire, bought the section in 1886. He had arrived in New Zealand 12 years earlier with his wife Emma and their first three children. Another five were born here, which must have made for a lively household.

Raine and Horne logo marks the spot on the map of the house in Temuka.

By the late 1870s George had set himself up in Temuka as a bricklayer, slater and plasterer. It is almost certain he built the cottage himself. You can see a tradesman’s pride in the brickwork and the plastered detailing, especially the little touches that were not strictly necessary but offered a quiet flourish. The quoins at the corners. The decorative panel tucked into the gable. The  chimneys. Even the layout, with its double-L footprint, feels like someone trying to lift a humble working cottage into something a little more refined.

This home can tell us a lot about the hands that made it.

By 1878 he was trading locally under his initials as G. H. Lynch, advertising in the Temuka Leader as a bricklayer, slater and plasterer, offering everything from chimneys to kitchen range installations with a workmanship guarantee.

Going by a Temuka school report, Geoge was settled and involved in the Temuka area and helped to inspect the schools building condition, school attendance, teacher performance and the general order of the largest school in Temuka among his busy working-class life. To be involved with teh school then, I wonder if this could confirm he had school aged children 1878-1895?

Looking at the Timaru District Councils Cemetery Records for Temuka, there are quite a few Lynche's buried there. I found two records and I wonder if these could be George & Emma’s children? Ellen Louisa Lynch, 0 years, died 3 Feb 1882 and Catherine Lynch, 0 years, died 13 Apr 1890. George & Emma were living in Temuka from at least 1878–1895. Infant deaths were usually buried in the local cemetery. These dates are exactly in their childbearing years.

The Lynches lived here until 1895, when the property passed to a carrier named George Judson. From there the cottage shifted gently through a series of Temuka residents: accountants, railway workers, labourers. Ordinary people living ordinary lives, which is usually where the richest stories are found. The sections were larger then, stretching across to what is now Guise Street, and slowly reduced over time as the town changed shape.

Section of Map of Temuka Road Districts Native Reserves NZ Heritage Maps Platform Recollect https://maps.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/419

Temuka’s story begins long before European arrival. The land sits within the rohe of Ngāi Tahu, with Arowhenua as a long-established centre of life, trade, food gathering, and cultural identity. The name “Te Umu Kaha”, which gradually became Temuka, is often translated as “the strong oven” or “the fierce cooking place”, referring to the earth ovens once used throughout the district. The rivers, wetlands, and forests of the area supported generations of Māori communities, who gathered tuna, birds, waterfowl, and plants, and maintained long-standing relationships with the whenua. Arowhenua continues to be an important and active kāika today.

European settlement in the area began in the 1850s and 1860s, when runholders established sheep stations across South Canterbury. Early newcomers tended to be farm labourers, shearers, fencers, and small traders, and their presence was scattered rather than centralised. As movement across the region increased, small service industries and simple dwellings appeared along the routes between the Temuka and Opihi rivers, gradually shaping the beginnings of a township.

The Hornbrook women were among the earliest documented European women to settle in South Canterbury, arriving in 1851–52 at The Levels Station, at a time when very few European women lived in the region. Margaret Smith (later Hornbrook) is recorded as having been born in Kirriemuir (Forfarshire), Scotland, around 1828. She married William Hornbrook (b. 1823/1822) and they settled at Arowhenua Station in South Canterbury around 1853-54. William and Margaret Hornbrook had nine children. Their son William Richard (sometimes Richards) Hornbrook, born 17 November 1854 at Arowhenua, is frequently cited as the first European child born in South Canterbury. Margaret remained in the region for many years and was publicly acknowledged for her role as an early female settler and community figure. Her death is recorded in 1912.

The town grew quickly in the 1870s, helped by new roads, bridges, and the arrival of the railway in 1876. Immigration increased, and Temuka developed into a lively service centre with its own shops, churches, schools, and industries. The early 1880s saw the surveying and sale of the Arowhenua Township “Immigrants’ Sections”, designed to encourage working families to settle and build. One of those sections was later purchased by bricklayer George Henry Lynch, whose cottage still stands today. It was a time when Temuka was full of opportunity for tradesmen prepared to work hard and put down roots.

By the 1880s and 1890s, Temuka had become a bustling little town, known for its skilled tradespeople and for industries such as brickmaking, sawmilling, and later pottery. Families like the Lynches were part of that growth, helping build the houses, schools, chimneys, drains, and shops that became the backbone of the community. The foundations laid in those early decades shaped the Temuka that continues to thrive today, still connected to its past and its people — both Māori and Pākehā — who helped make the town what it is.

