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Journal of the Nelson and Marlborough Historical Societies, Volume 1, Issue 4, October 1984

The Chaytors of Coverham

page 41

The Chaytors of Coverham

Since the year 1240 the Chaytor family have owned the village of Croft, near Darlington in Yorkshire. During the 1860s, John Clervaux Chaytor was living there on part of the Clevaux estate. His eldest son, also John Clervaux, had been born in London, within the sound of Bow bells, on 28 July 1836, where Mrs Chaytor had gone to be with her parents for the important occasion.

Young John was well schooled and after finishing at Sedburgh he left to join the army. At this time the Crimean war was raging and what better thing for a young man to do than join the famous Forfar and Kincardine Artillery.

By the time he was 24, John had gained the rank of captain of his regiment, but with the end of the Indian Mutiny and a settlement with Russia in the Crimea, England turned pacifist and the Forfar and Kincardine was disbanded. Young John, now without a job, needed something stimulating for his years ahead.

He knew the Tetley family who lived at Oaskew House, not far from Clevaux in Yorkshire and he had also had contact with George Lovegrove who had lived at Maidenhead on Thames. It was 1860 and both George Lovegrove and John Dresser Tetley were now farming in New Zealand.

Lovegrove managed Flaxbourne for Frederick Weld who had taken up a large portion of Marlborough's east coast in 1847 and Tetley was settled on Madcaps at the mouth of the Kekerengu River. This he had obtained from Frederick Trolove but it was originally part of Weld's southern boundary.

John Chaytor decided to emigrate to this new exciting country and his younger brother Edward was happy to go with him. They set sail from England in the brig Thames City and landed in Wellington in November 1860.

It took the brothers little time to get to Kekerengu where J. D. Tetley soon had them cutting tracks inland through the bush and over hills such as the boys had never dreamed existed. This was wild unbroken country and for the next two years their life was nothing but hard work; but this land provided the challenges they needed and they found great pleasure in the wild life they were forced to lead.

On 6 March 1861 John wrote home to Croft from their camp at Bullock Creek. "We came up here after shearing for the purpose of cutting a track up to the top of the hills. It is 10 yards wide and will cost 40 pounds a mile and I expect it will take us three or four months. Our tent is on a little flat in the bed of a small stream".

Both boys were prolific letter writers. Edward wrote home on 4 March from the same tent at Bullock Creek. "For want of anything else to say I will tell you what we have in our larder … I will begin with a bag of flour weighing about a hundredweight, a shoulder of mutton, thirteen pigeons, three kakas, some fat onions, etc.… I rather like the work we are at; there is something jolly about the merry ring of the axe, you can imagine yourself carving your road to fame and fortune, and all that sort of moonshine. There was a Morepork kicking up a row near the tent a few minutes ago. I went out and shut him up with a tune on his own fiddle. I am beginning to be a dab at bird calling, inviting the kakas down to be shot and getting up a concert of wood-hens at the shortest notice. The bush we are cutting through now is about 40ft high".

The brothers soon became well known and respected for their ability to live and work hard in this difficult back country. By late 1862 they had made arrangements to lease a large part of the land on the north bank of the Clarence where that huge river swings back to the south in behind the Chalk Range about 12 kilometres back from Kekerengu. They engaged several men to help them and during the early months of 1863 they built a mudhouse near the headwaters of the Ouse River which runs into the Clarence.

As children in England they had known the ruined site of Coverham Abbey which had been built in the thirteenth century and was once inhabited by Augustinian canons. So they gave the name Coverham to their new home. No doubt Tetley page 42would have been pleased with the choice of name for he had once lived at Bedale, close by the Abbey, and would see the compliment that was intended by the boys.

