Access solution for cottage

VALLANCE Cottage, a category 2 heritage building in Alexandra, has just had a remote locking system installed to help relieve pressure on volunteer staff.

In the past couple of years, a call for more volunteers to help keep the cottage open for visitors has been unsuccessful.

As a result, the working group looking after the site has had to be creative and come up with alternative solutions.

Vallance Cottage was handbuilt by a Scottish goldminer, William Vallance, in 189697 as a family home for his wife Jean and eventually their eight children.

Their daughter Hazel returned home in her late 20s to care for her ageing parents and remained at the cottage until the early 1970s after which time it was used as a crib/holiday home by Vallance family descendants.

The family then gave the cottage to the community in the early 1990s. The cottage and the land around it are now owned by the Central Otago District Council.

By the mid 1990s the cottage was in very poor condition so a community restoration group saved it from demolition by raising funds for its restoration.

The cottage was then fitted out with period furniture by the Historical Society and open to the public during summer months as an example of what life was like in the early 19th century.

The Vallance Cottage Working Group has been working on a solution to make the historic cottage and reserve more accessible to people and to tell its stories, without the need for volunteers.

The remote locking system has been installed to unlock the front door at 9am and relock it at 4pm. The public can then access the cottage for viewing without the need for a volunteer to be present.

The working group aims to have the cottage open from September to April each year.