Methven has achieved much since the foundations of the township were laid by early Scottish settlers.

Ashburton’s inland neighbour is beloved by locals and tourists alike; the latter group flock there in droves during the ski season and so, from about June to October every year, Methven becomes a multinational melting pot and the local economy benefits.

The rest of the year, Methven still hums with the usual calm and happy activity befitting an exemplary agricultural service town.

Movie stars can occasionally be found in the vicinity of Methven, as the township serves as the de-facto gateway to scenic filming locations in the high country of our district.

Famous sightings over recent years have included Elijah Wood, Julian Dennison, and Chris Pine (if you’re a Methvenite, you’ll probably know the story behind that one!)

Imagine then, keeping this image of modern Methven in mind, what the hardy folk who first lived and worked in the township would say about it today.

They may very well be impressed, but an equally likely reaction could include accusations of us “having it easy” compared to what they put up with “back in the day”.

The birth of Methven

In the early 1850s, what would become the Whakatere Ashburton District was a rough-cut collection of undeveloped or fledgeling sheep-grazing farms, averaging 20,000 acres or more, called pastoral runs.

There were no local governing bodies at that time; the municipal centre of the Canterbury Province was Christchurch.

The area that would come to be known as Canterbury was purchased by the Crown in 1848 from Ngāi Tahu, the occupiers of the land.

The Canterbury Purchase, also known as Kemp’s Deed, had long-term consequences for Māori and disenfranchised them from the land.

The rough plains between the Rakaia and Rangitata rivers, considered  “wastelands” by the Provincial Council, were cheaply leased to, or purchased as freehold property, by European settlers.

About 1869, a Scotsman by the name of Robert Patton came to own 500 acres of land at the junction of the Back Track and the West Coast Road, the land being payment for work done shingling the Rakaia-Methven Road.

He christened his new farm there ‘Methven’, named after his old hometown in Perthshire, Scotland.

The original Methven sits calmly among a stretch of rolling farmland to the west of the city of Perth, and was the site of a notable battle in 1306 during the Scottish Wars of Independence.

How different the new Methven would be, he must have thought.

The climate of the new Methven was far milder than the old village’s surrounds, and the rigid, oppressive class system of the old country was not to repeat itself here.

Inklings of a township

Scottish settlers were attracted to the Methven locality, which colloquially came to be called the “Canterbury Highland Village”.

Scottish farmers came in droves and broke up the land into smaller and cheaper sections, driven by the desire not to replicate the social ills of their homeland.

In late June, 1878, the first sections comprising the Township of Methven were up for sale by public auction.

Hotelkeepers, saddlers, blacksmiths, storekeepers, carpenters, wheelwrights and investors were all sought to build a foundational level of service and commerce to support growth.

By 1879, there was a post office at Methven, a sure sign of civil progress.

That same year, Patton began building a hotel at Methven, which he completed in 1880 and dubbed The Commercial and Family Hotel.

Sometime earlier, Patton sold 10 acres of his land as the site for a blacksmith’s shop, an essential service in early rural Aotearoa.

A major contribution to the rapid success of Methven was the construction of the Methven Branch railway, which began in 1878 and was completed in February, 1880.

Fertiliser and livestock were frequently transported between Christchurch and Methven by rail, as well as passengers.

In May, 1880, a whopping 132 sections of land were listed for sale by public auction, demonstrating the explosive growth of the little township.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

From the Museum Collection

This is a weight from a point lever, used on the Methven Branch to move switches and direct trains from one track to another.

The purpose of a point lever being weighted is to allow for easier movement or action, the weight being positioned near the operating end.

Raised text on one side reads: “R & AFR Co. 1879” which stands for the Rakaia and Ashburton Forks Railway Company.

Unlike the laying of the Main South Line, which was built by the government, the Methven Branch railway was built by a private company.

The other side of the weight reads “J Anderson, Engineer, Chch. NZ”.

The weight was received by the museum in 1995.

- Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum.