RICH IN HISTORY AND CHARM
Walk Around Clyde
The township of Clyde was the first of many gold mining settlements that sprang up in Central Otago in the 19th century. The initial period of great prosperity faded but it was revitalised with the gold dredging boom on the Clutha River from the 1890s and then by the development of fruit growing industry. The gradual shift of businesses to nearby Alexandra left Clyde as a backwater – a fortunate occurrence because many of Clyde’s buildings from the early days have survived mainly intact, unlike those in Alexandra.
The area was called the Dunstan by surveyor John Turnbull Thomson whose explorations brought him here in 1857. Dunstan is an old English name meaning “stone on a hill” and Leaning Rock (Haehaeata), a landmark on the Dunstan Mountains, reminded him of Dunstanburgh Castle near his birthplace in Northumberland, England.
In August, 1862, American Horatio Hartley and an IrishAmerican, Christopher Reilly, struck gold in the Cromwell Gorge. Within weeks several thousand miners were digging the banks of the Clutha River, then known as the Molyneux River. By the end of 1862, close to 21 tonnes (70,000 ounces) of gold worth about $12 billion in 2021 had been recovered.
Clyde, originally called Coal Point, Dunstan, Hartley’s Township and Upper Dunstan, (Alexandra was Lower Dunstan) was finally given the its name to commemorate Field Marshal Lord Clyde, Sir Colin Campbell after his death in 1863. He was prominent in many of Britain’s 19th century military campaigns including the Indian Mutiny. Today, Clyde, along with Central Otago’s St Bathans and Ophir, is one of the country’s most authentic and significant settlements from the gold mining era.
The walk begins at the dam end of Clyde where, sheltered from the severe winds, the first miners pitched their tents. A memorial remembers those hardy men who endured the extremes of Central Otago’s climate: the harsh, sub-zero winters and the scorching, arid summers. An additional guide to the walk is a series of plaques set into the pavements: Footprints in Time plaques record people who have contributed to Clyde’s development.
Dunstan News
The first newspaper on the goldfields and in Central Otago was the Dunstan News published on December 30, 1862, in Clyde and printed in a mudbrick shed near the river. The four-page paper owned by William George and Henry Cope was renamed the Dunstan Times and the business was shifted to the main street in 1866. In July that year Cope took on a new partner, George Fache, who later became the sole owner and remained so for about 30 years. By 1902, the Dunstan Times was owned by Harold and Sydney Stevens, sons of the local schoolmaster. It remained in the Stevens family until 1948 when it was bought by The Otago Daily Times which merged the Dunstan Times and other local newspapers into a new paper, the Central Otago News. The badly deteriorating building was restored in 2018.
Tinkers Cottage
The little stone cottage was built in the 1860s. It was the home of Mr Rae, known locally as Tinker Rae. He used it to display his wares when he was not peddling them around the dis- trict. Some years later a midwife lived in the cottage, using the front room for “confinements”.
There was no maternity hospital then and most women gave birth in their homes, but some did use the midwife’s service.
Dr Morice’s
Home & Hospital
Sharing the large section of Tinker’s Cottage is the stone home built for Dr Charles Morice in the 1860s. He arrived in the Dunstan in 1863 and was so appalled by the number of men suffering from frostbite, malnutrition and associated illnesses that he set up a tent hospital around his dwelling. He found his patients on the mining claims or on the street. Morice was a member of the town council but resigned when he moved to Greymouth on the West Coast in
1866. The top story of the house is a modern addition.
James Hazlett’s House
Irish born James Hazlett arrived in Otago from the Australian goldfields in 1861 and came to Clyde in 1863 where he set up a store in a corner of his section and a butcher’s shop using the front room on the right of his house (this is the oldest part of the house.) He also ran pack horses carrying goods to neighbouring diggings. Hazlett was mayor from 1868 until 1872 and then represented the Dunstan on the Otago Provincial Council until 1875.
