The Cuddy, Waimate

The three Studholme brothers emigrated from England to Christchurch in a sailing ship and must have been impressed by the comfortable Cuddy as they named their thatched totara slab cottage on Te Waimate Station after it. "Cuddy" is a cabin situated near the main mast of a sailing ship, which is relatively comfortable because pitching in rough seas is at a minimum there.

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The Cuddy at Waimate was the first European house in the district. It was built by the three Studholme brothers in 1854 and thatched by Saul Shrives. Saul was a bullock driver who hated crossing Canterbury rivers (with good reason, many have drowned in them). Michael Studholme, the eldest brother (20) persuaded Saul to take him south from Christchurch, despite the rivers, a winter journey taking 6 weeks then, but only 3 hours by road now.

The Cuddy has a dirt floor, which was never flattened properly, so chairs are unstable. Michael's new bride, Effie, arrived in 1860 and refused to live in the place. The Studholme homestead (1860, rebuilt 1928) is beside the Cuddy, The slab cottage has been carefully maintained and regularly re-thatched over a hidden corrugated iron roof, added later for preservation. The Cuddy is protected by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.

A large woolshed covers 0.25 hectare and was built at the same time as the Cuddy from pit sawn Totara. It is still in use, modernised inside for better shearing work flow. The original Ferriers wool press was imported from Geelong, Australia and is probably the oldest press still functioning in New Zealand.

A wool press compresses wool into a wool bale (sack). The baled wool was sent to Oamaru for export to England. Now a major buyer of New Zealand wool is China and Oamaru is no longer a significant port.

Thatch cottages are unusual in New Zealand. Here is another Waimate Totara bush cottage, with wooden shingles for a roof, moved to Knottingley Park at Waimate for preservation. (Totara is a New Zealand tree highly prized for its timber but now too rare for home building).

The Cuddy was far enough from the main building to survive the homestead fire of 1928. It is near large Australian gum trees and survived some of them falling in the big 1968 storm, which sunk the Cook Strait ferry, Wahine.

The three Studholme brothers lived here for 6 years after building the cuddy from a single totara tree.

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