The Star: February 08, 2024

The Star Thursday February 8 2024
22
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Crate & Barrel a focal point
for close-knit community
QUIET LIFE: Ian Eveleigh has moved to Leeston for a
second time to escape a booming Rolleston.
• From page 21
That SDC strategy would suit
Ian and Paula Eveleigh down to
the ground.
The retirees returned to Leeston
last November, selling up in
Rolleston, to buy on Woodville
St, 300-metres from the quarteracre
section Ian bought on Flannery
St for $2000 in 1973 and
built on three years later.
They were living in Avoca
Valley on the Port Hills with
seven neighbours when the
earthquakes struck, eventually
prompting a move to Rolleston a
decade ago.
“We’d lived there (Rolleston)
30 years ago when we moved
back from Nelson. It was a nice
little country town but there’s
been some big changes, we didn’t
enjoy it at all,” he said.
“It was too busy, there were too
many people there for us.”
So they downsized in more
ways than one, building a threebedroom
home on what was an
old chicken farm.
The Eveleigh’s are not
unique, with couples and
families relocating to Leeston’s
subdivisions or lifestyle blocks
to experience the slow-paced
rural living and a close-knit
community Rolleston no longer
offers.
“There’s a lot of people who
enjoyed the old Rolleston where
there was one school. It’s expanding
at a rate so they’re coming
out here and looking for that
lifestyle again,” said Knowler,
adding Leeston also appealed as
an owner-occupier township.
Rolleston, said Knowler, was
not as settled: “There’s a lot of
transient people in Rolleston,
you get little boxes all in a row
full of tenants that don’t look
after their lawn.”
He did also point out the
Leeston of not so long ago had
a gritty, unsavoury edge to it,
which usually manifested itself
over jugs at the old brick twostorey
Leeston Hotel on High St.
“It was your typical
Canterbury boozer, a horrible
thing,” Knowler said.
Taylor agreed as he reminisced
about the town’s only watering
hole, which was quake-damaged
and demolished.
“It was pretty rough, a country
pub eh? The management wasn’t
all that wonderful. If you sat on a
local’s bar stool, you’d be thrown
out by the scruff of your neck. It
was ruled by the locals,” Taylor
said.
A farm supply company
occupies the pub site while
next door on Market St is the
edifice to Leeston’s makeover, a
sprawling sophisticated drinking
and dining experience on the old
sale yard section.
The Crate & Barrel opened in
September, 2017 when hotelier
Craig Bradford and Rangiorabased
developer Daniel Smith
eyed a gap in the market.
Said Bradford: “I was looking
to put a bar in Leeston, Daniel
Smith built (Farm Scene) next
door and we got talking. It was a
conversation we had in about 10
minutes.”
Then it was two years in the
planning stages. The build took
another 12 months.
Bradford left the Famous
Grouse in Lincoln in 2016 when
the Leeston project gathered
momentum.
“I’ve always had an affinity
with pubs. Both my grandfathers
were publicans in Bluff, my
father had his first pub in
Lake Hawea. Then we went to
Alex(andra) and Dunedin.”
Bradford loves the lifestyle and
cornering the pub – and hotel –
market with nine rooms able to
accommodate 23 guests.
There is also an extensive
library with a full set of
Encyclopedia Britannica and
400 Little Golden Books, so kids
can read the children’s stories of
yesteryear.
The Ellesmere Room pays
homage to hunting and fishing
on the nearby lake while Burt
Munro of World’s Fastest
Indian fame once broke down
in Leeston, hence the placement
of a 2017-vintage example of the
motorbike brand.
“The reason we built this so
special is if you were just going to
put a pub out there then no one
would come,” Bradford said.
“There’s over a hundred
instruments in the music room
upstairs, there’s over $300,000
worth of memorabilia in the
sports room.”
The sports collection includes
items from All Blacks Richie
McCaw and Aaron Smith, plus
Bradford’s pride and joy: A ball
signed by the 1987 Rugby World
Cup-winning squad.
Bradford said during the seven
years Leeston was without a pub,
locals would socialise at either
the rugby or bowls club, or at
each other’s homes and garages.
They also had the Ellesmere
Speedway season for
entertainment and the annual
Ellesmere A&P Show in October.
The Southbridge Hotel is 7.4km
away.
Now owner/manager Bradford
has a captive audience at the
Crate & Barrel, which he
manages with his son Sam and
daughter Mayson, the heirs
apparent.
“I want to get out of it very
soon. My passion is doing
comedy and variety shows
(with business partner David
Parlane),” he said.
“No one wants to see a
63-year-old man behind a bar.
And I don’t want to be there
anymore. Jesus. I’ve been in bars
all my life.”
Bradford also co-owns the
annual Selwyn Sounds music
festival with Parlane and he still
has a pub interest in Lincoln
through Lincoln HQ.
While Crate & Barrel is a
business – there is a bottle store,
vape store, poker machines, a
TAB and two corporate rooms
upstairs – Bradford said it
was also providing a valuable
community service.
“This is the town hall, the
meeting place. People use it for
Leeston
Established: 1864
Named after Edward
J. Lee, an early settler
and runholder
Location: 43km
southwest of
Christchurch via SH76
and Leeston Rd,
situated between the
shore of Lake Ellesmere/
Te Waihora and the
mouth of the Rakaia
River
Statistics New
Zealand designation:
Small urban area
Recent population
growth per NZ Census:
1326 (2006), 1539 (2013),
2208 (2018), 2430 (2023).
anything and everything.
“I sponsor everything we can
get our hands on, whether it’s
netball, rugby, cricket, all the
schools. When you’re in a wee
community like this, everyone
goes to the pub for funding.
“I’ve got pokies so we give
quite a bit of funding away
through that (Mainland
Foundation).”
Bradford, who used to run
five bars in Nelson and also
Christchurch’s Sandridge Hotel
in Sydenham, would not put a
dollar value on the project, as it
has evolved over time.
“The cost is not recorded
because I’ve clipped on things
over the last six or seven years.
We like to improve it all the
time. We’ve got a couple of
courtesy coaches,” he said.
Taylor appreciated the modern
ambience compared to its
predecessor. On April 25, he
even might go up the road and
toast the men and boys who
never made it home.
“The new pub is a beautiful
building,” he said.
“It’s well run too.”
PUB CULTURE: Crate & Barrel owner/manager Craig Bradford. The multi-dimensional pub gives Leeston a comprehensive dining and entertainment option.
PHOTOS: CHRIS BARCLAY