Who else lived here?

Over its long life, Hope Cottage has been home to a small succession of Temuka families, beginning with its builder, George Henry Lynch, who owned the property from around 1886. He sold it in 1895 to George Judson, a local carrier, and a decade later it passed to Laurence and Mary Thomson. In 1911 the cottage was bought by Temuka accountant James Pedder, and a little over a year later it became the home of retired railway worker John O’Connor and his family, who remained there until 1920. After a gap in the record, the property was purchased in 1946 by labourer Clarence Stratford, who held it for more than forty years, including the larger neighbouring parcel that was later subdivided. Although the cottage is now known as Hope Cottage, it was never owned by the Hope family, and its name seems to have been adopted much later for reasons that remain unclear.

As for the name “Hope Cottage”, that seems to have arrived much later.

There was another home in Temuka advertised under that name in 1916, but it seems to have been a different building altogether. Somehow the name settled on this one instead and stayed.

Walking around the cottage today, you can still feel its early character. The proportions are modest, the roofline simple, and the walls carry that solid nineteenth-century confidence that comes from being built brick by brick by someone who knew exactly what he was doing. I wonder how George Lynch would feel all these years later, knowing the cottage has lasted, potentially far longer than George could ever have imagined.

These places matter as they remind us that towns like Temuka were haped by the big names and the tradesmen, labourers, and families who put their foundations down. Hope Cottage is one of those.

Thank you again to the team at Raine and Horne for letting me visit and for sharing their photos so generously. It has been a pleasure following the story of this cottage back, and learning about some of the people who shaped its story.

Features of the home as of 2025 include:

• Three spacious bedrooms.

• Inviting and cozy living room with a fireplace and heat pump options for heating, HRV system and partial double glazing.

• Separate dining room adjacent to the kitchen which has been modernised with an island bench.

• Family bathroom plus a separate laundry and second toilet and utility room.

• Beautifully crafted high ceilings, wood and plaster detailing and ornamental fireplaces.

• Ample parking with a single carport, off-street spaces for several vehicles, and drive-on access from both Alexandra Street and Guise Street.

The current owners have enjoyed this home for over 11 years and are now ready to move on - presenting a fantastic opportunity for a new family to move in and create a new chapeter in the Hope cottage story. https://www.raineandhorne.co.nz/timaru/properties/36-alexandra-street-temuka-7920-canterbury

 https://www.timaru.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/673939/Historic-Heritage-Assessment-Report-HHI117-Former-Lynch-cottage-Category-B.pdf

Side Quest - Brickmaking History in Temuka

Temuka has a long association with clay, kilns, and brickmaking, thanks to the excellent clay found in the district.

Temuka sits on rich alluvial soil and clay deposits formed by: the Opihi River, the Temuka River, which provided flooding and sedimentation. Local clay was ideal for handmade bricks because it was: fine in texture, easy to shape, good for firing, plentiful and cheap.  This is why so many small brick cottages popped up around Temuka, Arowhenua, Milford, Orari, and Winchester in the 1870s–1890s.

Before the industrial brickyards arrived, most Temuka brickmakers would have worked from small clay pits, often dug right beside the building site. In the 1870s and 1880s the process was simple but labour-intensive: clay was dug straight from the ground, sometimes from the very section the house would sit on — which fits perfectly with the belief that the bricks for Hope Cottage were made on site. The clay was then tempered with water, sand, and sometimes a little straw or grit, and worked by hand or foot until it reached a smooth, even consistency. Bricks were shaped in wooden moulds dusted with sand, and a quick, experienced bricklayer like George Lynch could turn out around a thousand bricks a day with a helper, often building up a batch of three to five thousand before a firing. The green bricks were left to dry outdoors in long, airy stacks called hacks or hods, sometimes for several days and sometimes for weeks, depending on the weather. Once dry, they were fired in clamp kilns — temporary kilns built from the unfired bricks themselves — by stacking thousands into a great heap, leaving channels for airflow, feeding those channels with wood or coal, sealing the outside with older bricks and mud, and keeping the fires burning steadily for days. Well-fired bricks emerged a strong red or buff colour, while underfired ones stayed pale and were usually tucked into internal walls. The even, well-fired brickwork at Hope Cottage shows the skill and care of someone who knew his craft well.

