Journal of the Nelson and Marlborough Historical Societies, Volume 1, Issue 2, November 1982
Lansdowne Run No. 7 (Run No. I of 1849)
Lansdowne Run No. 7 (Run No. I of 1849)
Lansdownewas taken up by Charles Fowell Willet Watts in 1848, or perhaps late 1847. His neighbour to the westward was E. D. Sweet, and to the eastward was "Erina". at first held by Richard Coward. Over in the Waihopai Valley his neighbour was Dr. David Monro on "Bankhouse".
In 1852 Watts was given a Crown Grant of his first section of fifty acres. By 1865 he had purchased the freehold title to all the land on his run as well as several sections between the run and the Wairau River.
Watts was a New Zealand Company surveyor from Nelson, and came to the Wairau in 1847 to help with Budge's survey of the Wairau and Awatere for closer settlement. As well as the good money he would make as a surveyor he must have had other means to have made such progress in securing his run.
His first cottage at Lansdowne was built on a little knob out of mud plastered onto a frame of manuka posts and rails, held together with strong manuka dowells. Although the walls of mud were only about ten inches thick they have stood the test of time, and only in recent times have they started to fall into disrepair. His second house was built a few chains to the west of the first cottage, also of mud, and was much larger and of more orthodox construction, with some later additions of timber, and, after the third house was built, it became the station cook-house.
Sometime in the mid-seventies, C. F. W. Watts went to live in Nelson, where he had a house called "Melrose" built, and lived there until his death in 1881. His managers at Lansdowne were Herbert Bonnington 1868, and George T. Mackay 1870. and George Henry Watson 1881. After his death, Lansdowne was carried on under the administration of trustees, who were Henry Edwards, accountant of Nelson, Elizabeth Watts his widow, Charles Alexander Watts his eldest son, who took over the management of the run but unfortunately died early at the age of 43 in August 1895, leaving a wife Edith (nee Reynall), three sons and one daughter.
George Fowell Watts, a younger son of C. F. W. Watts, who had "Erina" Run since 1883 worked his way round to become manager of Lansdowne, but did not become a trustee of his father's estate until 1915. not long before his mother died in England where she had been living for several years. Her death cleared the way for G. F. Watts to purchase Lansdowne on his own account.
During G. F. Watt's time at"Lansdowne the property built up a good reputation for merino sheep. A man who helped considerably with selecting and looking after Ihem was the head shepherd Charles Timms (a son of Richard Timms). After the death of G. F. Watts in 1937, trustees carried the run on under the management of Jock Buchanan until 1947 when it was sold to the New Zealand Government for settlement of returned servicemen, and divided into four blocks, ballotted for in 1949.