Hope Cottage – A Bricklayer’s Pride in Temuka

By Roselyn Fauth with Raine & Horne.

Behind a hedge on 36 Alexandra Street in Temuka stands 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. It is larger than typical cottages of the era and the three bedroom home with a primary living room, separate dining room and kitchen, has strong heritage character that has evolved over time with thoughtful updates. It went back on the market with Raine and Horne in 2025, for another household to continue a story that began 139 years ago. Photo Supplied by Raine & Horne 2025.

I recently had a look at a special bluestone historic house on 10 Claremont Road that was owned by the Fyfes. My friend 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. To make things even easier the Timaru District Council has prepared a heritage report on the property too. 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. Looking through the heritage archives and newspaper clippings it looks like George built the cottage himself. And when you study the photos of hope cottage, you can see a tradesman’s pride in the brickwork and the plastered detailing, especially the little touches that were not necessary but offer a pop of design. The quoins at the corners. The decorative panel tucked into the gable. The chimneys. Even the layout, with its original double-L footprint, feels like someone trying to lift a humble working cottage into something they took pride in and felt special. To last all these years, really shows how well the cottage was constructed too.

This home can tell us a lot about the hands that made it. George’s trade is written in the bricks he laid for their house. It was more than shelter. I think his property would have shown the town what he was capable of. While George shaped the structure, it was Emma who would have brought warmth and routine and made the house feel like home.

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.

Their section formed part of the Arowhenua Township Immigrants’ Sections, surveyed in 1881 as Temuka was beginning to grow. When the Lynches lived here, the property was a full acre, and later recollections suggest the bricks may even have been made on the site. The family stayed until 1895 before the cottage passed through several local households, including George Judson, a local carrier, Laurence and Mary Thomson, James Pedder, a Temuka accountant, and, from 1912 to 1920, to retired railway servant John O’Connor. 

I did go a little history hunting, and going by a Temuka school report, George Lynch 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 the school then, I wonder if this could confirm he had school aged children 1878-1895? While details are limited, it hints at his involvement in local community life.

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 and Emma were living in Temuka from at least 1878–1895. Infant deaths were usually buried in the local cemetery. These dates fall within the years the Lynch family lived in Temuka and are in their childbearing years. 

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

Stepping back a little... while my Māori history knowledge is pretty limited... Temuka’s story begins long before European arrival. The land sits within the rohe of Ngāi Tahu, with Arowhenua as a 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”, which I think referrs 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. (The first recorded birth of a European baby in Timaru, was born to Ann and Sam Williams in 1856). And Elizabeth Rhodes had a four year old in 1859 who was raised at the Levels Station near Pleasant Point before he sadly passed away. 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, the very cottage in these photos that still stands today. It was built at a time when 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.

Imagine trying to cross South Canterbury's rivers before they were bridged? The roads, bridges and rail must have made a huge impact to the areas growth. Traffic Bridge, Temuka, 1912, Temuka, by Muir & Moodie. Te Papa (O.001799)

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.

I think homes like these matter as they remind us about a place's past, how it has evoled and who the people were that put their foundations down and helped grow the town. 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.

It was really interesting to chat with the property agent Renee Hayward from Raine and Horne who has the home listed for sale. She said there have been a variety of potential buyers through; some people who are curious to see and appreciate the historic beauty and heritage of the home, and others who can see potential in the practical aspects as it is a functional family home with a large land area that provides the tranquility of a lifestyle property but the convenience of being in town. 

"Personally what I like about Hope Cottage is the little details - the way the little light switches work backwards, the decoration around the ornamental fireplaces, the pull-cord stained-glass hallway pendant light, and how the more recently added kitchen wing complements the rest of the home's character whilst adding a nice indoor-outdoor flow to the lovely sunny terrace."

Interior of Hope Cottage. Photo Supplied by Raine & Horne 2025. 

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

Hope Cottage. Photo's Supplied by Raine & Horne 2025.