By the 1880s Temuka was thriving enough to support its own commercial brickyards, turning out everything from chimney bricks and household bricks to drainage pipes, tiles, and chimney pots. The best-known operation would later become the Temuka Pipe and Pottery Works, though its prominence grew more in the early 1900s. Before that, smaller brickworks were scattered around the district in places like Milford, Orari, Winchester, and Arowhenua, many of them little more than one-man enterprises run by tradesmen much like George Lynch, who dug their own clay and fired their own bricks to meet the needs of a growing township.

Handmade brick cottages often carry the signature of the person who built them, from the slight irregularities in brick length to the colour of the local clay and the creative touches that a craftsman could not resist adding. Hope Cottage no doubt shows several of these flourishes: its plastered quoins, corbelled chimney, diamond panel tucked into the gable, and the bracketed sills all speak of a tradesman taking pride in his own home. These are the details you can expect from a brick-and-plaster worker who wanted to be proud of his home and possibly demonstrate their skill in the township.

Learning about Temuka’s brickmaking story I think helps place George Lynch’s craft in context. We can have some context around why the cottage was so solid and why it has lasted. It links the building to the early industry of the area and gives readers a sensory sense of the work involved — the clay on hands, the heat of a kiln, the smoke, the moulding bricks one after another.

It also explains why Hope Cottage still stands strong today. Temuka bricks were good bricks, handmade from the ground beneath the builders’ feet.

Former Lynch Cottage – Key Facts

Identification

• Heritage Item Name: Former Lynch Cottage

• Address: 36 Alexandra Street, Temuka

• Former District Plan Item No.: 126

• HNZ Listing: Not listed

• Legal Description: Lot 1 DP 74845

• Valuation Number: 2478040000

• Date of Construction: Circa 1886

• Architect/Designer/Builder: George Henry Lynch, likely owner-builder

• Style: Vernacular with Italianate influences

• Heritage Category: B

Physical Description

• Structure: Single storey dwelling

• Footprint: Double-L shaped

• Roof: Gabled roof forms

• Front Elevation:

  • Principal elevation faces north

  • Central entry

  • Projecting gabled bay to the west

• Other Features:

  • Additional gabled bay on the west elevation

  • Monopitch service wing at rear

  • Corbelled chimney

  • Quoins in contrasting stone or plaster

  • Decorative diamond panel in north gable

  • Bracketed window sills

• Materials: Brick, plaster or limestone, corrugated metal roofing

Alterations

• Window replacement with aluminium multi-pane sash windows (date unknown)

• Side wing added (date unknown)

Setting

• Located on the south side of Alexandra Street, between Maude Street and Guise Street

• Vehicle access available from both Alexandra Street and Guise Street

• House is set back slightly behind a low hedge

• The scheduled setting includes the full land parcel due to potential archaeological values

History

• 1881: Arowhenua Township Immigrants’ Sections laid out in Temuka

• 1886: Title for Lot 733 issued to George Henry Lynch, labourer

• George Henry Lynch:

  • Born c.1850, possibly died 1936

  • Bricklayer from Berkshire, England

  • Arrived in NZ in 1874 with wife Emma and three children

  • Had five more children in New Zealand

  • Established as bricklayer, slater and plasterer in Temuka by 1878

  • Believed to have built the cottage himself

• Ownership Timeline:

  • 1895: Lynch sold property to George Judson (carrier)

  • 1905: Sold to Laurence and Mary Thomson

  • 1911: Sold to James Pedder (accountant)

  • 1912: Sold to John O’Connor (retired railway worker), held until 1920

  • 1946–1989: Owned by Clarence Stratford (labourer)

• Subdivisions:

  • 1958 and 1995, reducing the original land parcel

• Naming Confusion:

  • Not clear how or why it became known as "Hope Cottage"

  • No historical ownership by the Hope family

  • A 1916 advertisement mentions a different property known as "Hope Cottage"

Current Use

• Still in residential use

Significance

Historical Significance

• Associated with George Lynch, an early Temuka tradesman

• Reflects late nineteenth-century growth of Temuka

Cultural Significance

• Demonstrates working-class domestic life

• Recognised locally as an historic home

Architectural / Aesthetic Significance

• Vernacular cottage with Italianate decorative influences

• Plaster and limestone detailing show builder’s craftsmanship ambitions

Technological / Craftsmanship Significance

• Brick construction showcases Lynch’s skills as a bricklayer, slater and plasterer

Contextual Significance

• A notable historic feature in the suburban Temuka streetscape

Archaeological Significance

• Pre-1900 site with potential archaeological value relating to early colonial settlement

References

Includes historical references from:

• Timaru Herald

• Temuka Leader

• Press

• Star

• Lyttelton Times

• NZ Shipping Lists

• NZ Births, Deaths and Marriages Online