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Castle Hill hotel with the coach heading to the Coast.
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DescriptionThe West Coast Road....Such was the urgency for a road that men worked with axes, picks, shovels
and wheelbarrows through a wet and bitter winter to get the road built.
No pen can describe the sufferings endured by both man and beast during
that terrible winter, exposed to sleet and snow and bitter frost, hardly
lodged and scantily fed...
Edward Dobson, Provincial Engineer, Lyttelton Times, 12 November 1865. This photo was taken in 1886.
Stephen Wright
This is Castle Hill hotel before the second storey was added, with the coach heading to the Coast. Situated on the opposite side of the road to the present-day Castle Hill Village, it was a big loss to travellers when it burnt down in 1904. At this "halfway house" between Springfield and the Bealey, passengers to and from the Coast generally stopped for a cup of tea, and cyclists and others also depended on it for a night's lodging. W J Cloudesley was the publican from 1885 until 1898 but still owned the hotel at the time of the fire. In 1897 it was advertised as being unequalled as a health resort, with saddle-horses and buggies being kept for the use of visitors, numerous interesting walks and drives, fine mountain scenery and a "magnificent climate, second to none in New Zealand for its bracing and tonic effects." Cloudesley had grown up in the iron and coal districts of England and had a lot of coal mining experience behind him. When he went to Castle Hill he came to the conclusion that coal should be found somewhere in the area. He found it all right and quietly carried out tests. Convinced of its viability, he teamed up with two others and secured a mining lease of over a thousand acres of ground, with frontage to Broken River. That was in the second half of the 1880s. It's a long story but eventually the coalfield at Broken River was tapped by Mount Torlesse Collieries Ltd (registered in 1915), operating through until the late 1920s, with coal transported to Avoca on the Midland Line via inclines and a tramwayMap[1] ContributorTony Kokshoorn
and wheelbarrows through a wet and bitter winter to get the road built.
No pen can describe the sufferings endured by both man and beast during
that terrible winter, exposed to sleet and snow and bitter frost, hardly
lodged and scantily fed...
Edward Dobson, Provincial Engineer, Lyttelton Times, 12 November 1865. This photo was taken in 1886.
Stephen Wright
This is Castle Hill hotel before the second storey was added, with the coach heading to the Coast. Situated on the opposite side of the road to the present-day Castle Hill Village, it was a big loss to travellers when it burnt down in 1904. At this "halfway house" between Springfield and the Bealey, passengers to and from the Coast generally stopped for a cup of tea, and cyclists and others also depended on it for a night's lodging. W J Cloudesley was the publican from 1885 until 1898 but still owned the hotel at the time of the fire. In 1897 it was advertised as being unequalled as a health resort, with saddle-horses and buggies being kept for the use of visitors, numerous interesting walks and drives, fine mountain scenery and a "magnificent climate, second to none in New Zealand for its bracing and tonic effects." Cloudesley had grown up in the iron and coal districts of England and had a lot of coal mining experience behind him. When he went to Castle Hill he came to the conclusion that coal should be found somewhere in the area. He found it all right and quietly carried out tests. Convinced of its viability, he teamed up with two others and secured a mining lease of over a thousand acres of ground, with frontage to Broken River. That was in the second half of the 1880s. It's a long story but eventually the coalfield at Broken River was tapped by Mount Torlesse Collieries Ltd (registered in 1915), operating through until the late 1920s, with coal transported to Avoca on the Midland Line via inclines and a tramwayMap[1] ContributorTony Kokshoorn
Shown in this image
Location (city or town)Castle Hill EventBuilding West Coast road
Category Information
Category TagRoads
From Facebook
Date Created13th November 2021CommentsCheryl Hedley
Those poor men and horses, life sure was tough in those days
Geoff More
William Rout of the provincial goverment in 1867 rode from nelson to greymouth..he wrote that the if engineer didn't lift his game he would lose his billet which he did not long after..l wonder if it was this fella.
Richard Howe
The poor women sitting on top, and the inside full of packages by the look of it. They were hardy women in those days.
Jane Blakeman
We have no idea do we? The hardship they all faced to pave the way for us
Bruce Whitfield
Jane Blakeman and some in our society now try to ignore, rewrite our history and even rubbish our early colonial families and their daily slog to break in the country.
