The Coldstream run was first taken up
as a pastoral lease in 1854 by William Scott and Ernest
Gray. It was made up of 55,000 acres of flat tussock
land. The pair named it “Coldstream” after the Scottish
border town and the cold springs that rise where they
built their homestead. Scott and Grey developed it as a
sheep and cattle run, building an 18 stand woolshed
using Kahikitea (white pine) to an Australian design.
John and Michael Studholme purchased
Coldstream from Scott and Grey in 1867 for £35,000 with
stock and plant. At the time, the Studholme brothers
were developing land in the North and South Island,
Coldstream the smallest of the eight properties they
owned. They drained 2000 acres of swamp and started a
large cropping programme as well as running 26,000
sheep.
In 1875 Coldstream had 4000 acres in
crop, running twenty six-horse teams with a permanent
staff of 35 men. It had its own post office, store,
church room, library, recreation centre and
employed a butcher and a blacksmith. They also ran a
coach service to Hinds (14km) with stables at both ends.
John’s son, Jack, took over farming
Coldstream in 1890. Land was progressively sold off
mainly to employees for closer settlement and in 1919 to
returned serviceman from World War 1. A large homestead
was built in 1900 shortly after Colonel Jack Studholme
married Alexandra Thomson, daughter of the Archbishop
of York. Colonel Studholme served with the New Zealand
Expeditionary Forces at Gallipoli and then Europe; the
last New Zealand soldier to leave Germany after the war.
His son Derek Studholme, who was
educated at Dartmouth Royal Naval College and Cambridge
University took over in 1926 and apart from six years
away at World War II farmed Coldstream until his son Joe
took over in 1967 after attending the Royal Agricultural
college in Cirencester, England. During Joe's time a lot
of subdivision of paddocks and shelter planting was
undertaken along with border dyke irrigation. A new
woolshed was built and he made a huge amount of progress
with the Corriedale breeding programme.
Since 2004 Joe’s middle son, Alastair,
has farmed at Coldstream with his wife, Annie, and now
two children Olivia and Will. Alastair gained a degree
in Agricultural Commerce from Lincoln University. He is
currently developing spray irrigation and integrating a
larger cropping enterprise at Coldstream.