A keen churchman, hospital board member and sports advocate, he owned a stable of horses housed in stone buildings at the rear of his section. He instigated the first horse race meetings in Central Otago at Dunstan on December 31, 1862. The races were held on the south bank of Muttontown Gully (on the main road to Alexandra).
Hartley Arms Hotel 1869
Probably the earliest hotel in Clyde it was established after the Dunstan goldrush in August, 1862 by Robert Currie and Edward Aldridge on a small part of the existing section. The canvas and timber building was sold in early 1863 to Irish brothers William and James Parks, but when William went off to the West Coast goldfields, James took it over.
During the next 17 years he acquired two adjoining sections and enlarged the hotel, advertising it for years as the oldest established hotel on the Dunstan. He retired in 1880 and leased the premises. In 1894 the lease was taken up by Henry (Harry) Partridge who bought the hotel after the death of Parks in 1899. He made extensive alterations in 1900, building a large kitchen and a new billiard room.
The following year the stone front age with three doors was added as well as new bedrooms and accommodation cottages at the rear of the section. Henry retired in 1915 and the building was sold to the Dunedin Brewery and Wilson Malt Extraction Company. It was leased over the next 20 years to at least 10 publicans who made various renovations, alterations and rebuilding the accommodation at the back of the section. The licence was surrendered in 1936 and in the 1940s it was sold and converted to a private residence. Today, it is still a private residence
with accommodation in the recently renovated rooms at the rear of the section.
Clyde Town Hall
Masonic Lodge 1869
Opposite is the Masonic Lodge, an impressive building of local stone with a plaster cladding and an unusual design featuring slope-sided windows and Doric pillars supporting the pediment. Plans for a lodge building were drawn up in 1867 but members could not afford to build it. The following year the Town Council decided Clyde needed a new town hall. The site of
the proposed lodge was selected amid much acrimony within the council. Eight tenders were received for its design, but the council decided to go with the original plans drawn up for the lodge. (Most of the council were lodge members.)
Huge celebrations and a public holiday marked the laying of the foundation stone on April 16, 1869, by Vincent Pyke, the Resident Magistrate and Dunstan Warden and the Masonic Provincial Grand Master. A cavity below the stone contains a bottle sealed with Pyke’s signet ring, scrolls, copies of the Otago Daily Times, Dunstan Times and some coins. The silver trowel, made by local jeweller Robert Barlow used to lay the mortar, is displayed in the Clyde Historical Museum. The hall was built by J. Over for £800 and the freemasons were given the right to hold their meetings there. It was officially opened on October 21, 1869, with about 60 masons present for the consecration of a Lodge chamber. A grand ball, attended by about 200 people, followed. The athenaeum (library) was added in 1874 and was used as the council chamber. Later, the front door to the library was removed and windows were installed. Lodge Dunstan was able to buy back the building when Clyde’s
Memorial Hall opened in 1953 and members still use it today.
Undertaker's Building
Follow Lodge Lane, turn left and follow the road to an old stone building at the back of a house once occupied by a builder, Les Vercoe. In the 1920s, he combined his business with undertaking, then a common practice, and made coffins in the old stone building.
