The owner of a stately home who bought it within 30 minutes of setting foot in it after falling in love at first sight 18 years ago hopes the new owners will feel the same way he did.
Robert Young jumped on a plane from Auckland to Timaru, and then caught a taxi to 222 Mt Horrible Road after being shown a photo of the property known by locals as Castle Claremont.
He became the new owner 18 years ago when, OneRoof property records show, it last changed hands for $1.5 million.
“I came up the driveway and said to the driver, ‘wait, I’m having this, I won’t be long’, and I was in and out within half an hour and that was it – done.”
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Young continued to commute to Auckland for work, adding it was worth making the long trip home every weekend just to be able to enjoy the property. “It was just exciting.”
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And while he bought it to be his own country estate, the locals had other ideas and he was soon approached by someone who wanted to have their wedding in the park-like grounds spanning 11 hectares. It is a 15-minute drive to Timaru, in Canterbury.
“I didn’t want to do weddings. I didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to have a big old country house to fix up and live in. Then people started making approaches, ‘could they do this, could they do that’ and so on.”
Under Young’s ownership, Claremont has hosted about 100 weddings, a garden party with 1000 guests and large vintage car meetings.
The main home has 10 bedrooms, there are two separate self-contained two-bedroom units, a chapel and a large reception hall.
When Young first moved into the Category 2 heritage-protected building, he said he knew nothing about its history but the local farmers soon filled him in.
“It’s had some interesting owners.”
It was originally built by the wealthy Rhodes family as a wedding present for pioneer settler George Rhodes and his wife Henrietta.
The property, known by locals as Claremont Castle, was once home to a former governor general of New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
The property includes 11 hectares of park-like grounds, a main house with 10 bedrooms, two separate self-contained two-bedroom units, a chapel and a large reception hall. Photo / Supplied
English builders travelled to New Zealand to build it by hand using granite quarried from the area in 1884, and it was completed three years later.
The Crown then leased the property, and it was home to at least one former governor general of New Zealand.
Later the Catholic Church took ownership, and it became the base for the St Joseph’s Novitiate to train new priests from New Zealand and Australia.
Young said it was at this time around the mid-20th century that the stately property completely disappeared from the public eye as it became completely self-sufficient with the residents growing all of their own food.
“Cows, pigs sheep, hens – they had the lot. And for about 70-odd years it just went off the radar, nobody came here except young priests etc.”
Some of the old priests still pop in to see their former training grounds, Young added, and to share some interesting stories about their time there.
“Its history is probably its main feature to be honest, aside from it being a very large house.”
Young listed the property for sale in 2019 before pulling it off the market when the Covid pandemic struck, and the country went into lockdown. However, he’s ready to downsize so has put it up for sale again.
Priests in training used the chapel in the mid-20th century, but more recently it has been a place where couples get married. Photo / Supplied
Castle Claremont was built as a wedding present for pioneer settler George Rhodes and his wife Henrietta, and was completed in 1887. Photo / Supplied
“I don’t know who the next owners are going to be. I have absolutely no idea, but hopefully it will be someone like myself who, when they saw it, said, ‘I’ve just got to have it’.
“There is nothing else like it. It is an irreplaceable icon.”
Living in a place with such large open spaces has spoiled Auckland for him and he is instead eyeing up a boating lifestyle in Picton.
The listing by EXO Property salesperson agent Michael Morris describes the property as a “historic masterpiece”.
It is being sold on an “as is, where is” basis.
Morris said it’s a “one-off” opportunity that needs to be sold.
It could be a bespoke tourism business, wedding venue or accommodation because there are “rooms everywhere”, or just a large residential home, he added.
“It’s just on a ginormous scale. All I can say is you get in there and go, ‘oh my gosh’.
“It needs a 2023 buyer that can bring it into the next century so that may require a major refurbishment, or it can be turned into accommodation – the list just goes on.”
Meanwhile, a post-modern castle that featured on Grand Designs NZ last year is still on the market after failing to sell at auction earlier this month. The seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom mansion at 30 McLeods Road, in Sefton, Canterbury, has an asking price of $2.69m and is being run as Airbnb accommodation in the interim.
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