For many years Whitford resident Elizabeth Diprose followed the chequered history of the Ambrose Cottage, built by Mr Ambrose Trust Snr and Ambrose Trust Jnr at Hillside Farm near Griggs Road in 1868.
Trust was an English farmer from Devon who arrived in the country with his wife and young family in 1858. He managed the Kennedy Farm which later became the Whitford Golf Club.
From the early 1990s, Elizabeth, her husband Ken, plus thousands of people travelling the Whitford Road, witnessed the kauri cottage languish into disrepair.
Livestock often wandered through and it became a target for vandals. The small, humble structure was also lashed by wind and rain – inside and out.
The cottage then became the focus of intense debate between various groups with each faction claiming the best plan for its future – plans ranging from its immediate destruction to preservation by the Historic Places Trust.
Opinions ran high on saving the building, but preservation takes money. Even the Historic Places Trust, which showed interest at one stage, eventually judged the project too expensive to touch.
In 2005 property developer Doug Sherning bought the cottage and surrounding land. He was given permission by the Manukau City Council to demolish the local landmark but this process became bogged down in red tape. Instead, Mr Sherning offered the cottage to the Diproses for nothing.
The cottage was dismantled board by board and the chimney, brick by brick then rebuilt on the Diprose Whitford property minus the lean-tos. The ceilings are mostly the original kauri, but the floorboards in the main room had to be replaced.
A demolished 100-year-old kauri cottage in Whangarei provided replacement boards and work continued on the project over the next few years. Whitford architect Peter Diprose, Elizabeth and Ken’s son, was the architect for the project.
Now ensconced on a grassy knoll in a more rarefied location, Ambrose Cottage has its pride restored and will last an indeterminate number of years – certainly long enough to pass on the secrets of the past to a few more generations.