John Chaytor was soon more often referred to as Jack and Edward was known as Ted. Before long they had the full confidence of Tetley and by the end of 1863 they were managing the whole of Kekerengu station for him. During that year they burnt almost all of that country and much more as well. Their descriptions of the enormous fires, which they lit everywhere they went, are pretty mind boggling today. Edward's diary gives us a little detail:—

1863 January 4th, Sunday: On 25th November I lit a fire on one of the Cover Banks (the Cover is a stream running into the Ouse) which spread onto the Chalk Ranges and went into some bush. It burned well for several days and apparently went out, but no such thing. I suppose it must have been smouldering in a dead log for it has brisked up again and I can see the smoke of it rising as I sit here. It is more than a month since it was lit and we have had a heavy shower of rain since. Another fire lit a few days after behaved in the same manner and is now burning away furiously in scrub and bush that has never been burned before. The two fires are now I should say over 10 miles apart and at one time they were considerably more. They were lit over a mile apart and have gone over thousands on thousands of acres of ground.

Feb. 5th: It is more than a month since I wrote the last and just such another day, if anything more hot and more smoke about. The fires are still burning and other ones are keeping them company. You must excuse the blackness of the paper for the smuts from the neighbouring fires are falling thick and fast and although I washed my hands before commencing this, the paper is already losing its natural colour.

Feb. 6th: About midnight all hands had to turn out as a heavy fire was turning towards us on the Chalk Range, a strong wind blowing thick smoke and sparks in our direction.

The wholesale burning soon changed the face of the land and allowed free movement of stock over the lush grasses shooting through on the now cleared country.

The brothers were prospering and looking forward to being joined by a third brother, Arthur, who had left England on the Wild Duck in September 1863 and was expected about Christmas. But things were suddenly to take a bad turn.

To ship produce to and from the station, ships would stand off the mouth of the Kekerengu River and surf boats were used to carry goods backwards and forwards. Late in December Edward had been helping load bales of wool and had taken a bad cold as the result of being wet in the surf for long periods. This cold quickly developed into rheumatic fever and he died on Christmas Day 1863, just a week before his 23rd birthday.

Arthur, the third Chaytor brother to farm in Marlborough, joined Jack at Coverham. Like his brothers he soon grew to love the land. Over the next few years Arthur and Jack developed their run and slowly added more and more to it. Jack married Emma Fearon, daughter of a well known retired ship's captain, Edward Fearon, who had taken up property in the Awatere known as Marathon. From then on Jack seemed to revert to John once more and he took Emma with him to live at Coverham. Things were going so well at the station that two more brothers were talked into joining them. Brian and Charles arrived by coach at Kekerengu on 1st April 1869 after landing at Wellington and travelling over to Picton from there.

In 1872 Arthur married and took his wife to Coverham for a short time. But this was no place for women and children. It was 50 miles to the nearest doctor and the track from Kekerengu to Coverham took at least two and a half hours on horseback.

Arrangements were made to let out Coverham in 1873. Arthur settled down near Nelson, Charles secured a property near him and Brian moved to the North Island where some land had been leased for some years by John. John leased from Trolove the station known as the Shades for the next few years but kept looking at the easier country around Blenheim which he now had capital to buy.

page 43

He purchased a property in Picton and then bought Marshlands which had been farmed for many years by Samuel Bowler. Chaytor retained the Shades for some years but his main efforts were developing Marshlands. In later life he and his wife grew very proud of the children they had raised and educated mainly at Nelson College. Marshlands stands today still owned by the descendants of John Clervaux Chaytor, but we should not forget the other four brothers who also settled in this country and left their mark as pioneers.

Coverham station buildings and yards, 12 kilometres inland from Kekerengu. For a time in the early days Kekerengu was often given the more euphonious name of Giggerygoo and Coverhan was known at first as Little Giggery. This photograph was taken about 1890.—Photo: Marlborough Historical Society.

Coverham station buildings and yards, 12 kilometres inland from Kekerengu. For a time in the early days Kekerengu was often given the more euphonious name of Giggerygoo and Coverhan was known at first as Little Giggery. This photograph was taken about 1890.
—Photo: Marlborough Historical Society.