Ivy Bank Farm, also known as Nott House
Location: 400 Middleton Road
Heritage item listed by the Wellington City Council, Map 26 Reference 211.
Registered as a historic place by the NZ Historic Places Trust
This house was built for William Nott, a farmer. He immigrated to New Zealand with his wife Ann in 1842 and they settled at The Halfway (now Glenside). In 1850 the Nott’s purchased land from the Drake family, living at The Halfway. Mrs Nott died in 1853 and Nott remarried before purchasing this property in 1860.
The Nott’s sold to David and Priscilla Rowell in 1919. Access to the property was originally across a bridge from the old Porirua Road. Ivy growing on the bridge ramparts led to the farm being named Ivy Bank Farm.
In 1949 the farm was purchased by H E Dorset. Mr Dorset is a great nephew of early Wellington surgeon Dr John Dorset (for whom Fort Dorset and Point Dorset are named).
From c1959 to 1988 the woolshed on this property was New Zealand’s first and only Borafume factory producing in its peak, 140,000 tins in a season for the domestic market. Borafume was invented by Cecil Mason, who lived in Glenside and conducted early experiments in wood preservation on this property.