The Royal Hotel Naseby, New Zealand

About Naseby

Historic Naseby has remained unchanged for more than half a century. It nestles in a shallow valley in the foothills of the Mt Ida Range surrounded by forest and tree-clad hills, 2000 feet above sea level. The plain is ringed by several impressive mountain ranges and it is a region that can be very hot in summer and invigoratingly cold in winter.

The village is one hours drive inland from coastal Otago, 1.5 hours drive from Otago’s principal city, Dunedin, 55 minutes drive from Alexandra (the regional centre of Central Otago), and about 2 hours drive from Wanaka and Queenstown (with its international airport).

History of Naseby

Gold Town Beginnings

In early 1863, William and Richard Parker left the flooded Dunstan diggings in the Cromwell valley further inland in Central Otago. They prospected as they went towards the east coast and found gold in the Coalpit gully and also in a small gully running into the Hogburn creek. The “Parkers Diggings” goldrush was on! Within a month 2000 had arrived and twenty canvas shops lined each side of a muddy main street.

The Government shifted the town five weeks later and on August 20^th 1863 it was gazetted as the centre for the Mt Ida Goldfield. Initially it was named “Parkers”. It had banks, a police camp and a resident magistrate. Other gold rushes around the Maniototo occurred ( Hamiltons, Sowburn (Patearoa), Mt Burster, Kyeburn Diggings,) but Naseby remained the main centre for the basin.

The Royal Hotel opened in October 1863 under the ownership of Andrew Morrison and Co. It was one of three hotels constructed when the town was shifted to its present site. It is the oldest remaining hotel, dating from a time when there were more than 22 hotels in Naseby and about 10 percent of the population were publicans.

Staff consisted of “two young ladies available to dispense the miners their nobblers and change”. Andrew was noted for his “excellent cuisine manner” and he catered for cricket matches and for suppers and balls. A Thurston Billiard table was ordered in August 1865. Board was 30 shillings a week. When the building was almost wrecked by a severe storm in 1865, the building reopened three months later “the building a most splendid one and unequalled by any up country” and a banquet and ball marked the event.

Cobb and Co Coach Inn

The Cobb and Co Coach started coming to Naseby in 1869, as part of a service which ran from the east coast (Dunedin and Palmerston) to the goldfields of Dunstan (Cromwell area) which took three days. The Naseby stop allowed the horses to be changed and the passengers to have refreshments.

After a dispute arising over the high charges made by the innkeeper of the Victoria Hotel at Naseby, Cobb’s horses were moved over to the stables at the Royal Hotel in march 1870 and the service was then run for many years by Edmund Horsewell, the proprietor at the time. Stables were built at the end of Earn St, where the Hotel cars now park. Other famous coach inns in Central Otago area include the Dansey’s Pass Hotel, the Vulcan Hotel at St Bathans and the Cardrona Hotel near Wanaka. All are single storied, long and low and are built right beside the road.

When the railway was built from Dunedin to Middlemarch in 1892 (now used by the Taieri Gorge Railway) the Cobb and Co Coach ran from Middlemarch, instead of the coast. Naseby was the halfway point and passengers from each end stayed the night at the Royal Hotel. By the First World War the motorcar had made these coaches redundant.

Excellent examples of different horse drawn carriages are housed in the Naseby museum, across the road from the Royal Hotel.

1879 Royal Hotel Expansion

The “New” Royal Hotel was opened in April 1879, and comprised of an additional wing of accommodation joining the original bar area. The walls were 11 foot high, lined with tongue and groove kauri boards and had ornamental skirtings and cornices. It had 12 bedrooms and two bathrooms. The frontage was re-clad in 10 inch rusticated weatherboards and had elaborate Victorian pilasters and entablature across the front.

It now had a separate door for guests to enter the premises. This was a first for Naseby and was well received by the ladies who found it embarrassing to walk through the bar to their lodgings. The 20 yard long hall from which the bedrooms had their entrances was later termed “the red mile” because of the red carpet and the length of the hall. The new extension cost 1030 pounds.

The Hotel Lamp

It was a regulation in 1865 that hotels have a light outside their front door. It was probably the first street lights that Naseby had. The Royal Hotel’s was large and mounted on posts. It was fuelled by kerosene, electric lighting not reaching Naseby until the late 1940’s.

“One of William Jacobs tasks in Naseby was to light the Kerosene lamps as his father had lit them thirty years in the early days of the town. Mr Jacob showed me how he lit the lamps. He had a special can and a measure that just held enough kerosene for a nights burning. Of course, it was right and proper that he had a ladder for his lamp burning activities. Jacobs ladder has been a part of Naseby for a long time. We had a few rums together in the Royal Hotel, after which Mr Jacob suggested lighting a few more lamps for me……

But over the ancient bar, above which the curling trophies showed among the bottles, I found my time not being wasted. I learned a lot of things about the town that otherwise I might have missed…"

From In Search of Central Otago. By G.Hugh Sumpter. Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd, Dunedin, 1947. Chapter 2, North to Naseby. Pg 27-29.

From the 1960's up until 2005

The whole hotel was given a roughcasted exterior in an art deco style in the early sixties. Victorian detail was disapproved of at that time. However, the roughcast has preserved the kauri weatherboards underneath and given the hotel a santa fe like appearance which suits the hot dry summers and the tussocky landscape. Bright blue and green colour schemes have caused uproars over the decades and it’s green frontage in the 80’s caught the eye of Robin Morrison, famous photographer and is featured in his book “From the Road”.

The double coal range in the kitchen was still being used for cooking and heating until 2002, when the kitchen was rebuilt to modern standards. The bedroom wing still exists although three ensuites have been included and the rooms are better insulated. A wooden boardwalk has been added to the frontage for outside dining.

This frontage has been classified in Category B by the Historic Places Trust and the current owners have resource consent to return it to its original Victorian wooden exterior. There are also plans to recreate the distinctive hotel lamp.

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