When the business closed, his eldest son, Clary, moved in and, so the story goes, used to sleep in a coffin with a candle burning alongside. In the 1950s Les altered the family home and added a dairy as a business for his daughter Marguerite
Dunstan House 1899
The original one-storey wooden and canvas building on this site opened in 1863 as the Dunstan Hotel. It was a typical goldfields hotel frequented by miners who spent their money on alcohol, gambling and entertainment. An underground cellar was also used as a marshalling area for the hotel’s dancing girls who emerged from it into the main bar for performances. (The cellar still exists.) The building was replaced in 1899 by a grand double-storied building – the first of its kind in Central Otago - built for Harry Hart of Lawrence and Mr Alderdice of Dunedin, by local builder Thomas Wilkinson. He was assisted by John Holloway, a Clyde stonemason, Albert Fountain and apprentice carpenter, Hugh Naylor. It originally had a Juliet balcony above the front entrance which was later replaced with the wide wrap-around veranda. Passenger coaches on their run from Dunedin to Cromwell stopped at the hotel for refreshments and in winter’s sub-zero temperatures “mine host” would offer whisky to the men and hot tea to the ladies. On the day it closed as a hotel, enthusiastic patrons rode their horses up the stairs, around the upper gallery and down again. It was converted into flats, but subsequent owners beautifully and faithfully restored the building, changed the name to Dunstan House and opened it for accommodation. In 2015, further restoration was carried out and the building has
been earthquake strengthened well above the acceptable risk
Bank of New Zealand 1952
The Bank of New Zealand was established in 1861 and a year later set up an agency in Clyde to serve the Central Otago goldfields. The small wooden building under the management of Joseph Skinner, opened on October 1, 1862, the same day as a BNZ branch opened in London. The agency closed in 1869 but reopened as a BNZ branch in 1901. The building on the site today was built of reinforced concrete in 1952 but in a style sympathetic to the older buildings in the street. It closed in 1986 and was sold in
December that year.
The wings on either side of the main building were added in the 1990s. The site next door was once occupied by Bells Biscuit Factory but the stone building was demolished in the 1960s to be replaced by a concrete block building serving as a new bar for the Dunstan Hotel. In 1987, when the main street was used as a set for the film Illustrious Energy the stone and mud brick facades were added using materials from the old part of Cromwell
that was to be flooded by the creation of Lake Dunstan.
The Lord Clyde
The site was occupied by one of Clyde’s earliest tent hotels, the Hotel United States built by the Buckingham family who shortly after moved to Arrowtown following the gold rush there in November, 1862. In 1868, John Cox built a handsome wooden hotel on the site and named it the Port Phillip. It was destroyed by
fire in 1903 but was rebuilt in stone and renamed the Commercial Hotel. A few days later a fire gutted the interior but because the town was booming and the stone structure undamaged, it was rebuilt.
In more recent times, it was renamed the Dunstan Hotel and was extended to serve the workers building the Clyde Dam in the 1980s. It was put on the market in 2019 and the section containing the original 1903 hotel was sold separately. After extensive renovations, the hotel opened for accommodation as The Lord Clyde, the 19th century British soldier after whom Clyde is named
Benjamin Naylor's Store
(Olivers 1870)
This large complex has survived almost intact and is now a category one listed building and owes its existence to Benjamin Naylor. The 21- year-old sailed from England in 1851 to the Victorian goldfields and came to Otago during the 1861 gold rush to establish a store at Gabriel’s Gully near Lawrence. He moved his business to the Dunstan goldfield the following year starting with a tent store and a wagon-load of supplies.
It was replaced in 1863 by the Victoria Store, a wooden and corrugated iron building. The existing stone building dates from 1870 after Naylor bought the land from the store to the corner (Naylor St) and built stables, coach sheds, a smoke house and a large store for timber and iron. He added a gracious stone home which had a conservatory, servants quarters and a large underground coal and food storage cellar. It is still in its original condition apart from the front of the house which was modernised in 1929. The wall surrounding the property was built using stones salvaged from derelict buildings. Naylor served four years from 1873 as mayor of the Clyde Borough.
In 1925 the property was sold to Joseph and Sarah Davidson who partitioned the store using half as a general store and half as a drapery until the mid-1960s. Fleur Sullivan and John Braine established Olivers restaurant in the store in 1977 and then bought the property in 1981 adding accommodation. It changed hands several times and in 2010 it was bought by David and Andrea Ritchie. They embarked on a major restoration and rebuilding project saving parts of the property from deteriorating to a point beyond repair. The accommodation was refurbished and in March, 2015, Olivers Restaurant reopened along with a boutique brewery, bar, café and delicatessen.
