1920s farmhouse getting facelift

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RESTORATION: Visitors outside the Hayes Homestead at Hayes Engineering Works at Oturehua.

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A century-old farmstead in Central Otago that attracts thousands of visitors each year is being steadily restored to its 1920s-era glory.

Works at the grand mud-brick homestead of renowned engineer Ernest Hayes and his wife Hannah, near Oturehua, started in April.

Hayes built up a turn-of-the-century business manufacturing farming tools, including several designs still used today.

The engineering complex was opened in the 1970s but last month a partly restored 11-room home, including five bedrooms, a laundry and walk-in pantry, was opened to the public for the first time.

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust owns the site, which is managed by Ken and Helen Gillespie. Project managers said the restoration was still a "work in progress".

New Zealand Historic Places Trust southern manager of heritage destinations Paul McGahansaid the complex attracted about 6000 visitors a year.

The house was simply decorated in its day and it was a challenge to source period furniture and fittings, he said. Other works included restoring the Hayes' original cottage for use as a cafe and installing new information panels, he said.

He declined to reveal the cost of works but said the aim was to complete restoration by December.

Mr Gillespie said most of the work involved stripping paint and finding suitable furnishings. A plasterer used an old mix to replicate the original homestead's finish, and bedding, chairs and sundries had been sourced but the homestead lacked high-backed chairs for the dining room and a kitchen range, he said.

The kitchen and living room would be a "work in progress for quite a long time", he said.

Mr and Mrs Hayes, who emigrated to New Zealand from England in the 1880s, built the smaller homestead before building the larger house, stables and windmill-driven engineering works.

Mr Gillespie will be cranking the original, belt-driven works next month during a series of operational days.

- © Fairfax NZ News