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A Canterbury estate where three generations of the same family once lived and thrived is on the market.
Most recently, the Lynn family estate on Alford Forest Rd, Ashburton, was owned by the late Peter and Elwyn Lynn. But it was also home to Peter’s parents, Bob and Bertha Lynn.
Peter and Elwyn’s children Kirri, Robert, Pete, Sarah and Katrina, have spent months sorting through their father’s much-loved collections.
It included scores of tools, equipment and stationary engines.
“It has been a very multi-purpose space,” Kirri said of the 3.5ha site.
“It has achieved many different things and given Peter, and everybody, the flexibility to do the things they wanted to do with their businesses.”
Zoned industrial, it was the site of Lynns Hardware and Joinery, owned by Bob and Bertha Lynn, and home to the Museum of Woodworking and Ornamental Turning, and later, Peter Lynn Kites, which remains on site, along with Placemakers Ashburton and other businesses.
Kirri said Bob’s company had the joinery contract for work on the Beehive in Wellington and the same panelling was used in the cottage where he and wife Bertha lived.
Growing up, Kirri said Bertha always had animals.
There were goats, donkeys and horses and the property had a saw dust pit where the grandkids rode motorbikes.
Kirri said many happy years were spent growing up at the property.
Her parents and her grandparents lived in different houses on site.
There is the original Tobby House, the cottage, and the family home as well as the workshop.
Peter’s sister, Elizabeth Holland, said her father, Bob, built the original family home on Baker St where his factory first started.
However, as business boomed, the site became untenable and her parents eventually bought the land on Alford Forest Rd in the 1960s.
Bob built the Tobby House first.
“They lived upstairs while he built the cottage,” Elizabeth said.
Upstairs later became his office, and he had a workshop below.
“He liked making things,” Elizabeth said of her father’s passion for wood.
“We’ve got piles of boxes, wooden boxes, wooden tables and wooden chairs."
Bob’s original tool museum was set up in a shed on site, Elizabeth’s husband, Lindsay said.
The Lynn Woodwork Museum is now in the care of a trust and housed at The Plains in Tinwald.
Lindsay said Peter too, spent a lot of time in the shed and always had a project under way.
“He was always restoring or rebuilding some antique engine or piece of machinery,” Lindsay said.
“Peter was a graduate design engineer, he knew his stuff. He was very interested in very specialist narrow fields of things.”
Kirri said: “Most people know him for the kites, but engines were his hobby.
“The property gave Bob the flexibility to do what he wanted, and it gave Peter the flexibility so he could repurpose buildings for his (interests).
“I mean not everybody could have a hobby shop like that,” she said, pointing at the workshop.
Elizabeth said the sprawling property holds many memories.
“We used to have some great family get-togethers here.”
It included novelty Christmas Day races down the hill on bikes, lawn mowers, tractors and mobility scooters.
As Kirri and her siblings sort through tools and equipment on the site they are planning to distribute two of Peter’s collections: A historic portable sawmill is going to woodturners at The Plains, and an extensive collection of kites will be exhibited at the Ashburton Aviation Museum.
Some engines have already been sent to the Roger Mahan Heritage Centre in Geraldine for exhibit, which Peter was able to attend before his passing in April.
Gold coin day
In mid-October there is a gold coin donation day planned for anything remaining — and everything must go, Kirri said.
People can make a donation for the Cancer Society and take items away.
There are screws, sockets and tools Kirri has only just learnt the names of on offer, she said.
She has been listing items on Trade Me, while the property is listed with Bayleys Ashburton with a deadline sale of October 8.