Historic Homesteads of Hawke’s Bay
In stores June 17th 2021
Historic Homesteads of Hawke’s Bay
Angus Gordon
PUBLISHED BY MARY EGAN PUBLISHING 17 June 2021, RRP $50.00
These gracious homes – dotted across the sun-drenched uplands of Hawke’s Bay – rose unashamedly from the golden fleeces on the sheep’s backs, to become monuments to our settler heritage. Set in spacious grounds and framed by enormous exotic trees, such as oaks, gums or Norfolk pines, they stand as testament to the dreams of our ancestors who came to this fresh canvas of a country, which already had its own rich Māori culture, with a determination to put their own individualistic mark on the landscape.
The Province of Hawke’s Bay played its part in the New Zealand pastoral revolution that placed our country firmly at the forefront of the world agricultural scene. Today, New Zealand still pioneers the development of technologies in the farming sector. Strong crossbred wool, a natural durable fibre, started that process. This neglected product has, it seems, lost its golden touch – yet these grand homes, mostly in very good repair, remain as symbols of the wool boom which helped to shape our colonial past and to prepare us for our place in the new order.
Angus Gordon has lived all his life – on and off – within the magical walls of Clifton, one of the houses described in this book. First as one of six children, with his parents John and Barbara, who carried out extensive renovations during their forty years there. Later, Angus and his wife Dinah brought up their own two children, Tom and Abby, in the house; now they watch Frankie and Jasper, the children of Tom and his wife Lucia, running up and down the stairs and riding bicycles noisily around the veranda.
The house itself just creaks and sighs, and looks wistfully out to sea.
Angus has written two other books: In the Shadow of the Cape, a history of the Gordon family at Clifton for the last 160 years, and Famous Times, a photographic and written history of the old woolsheds of Hawke’s Bay.