Vic Smith
Not like todays lot.
Stephen Wright
This is Castle Hill hotel before the second storey was added, with the coach heading to the Coast. Situated on the opposite side of the road to the present-day Castle Hill Village, it was a big loss to travellers when it burnt down in 1904. At this "halfway house" between Springfield and the Bealey, passengers to and from the Coast generally stopped for a cup of tea, and cyclists and others also depended on it for a night's lodging. W J Cloudesley was the publican from 1885 until 1898 but still owned the hotel at the time of the fire. In 1897 it was advertised as being unequalled as a health resort, with saddle-horses and buggies being kept for the use of visitors, numerous interesting walks and drives, fine mountain scenery and a "magnificent climate, second to none in New Zealand for its bracing and tonic effects." Cloudesley had grown up in the iron and coal districts of England and had a lot of coal mining experience behind him. When he went to Castle Hill he came to the conclusion that coal should be found somewhere in the area. He found it all right and quietly carried out tests. Convinced of its viability, he teamed up with two others and secured a mining lease of over a thousand acres of ground, with frontage to Broken River. That was in the second half of the 1880s. It's a long story but eventually the coalfield at Broken River was tapped by Mount Torlesse Collieries Ltd (registered in 1915), operating through until the late 1920s, with coal transported to Avoca on the Midland Line via inclines and a tramway
Judith Bright
Cloudesley with my great grandfather George Montgomery and Mr George Stronach had a coaching business on the same run as Cobb and Co, Springfield to the West Coast and to Christchurch. Their coach often had a single grey horse in the team. We think it started around the mid 1880s but eventually folded as trains replaced coaches. Known as Cloudesley Stronach and Montgomery, but also as the Midland Coaching Company.
Those poor men and horses, life sure was tough in those days
Geoff More
William Rout of the provincial goverment in 1867 rode from nelson to greymouth..he wrote that the if engineer didn't lift his game he would lose his billet which he did not long after..l wonder if it was this fella.
Richard Howe
The poor women sitting on top, and the inside full of packages by the look of it. They were hardy women in those days.
Jane Blakeman
We have no idea do we? The hardship they all faced to pave the way for us
Bruce Whitfield
Jane Blakeman and some in our society now try to ignore, rewrite our history and even rubbish our early colonial families and their daily slog to break in the country.
Vic Smith
Not like todays lot.
Stephen Wright
This is Castle Hill hotel before the second storey was added, with the coach heading to the Coast. Situated on the opposite side of the road to the present-day Castle Hill Village, it was a big loss to travellers when it burnt down in 1904. At this "halfway house" between Springfield and the Bealey, passengers to and from the Coast generally stopped for a cup of tea, and cyclists and others also depended on it for a night's lodging. W J Cloudesley was the publican from 1885 until 1898 but still owned the hotel at the time of the fire. In 1897 it was advertised as being unequalled as a health resort, with saddle-horses and buggies being kept for the use of visitors, numerous interesting walks and drives, fine mountain scenery and a "magnificent climate, second to none in New Zealand for its bracing and tonic effects." Cloudesley had grown up in the iron and coal districts of England and had a lot of coal mining experience behind him. When he went to Castle Hill he came to the conclusion that coal should be found somewhere in the area. He found it all right and quietly carried out tests. Convinced of its viability, he teamed up with two others and secured a mining lease of over a thousand acres of ground, with frontage to Broken River. That was in the second half of the 1880s. It's a long story but eventually the coalfield at Broken River was tapped by Mount Torlesse Collieries Ltd (registered in 1915), operating through until the late 1920s, with coal transported to Avoca on the Midland Line via inclines and a tramway
Judith Bright
Cloudesley with my great grandfather George Montgomery and Mr George Stronach had a coaching business on the same run as Cobb and Co, Springfield to the West Coast and to Christchurch. Their coach often had a single grey horse in the team. We think it started around the mid 1880s but eventually folded as trains replaced coaches. Known as Cloudesley Stronach and Montgomery, but also as the Midland Coaching Company.
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West Coast New Zealand History (20th May 2022). Castle Hill hotel with the coach heading to the Coast.. In Website West Coast New Zealand History. Retrieved 7th Apr 2026 16:50, from https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/30372