Blog: A history of Welton House – down under!

Regular readers will be familiar with Welton House, the home of Sir Halford Reddish that stood on the site of Halford Way. 

But it’s unlikely that you’ve heard of its namesake in Marlborough, New Zealand – yet interestingly, the New Zealand property takes its identity from our village.

Welton House in Marlborough is built high on an ancient sand dune, to avoid the floods that came regularly from the Wairau and Ōpaoa Rivers. 

Once used as a refugee centre, it is today known for its striking Victorian main house and celebrated seven acre garden; visitors come to see its sweeping lawns, restored villa architecture and the creative planting schemes developed by owner Wendy Palmer and her garden designer brother Ross.

The grounds once bore crops and supported sheep farming, today they contain gardens and acres of the world famous Sauvingnon Blanc grape.

But behind this modern success lies a story of more than a century old that begins on the other side of the world – in our village.

The link comes through Sarah Elizabeth Knibb, born in Lincolnshire in 1875 and raised in Welton. Her family were agricultural labourers who moved to the village around 1880.

By the 1891 census, her parents Samuel and Harriet Knibb were living in a modest two‑up, two‑down cottage on Lower Church Street, (Churchill Road) with daughter Annie. Sarah herself does not appear – she was working as a servant in London for Elizabeth Major, living in St George Hanover Square.

Her younger sister, Annie Elizabeth, would later marry Ernest Porter at St Martin’s Church in 1906. They had a daughter Doris who died as a baby and another daughter Cicely, and would settle at The Firs. But Sarah’s life took a very different turn.

Sarah had an illegitimate son, Frank, born in 1900 in Oakley, Buckinghamshire, with no father named. At the time, Sarah was employed in Buckinghamshire as a servant, but by 1901 she had returned to Welton, while baby Frank was taken in by John and Jane Brooks of Oakley — relatives through the Causby (Harriet’s parents) line — assisted by a young girl Nellie Hawes. It’s likely that the return to Welton was prompted by the loss of her job after Frank’s birth.

Soon after this, Sarah met Arthur John Mills, a New Zealander from Marlborough. The son of pioneering settlers John and Ann Mills, Arthur was unusual among early settlers in that he had been born in New Zealand rather than arriving from Britain. In 1878, while still a young teenager, he began clearing dense native bush to create a plot for a cottage. His parents had bought land for him and his brother to “break in”, and Arthur spent years shaping the beginnings of what would become Welton House.

Early in the 20^th century, Arthur travelled to England to find a wife, though the exact circumstances of his meeting with Sarah remain unclear. What is certain is that Sarah made a life‑changing decision: she left behind her young son, and sailed halfway around the world to live with him.

They married in Welton in 1906 – Arthur having travelled from New Zealand with his relative Alice – and all three sailed back after the marriage, on the ship Athentic, on 21st September 1906.

It was a trip that would take 70 days; the emotional cost of leaving her child must have been considerable. Returning to Marlborough, Arthur built a new house on his land, replacing an earlier smaller dwelling. He named it Welton House, honouring Sarah’s home village and it was the core of the house that remains today.

This naming was a touching link between the two Weltons: one a small English parish, the other a growing agricultural settlement on New Zealand’s South Island.

Sarah (left) and Arthur went on to have two children together in New Zealand – Cicely Beatrice in 1907 and Eileen Mary in 1909.

In 1925 Sarah bought the freehold of The Firs in Welton from her great uncle Francis Knibb. The property was held in trust with daughters Cicely and Eileen being the trustees.

Arthur died in 1933, and is commemorated on Sarah’s memorial stone. It states he died ‘in England’ and the following obituary appeared, showing he was in Derbyshire at the time along with with wife and daughters.

After Arthur died in 1933, Sarah went to Welton and made her will there, witnessed by Clement Porter, her sister’s brother in law. She must have returned to New Zealand by 1936, the date on personal correspondence of hers left in Welton House, and she died there in 1946. In her will, she left the Firs and its land to her son Frank!

Sarah and Arthur’s memorial stone at Blenheim Anglican Cemetery is shown below.

Their elder daughter, Cicely Beatrice McHugh, maybe named after Annie’s daughter, her cousin, lived her life in New Zealand, marrying  Joseph Lindo McHugh. She died in 1986, the stone below Arthur and Sarah’s commemorating her. Her sister Eileen married Henry Joseph Stace, whose descendants are the Marchs – the branch of the family that owned Welton House for many years.

As for Sarah’s son Frank – he joined the Royal Navy, serving as a telegraphist on HMS Renown in WW1 and HMS Faulknor in WW2. He married in Welton in 1941 – his wife was his cousin Cicely – Annie’s daughter! Did Frank and Cicely know they were cousins? We can only speculate.

Frank sold The Firs to the Ellisons (yes the famous Mill Ellison) in 1958.

Today, visitors to Welton House see a beautiful garden and restored villa, but few know that its name carries the memory of a young woman from Northamptonshire who crossed oceans to begin a new life. 

You can read a much more detailed story of Sarah’s family here.

A revised history of The Firs is now live on the website giving a fuller history of that property.

Photos of Welton House and Sarah courtesy Wendy Palmer

Photo of Frank courtesy of Phil Knibb

With thanks to Wendy and her Knibb family connections for generously sharing knowledge