Matau Street
The origin of the building remains a mystery. It dates from the late 1860s or early 1870s and is on property acquired by the Superintendent of Otago in 1869 for the “advancement of education”. It was next door to the original Clyde School which used to face the main street (Sunderland St) and was probably the teacher’s residence. The building was sold in 1872 to John Cox who owned the Port Philip Hotel (now The Lord Clyde Hotel). It is whispered it might have been a brothel, or a honeymoon suite.
In the 1950s it was owned by Rex Stevens (his father owned the Dunstan Times) and he used it as a storeroom for his draper’s shop built on the site of the old school. At one stage the local boxing club met there. The interior of the building was greatly altered in 1987 to represent an opium den for the movie Illustrious Energy.
The building is under restoration.
St Michael's and All Angels Anglican Church
Anglicans in Clyde established the first church in the Dunstan goldfields with a service, held in 1863, in a corrugated iron shed originally used as a store. It was destroyed in a ferocious wind
storm a few months later and its replacement was wooden. It was demolished after a new church was built nearby in 1877 designed by the eminent Victorian architect R.A. Lawson.
t Michael’s is a traditional English style church and it is one of three known Lawson churches in Central Otago. Built with local stone, the interior woodwork was crafted by local carpenter Charles Hueston with a ceiling of arch-braced wood. The large east and west windows have tracery tops and the small windows are early English lancet.
Church services ceased in 2015 and in 2020 the Anglican Diocese in Dunedin sold the property despite attempts by a charitable trust to keep it as a community building. It is now in private ownership
Clyde Bridge 1934
Māori called the Clutha River Mata-au which means eddy or current across an expanse of water. The early miners knew it as the Molyneux, named by Captain Cook after his sailing master. This beautiful but treacherous river with its powerful currents has claimed many lives and it was both respected and feared by the
miners. Crossings were made by punt until a bridge was built in 1876 for £6500 ($1300) by the Clyde Corporation.
A toll to cross the bridge was abolished in 1878 when it was bought by the newly-formed Vincent County Council. That same year, a massive flood swept away the wooden structure leaving just the cables and stone piers. Rebuilding took three years and the new bridge, with a higher deck structure, opened in June 1881. It was replaced in 1934 by a single lane steel-arched bridge.
The cable pillars were removed but the bridge rests on the original stone piers.
Post Office 1900
The original Post Office, the earliest in the goldfields, was a calico tent later replaced by a wooden and corrugated iron structure. The immediate area was the hub of the town from the 1860s until the turn of the century and was known as “The Camp”.
This was where the barracks, police quarters, the prison, the lockup for gold and government services were located. The first telegraph line was operating in 1866 and mail was dispatched by coach or packhorse.
The current Post Office was built in 1900 by Shetland Islander and stone mason, William Gair. It was extended in 1907 to house mail
boxes and a telephone exchange. Seven telephones were installed in 1909. The Postmaster’s residence, also in stone, was added later.
Council Chambers
Clyde Historical Museum
Across the road is the building that served as the new headquarters of the Vincent County Council. It replaced the first council chambers, an elegant stone construction which opened in
March, 1879. Sadly, its replacement was an out of-character modern construction built in the days when the preservation of old buildings was of no great importance.
The county council was absorbed into the Central Otago District Council in 1989 and the Clyde Historical Museum took over the building in the early 1990s. It still contains the magnificent wooden council table and chairs used by Vincent county councillors. Staffed by volunteers, it is open from late October to the end of April.
Courthouse
Next door is the Magistrate’s and Warden’s Courthouse. It was built of stone in 1864 to replace the original canvas and timber-framed
construction lined with paper destroyed during a wind storm.
The courthouse was also the administration headquarters of the Dunstan gold rush and contained the offices of Vincent Pyke, Commissioner of the Goldfields, and Major Keddell, commander of the mounted police. It is now a private residence.
Police Sergeant's House
The stone house next door was built in the 1870s for the Sergeant of Police. At the time there was a stone jail to the left of this building and an office beside the residence.
From here to the school further along the road, were housed up to 15 mounted troopers who policed the goldfields and acted as escorts for the gold coach to Dunedin and to many important visitors.