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

Feedback from the family

I wrote a far more concise version of this for the Timaru Civic Trust's timaru Herald column recently, (pressreader/-timaru-herald/282123527825000) and was so excited this week to have a email from the Lynch family decendant!  I invited Carolyn Atkinson to share her story with us, and here is what she provided:

Hi Roselyn

I have immensely enjoyed your article on Hope Cottage and what is known about my great great grandparents and their children.

I have, over many years, researched their lives along with all the other branches of my rather large family tree. Genealogy is a passion of mine.

What I know about George Henry Lynch, his wife Emma, and their family is really quite scant.

Seeing the photos of their home has also given me great pleasure. Until yesterday, I had not known about the cottage at all. To see it now reinforces their life and history for me.

All I had previously known about George Henry Lynch came from Papers Past and a few random notes passed on to me by an elderly half cousin.

My great grandfather was the eldest of the Lynch family, also named George Henry, and he alone of all the children remained in New Zealand after his parents and siblings returned to England in 1895.

He lived in the North Island, married twice, and had a large family. My grandfather, Herbert George Lynch, was the eldest son of the first marriage and he was my mother’s father.

George and Emma Lynch were in their early twenties with two small children, one aged three (George Henry jnr) and Mercia, also known as Mercy, aged eleven months, when they decided to leave England for the other side of the world.

They must have had quite a culture shock upon their arrival. Am I right in saying that the land they were hoping to build upon was part of a settlement at Arowhenua that was referred to as Sodtown?

They had come to make a new life for themselves, leaving a well developed and prosperous area of England for Temuka in the mid 1870s.

Not long after their arrival another baby, Edith Mary, was born in 1875.

George, being a builder trained in the English bricks and mortar tradition rather than timber, must have found it difficult if bricks had to be made by hand.

According to the Arowhenua Township Immigrants Sections list of 1881, his land was Lot 733.

If their home, Hope Cottage, was not built until 1886, this must mean that the Lynch family lived elsewhere for nearly eleven years. I wonder where.

During this time the babies kept arriving.

• Ernest William 1877
• Frank Robert 1878
• Frederick James 1880
• Emma Louisa 1881
• John 1882
• Eva 1884
• Gertrude 1886
• Joseph 1887
• Sarah Jessie 1889

In 1881 George Henry Lynch was declared bankrupt. Obviously, times were tough and being the owner of a building business did not necessarily mean prosperity.

Two of their children died as babies in 1881 and 1882, Frederick and Emma. They are buried in Temuka and I believe they share the same plot, TKCA 35.

So they struggled, as many colonial families did, and it is not known what exactly made them decide to leave New Zealand and return to England, although perhaps it was simply because life here was so very hard.

On 9 May 1895, after selling their home and furniture by public auction on 25 April of that year, they sailed on the Gothic from Lyttelton bound for London, and from there returned to their original residence in Newbury, Berkshire.

According to the 1901 census, their address was 195 Hope Cottages, Parish of St Nicholas, South Newbury.

Still feeling unsettled, and perhaps looking for something they felt life in New Zealand could not provide, they emigrated again in 1906 after visiting their son Joseph in America.

Their new home was Mercer, near Princeton, New Jersey.

George Henry Lynch falsified his age slightly in order to appear younger for emigration and continued working at his bricklaying trade well into his seventies.

Most of their family went with them to America or joined them over a period of ten years.

Looking at the photos of Hope Cottage, 36 Alexander Street, all I see is the hard work of one man.

His skill is evident and there must have been a lot of satisfaction and pleasure in seeing his work come to fruition in a home for his family. It has certainly stood the test of time.

But it was not enough to keep the builder and his family in New Zealand. I also feel that there may have been frustration and sadness built into each brick.

These are my thoughts and personal feelings. I also feel pride. Hope Cottage is a beautiful building and a lovely home. It is a tribute.

The child Catherine Lynch you mention is not one of George and Emma’s children. Her parents were Bridget and Henry Lynch.

I hope this information provides some back story to the life of George Henry Lynch.

Regards

Carolyn Atkinson

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