Chippenham Lodge, Historic lodge in St Albans, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Chippenham Lodge is a substantial brick house on Brown's Road in St Albans, reached by a long drive. Its first six-room section was probably designed by Benjamin Mountfort, though Maxwell Bury cannot be ruled out. In 1865 Mountfort and Bury added a plainer southern extension, bringing the house to ten rooms.
The Goldney brothers bought 26 acres in St Albans in 1862 for their Christchurch home; the substantial brick house had six rooms, and its designer is uncertain between Benjamin Mountfort and Maxwell Bury, though stylistic features point to Mountfort. Henry Mytton bought it on 12 September 1865 for £1,400 and that year commissioned a southern extension from Mountfort and Bury, whose plainer design suggests Bury, turning it into a ten-room house. After Mytton's 1867 bankruptcy the lawyer Thomas Joynt occupied it, and in 1875 John Thomas Peacock sold it to his brother-in-law John Evans Brown.
The Heartwood Community bought the house in 1971 and ran it as a commune; at its peak 20 people lived there, including Marian Hobbs, later a cabinet minister. HART (Halt All Racist Tours), Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand and Women's Refuge held their first meetings or were founded at Chippenham Lodge.
The building is located on Browns Road and is currently closed to the public due to necessary structural repairs. Future plans may see it relocated near the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, which could eventually allow access.
Chippenham Lodge was bought in 1971 by the Heartwood Community Incorporated, a commune active in social and political issues. HART (Halt All Racist Tours), Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand and Women's Refuge all held their first meetings or were founded there. At its peak, 20 people lived in the house, among them Marian Hobbs, later a cabinet minister.
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