Terrace Station Kitchen Museum – a family legacy

Rakaia Terrace Station at Hororātā was the home of Sir John Hall – runholder, politician and premier of New Zealand (1824–1907) – and his wife, Rose, Lady Hall (1828-1900). The homestead, which is listed as a Category 1 historic place by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, has been continuously occupied by five generations of the family since the 1860s. To secure its future preservation, it is now owned by the Terrace Station Charitable Trust but lived in and cared for by Kate Foster (pictured above), great-granddaughter of John and Rose. The large colonial kitchen, housed within an 1896 addition to the homestead, was used until 1971 and became a museum in 2021.

Image: The Homestead, Terrace Station. Courtesy of Terrace Station Charitable Trust.

On display
Three vintage hand-beaters from the Terrace Station kitchen museum. These handed-down hand beaters tell us about kitchen life for generations of cooks at Terrace Station. From top to bottom, the beaters are the Dover 'Mammoth' (patented 1873), the Taplin (patented 1908), and the Swift Whip (1950s). On loan from Terrace Station Charitable Trust. Photographed by Michelle Sim.

Image of Sir John Hall (1824–1907) and his wife Rose, Lady Hall (1828–1900). Courtesy of the Terrace Station Charitable Trust.

A remarkable collection
The Kitchen Museum tells a wide range of stories relating to the social history and everyday life of a colonial sheep station and farming family, as well as a century of technological change. It features a remarkable collection of appliances, utensils, equipment, crockery, and recipe books used in the preparation of food at Terrace Station, including the first electric stove used there from 1931. Kate Foster is the present custodian of the collection, caring for the numerous domestic artefacts used and kept by generations of her family - from hand beaters and meat presses from the late 1800s to electric frying pans and jelly moulds from the 1970s. 'Some families do not throw out their kitchen utensils/equipment/recipe books when they become obsolete – it may be that they kept using them past the use-by date, or else have space to put them 'in the attic' for fifty or more years and now they have become museum pieces.'
– Kate Foster

Image: Some of the many historic cookbooks preserved in the Terrace Station Kitchen Museum collection. Photographed by Michelle Sim

A valued employee

The kitchen is an integral part of the heritage fabric of Terrace Station, which, in addition to the homestead, includes a collection of well-preserved farm buildings. It adds another layer to the story of the Station, highlighting the role of the kitchen as a domestic hub. The first person to use the kitchen was Mrs Catherine Stuthridge, who was employed by John and Rose Hall as the cook at Terrace Station between 1896 and 1906. Mrs Stuthridge clearly earned the esteem of her employer, as Sir John left a legacy of £25 (approximately $5,000 today) in his will “…to Mrs Stuthridge, my valued servant.” This was half of her final annual wage. She is pictured here in her retirement, at Jubilee Home in Woolston, 1922.
Courtesy of Graham Rowe.

Collection of enamel teapots, milk jugs, and mugs, used to cater for shearers and workers at Terrace Station. Photographed by Michelle Sim

Later years

In later generations, members of the family cooked and ate in this kitchen. Kate Foster recalls that when she was a child, her family would have breakfast and lunch in the kitchen, and dinner in the more formal dining room. Behind unassuming artefacts on the kitchen shelves are many little stories which speak to this more personal experience - a mended saucepan and cream jug, and a serving spoon worn flat by years of scraping out the scrambled egg pan! There are also reminders of catering for the workers, with large pots and teapots once used to feed shearers and farmhands. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kate herself cooked on the coal range in here, feeding 10–12 shearers at a time. In later years, the coal range also came in useful when snowstorms cut off the electricity.

The Shacklock Orion coal range in the Terrace Station Kitchen Museum is still in working order!
Photographed by Michelle Sim

A century of change

Another fascinating aspect of the Kitchen Museum collection is how it shows the progression of the technology of food preparation, spanning almost a century – from coal ranges and cast-iron cooking pots, to electric stoves, toasters, and jugs. Many items are recognisable, such as the hand beaters displayed here. Others, however, are entirely unfamiliar, their purpose now redundant, such as the bean slicer and pea sheller (pictured here). Some items, such as large ceramic crocks and meat safes, testify to the once vital need to preserve produce before the invention of refrigerators and freezers.

The Terrace Station kitchen museum is open to the public, by appointment only. For more information, visit: www.terracestation.org.nz

Jelly moulds in the collection of the Terrace Station kitchen museum.

Photographed by Michelle Sim

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Terrace Station Kitchen Museum – a family legacy