Early property investment

Early photographs of Warkworth show a large house standing alone on the hill overlooking the river. This was ‘High Holme’, the residence Henry Pulham had built in the 1860s for his growing family. The road named after him has seen many changes as settlement of the area evolved.

The marketing of hydraulic lime, and the refinements in the production of cement which followed, required a large workforce to live within walking distance of the industry established on the riverbank by Nathaniel Wilson.

Workers cottages soon lined Pulham, Wilson and McKinney roads. Storekeeper Harrison had seven identical houses built in 1910 to rent to workers and these became known as the ‘Seven Sisters’.

With Wilson’s Cement Works in its heyday this should have been a promising investment, but change was to come again quite quickly.

Deep water anchorage and availability of coal made a move north to Portland desirable and the Warkworth operation was gradually scaled down. A new use was found for the cottages. Carl Wilson was given the contract to move several of the four-roomed houses from Pulham Rd to Kourawhero and Kaipara Flats, and to make them fit for habitation.

Each house was cut in half for transporting and Bill Dennis was employed with his bullock team for the actual shift.

The corner of Church Hill into Whitaker Rd proved too sharp for the bullocks to negotiate so the route taken was down Mill Lane, along Queen St and up Neville St. Mr Wilson rode on the roof to lift the telephone lines as a broken line cost £5 to repair.

The houses became homes for farming families on the Soldiers Settlement and those that stayed in Pulham Rd were also used as farm houses.

Today, the farms are gone from Pulham Rd but here and there a grand villa, or a small colonial cottage, survive as a reminder of an age when a bullock team or horse-drawn traffic were common place and a car was something to wonder at.