Fensham Reserve is about 5km north-northwest of Carterton and previously has been called Cobham Bush and Belvedere Reserve.

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The present name recognises settler John Fensham, who expressed the wish in his will that the reserve be preserved as the ‘John Fensham Sanctuary for Native Trees and Birds’ to stand in perpetuity for future generations.

John Fensham was born at Epsom, Surrey, in July 1851, and was just a young boy when he arrived in Wellington on the Oliver Lang on September 18, 1858, with his mother Caroline Amelia Rachel Willshire Fensham and two sisters, Caroline born 1849 and Ann Frances, born 1957. 

In England John had worked with his father, Henry, growing and selling vegetables.  In 1858 Caroline Fensham and the three children left for a new life in New Zealand, leaving Henry behind, for reasons unknown.  Caroline described herself as a widow.

Reported in an article in the Wairarapa Times Age March 6, 1957, from an original article in 1937, the family then made their way to the Wairarapa in October, 1858.  After a day’s travel they stayed in Taita.  Next day they travelled to Silverstream where they had to cross the swollen, treacherous river whose bridge had been washed away in January. After another night’s rest they got to Pakuratahi and the following day went through the ordeal of crossing the Rimutaka Range. At sundown they reached Burling’s Flat (Featherston). 

From Henry Burling they obtained a bullock and with two hampers in which the children were placed the party travelled on to Tauherenikau.  The men and women walked. On reaching the Waiohine river they crossed over in a canoe with the help of some friendly Maori. The family reached Carterton on August 9th.  A road had been cut through the bush.  It was cleared from 10-12 feet (3-4 metres) wide and there were no houses on the west side.  The few houses there were, were built of split totara slabs and bark and the windows were of calico material.  The road reached as far as Thomas Ray’s Taratahi Hotel.
 

In 1864 Caroline became the third wife of William Challis and the couple had two daughters Emily (Mrs George Gordon of Dalefield) and Charlotte (Mrs Arthur Philpotts of Carterton).

William and Caroline, the three Fensham children, plus the two Challis daughters and with William’s other offspring from his two previous marriages, lived on their block of land just north of Carterton, where William developed a dairy farm.  

John Fensham lived in Carterton until 1863 when at the age of 12 he went to the Hutt in search of work.  After three years he returned with his savings of £23 which he put into a home in Carterton.  He worked at sawmilling and in 1871 he took work at Brancepath Station.  At the end of five years he was earning 25 shillings per week – the biggest wages at the time. The money he saved enabled him to purchase a ten-acre section at Carrington Park for £14 per acre.  With the arrival of the railway and the demand for land closer to the station he sold this land for £1000 and bought several sections.  Then came a slump in land prices and the Carrington Park was worth only £500.

Mr Fensham loaned money to the Maori in the district and always found them straight.

Like many other old-timers, he believed ‘that people today could do as he did, but the trouble now is, he says, that too much money is squandered and frittered away’.

 

John Fensham married Levinia Wakelin, the daughter of Edward Louth Wakelin, the miller, and together they purchased the Wakelin land in Richmond Road, living there and eventually building another homestead naming the property Surrey Home.  The couple had seven children.

News arrived from Epsom, Surrey, England that Henry was well and truly alive and wished to re-establish contact with his son.  It appeared that Caroline Fensham was not widowed at all and had made her way to New Zealand leaving her husband behind.  Henry had also remarried. 

The pair corresponded fitfully, with Henry keeping him updated with growing conditions in England. They swapped garden seeds, but John was tardy in his replies. The last letter Henry wrote dated 1891 was 10 years after John’s last.  He often asked for money, stating his advancing age and asked John to visit.  John did go to England some 10 years after his father’s death.  His widow was still living, and John arranged for her to receive an annuity and arranged a house for her.

The letters John received from his father are held at Wairarapa Archives.

John Fensham joined the Rose of Sharon Lodge in Lower Hutt in 1870, and linked up with the Royal Heart of Oak in Carterton in 1878. He had been a member of the Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows for 68 years by 1938.

In the New Zealand Mail 22 June, 1894, it was reported that ‘a haystack belonging to Mr Fensham of Belvedere was burned on Thursday.  The owner estimates his loss at £25, and there was no insurance’.

John lived to a great age.  He was a familiar sight on the streets of Carterton, riding his tricycle.

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John’s sister Caroline married Charles William Schultze, and after WW1 married John William Smyth.

Annie never married. She and John’s unmarried daughters were recipients of the Fensham Reserve income under John’s will.

When John died in 1943, aged 93 he specified in his will that a reserve on his property was to be preserved as a sanctuary for native trees and birds.   John Fensham took ownership of this land in 1883.  Under the terms of his will the part of the farm, which was not in bush reserve, but in pasture, was to be leased out to bring in income for Fensham’s four spinster daughters during their lifetime.  On the death of the sisters, the whole of the property was to pass to the Forest and Bird Society to be preserved in perpetuity.  The society has shortened the name to Fensham Reserve, with the longer name recognised in legal documents.

The Carterton District Historical Society holds the John Fensham family bible.

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John Fensham and Fensham Reserve

Sources: To be supplied​​