Let’s hear it for Hampden, where it’s all happening

Twice lately there have been headlines about happenings in Hampden.

It won’t surprise regular users of State Highway 1 that the three different speed limits within the settlement are the current gripe. But having a long stretch of the main road bisecting the township has been noted since the early days. 

Lawrence Stuart, who died in Dunedin in 1922, had been in Hampden in the 1860s and recalled: "The population then was mostly employed sawing; timber, splitting posts and rails for fencing, harvesting and shearing. There were no streets formed in my time; the Main Road went right through the township."

Locals today are asking for just two different speed limits, and lower ones, to make things safer. As the saying goes, "Watch this space."

The other story, dear to my heart as a hotel history buff, was the news that the Hampden Tavern is for sale. I called in there not long ago while my minder went shopping at the supermarket (surely the most impressive emporium of any small town) and discovered a cache of historic photos on the bar wall. That was enough to call for a second drink and a bit of note taking.

The hotel opened with a bush licence in 1861, making it one of the oldest pubs in Otago. That was the year part of the local sheep run established by Peter Williams in 1854 was opened up for closer settlement.

Already on the scene was Englishman William Murcott, who had arrived in 1860 and immediately saw the potential for a hotel. He arranged for his brother Henry, later the Hampden butcher, to buy equipment for the pub in the United States on his way out from England. William ran the pub for 15 years and during Hampden’s days as a borough (New Zealand’s third smallest after Naseby and Arrowtown) he served as mayor three times.

The other pub, the Clyde Hotel, was refused a licence in 1903 and burned down in 1906. The Hampden Hotel prospered as the Cobb & Co coaches changed horses there. When the main trunk railway was completed in the 1870s the beaches at Hampden and Moeraki, which were noted for safe bathing, became favourite holiday drawcards affected only briefly by the shark attack at Moeraki in 1907 which killed prominent Dunedin civil engineer William Hutchinson.

In 1876, JW Fisher took over the Hampden Hotel with a grand opening ball and supper when, as usual in those days, "festivities were kept up till a very early hour in the morning".

There’s a fine sketch in the archives by railway surveyor Joseph Sandell showing Hampden in 1876 with the Hampden Hotel in the middle of what was already a stretched-out settlement. Lawrence Stuart’s recollections confirm it was a busy place: "There were 27 dwelling houses; two hotels, Clyde Hotel (John Prosser) and Hampden Hotel (William Murcott); two blacksmiths' shops (William Stewart and Andrew Watson); two general stores (John Young and William Kirby); two butchers’ shops (Thomas Watkins and Henry Murcott); one bakery (John Young and William Livingston); one clothier and fancy goods’ shop; one Presbyterian Church and manse (Rev James Baird); one police camp (one mounted constable); one Drill Hall; one library; one school and schoolmaster’s residence (Donald Munro); carpenters (William Spiers, Arch Weir, John Presland;) and doctor William Hayne. Approximate population, 130."

Add to this a mini gold rush at Moeraki and Hampden beach in the 1860s which saw up to 40 men working the sands.

Eventually the Hampden Hotel had 20 rooms, a billiard room, a garden and three acres of land. Many licensees held the pub and very seldom did they appear in court, although in 1879 James Watters was fined 10 shillings for permitting gambling. George Marshall was the publican in 1906 when the accompanying photo was taken but in 1905 the Oamaru electorate had voted to go "dry" and, in 1909, the hotel lost its liquor licence. It continued to be a popular private hotel for holidaymakers, especially during Emily Horner’s time up to 1920. In 1913 she had to sort out a visit by a mare and foal which came through the front door and made their way to the dentist’s room, which was a permanent fixture in the hotel.

Holiday traffic decreased and during World War 2 the hotel and attached store were on the market but there is no report of a sale. The building lingered on until the Oamaru Licensing Trust built today’s Hampden Tavern.

Another licensing trust build, Waikouaiti’s Golden Fleece (founded in 1863), is also for sale and that gem among country pubs, the Waipiata Hotel, has just been sold, but their stories are for another time.

In the meantime, let’s hope the Hampden locals get the speed limits they want, and the tavern continues to be one of Otago’s oldest country pubs.

— Jim Sullivan is a Patearoa writer.