Historic home offers tea and tranquility

‘‘We were out and about and saw these places doing the Devonshire teas and it just seemed perfect for here.’’

Kevin Bold is saying goodbye to Stonestead, again.

The landmark 1860s property at Te Marua, north of Upper Hutt, is on the market.

Bold, who for the last 12 years has operated a Devonshire tea business from Stonestead’s Plateau Rd frontage, is looking to sell the house and business as ‘‘the one thing’’.

Bold, well known as a ballroom instructor, has a long association with the 4000 square metre property. He bought it for a first time in 1981, living in the four-bedroom house with his wife and children until it was sold in 1996.

Eight years later Bold, who was born in Te Marua and has lived in Upper Hutt all his life, found the property back on the market and bought it for his second time.

A year later, with his partner Yvonne, he was to turn it into a home and business with Stonestead Devonshire Teas opening.

The business idea came to the couple by chance, when they were in England taking part in an inter- national ballroom dancing competition In Blackpool.

‘‘We were out and about and saw these places doing the Devonshire teas and it just seemed perfect for here,’’ he said.

While in England Bold ordered 40 fine china cup and saucer sets as the idea took immediate hold.

‘‘We’d decided on this there and then and we just came back and got on with developing it.’’

Stones from the Hutt River were used in the building and gave the property its name.

On the site of a former sawmill, it has three main buildings. The original house is set back from the two-level former garage where the four-days-a week teahouse operates. The third building, a modern cottage, houses the Sawmillers Quiltery shop - another Bold business.

Stonestead’s extensive gardens are a feature Bold is proud of. The property is bordered to the north by a small stream and has an established forest, gardens and a swimming pool.

‘‘It really is a one-off property and it presents so many possibilities,’’ Ray White Real Estate agent Jamie Lynch said.

The property could also be subdivided.

Lynch estimated the value of Stonestead - separate to the businesses - to be in the mid-six hundreds.