Flock House

Story

Flock House was an agricultural and farm training school in Bulls, Rangitikei District, New Zealand from 1924 until 1987.From 1924 to 1937 sons of British seamen that had been killed or wounded during World War I were brought over, trained at Flock House, and placed on farms in New Zealand, to start a new life. From 1937 to 1987 New Zealand nationals were trained at the school.The complex was used by private owners since 1987 as a conference facility.The buildingFlock House is located at 1427 Parewanui Road, Parewanui, 14 km out of Bulls. The homestead was built by Russell & Bignell Ltd. in 1908, as a three-storey residence for Lyn McKelvie, and is now under the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. The building has an 'L' shaped plan, and early elements of the Arts and Crafts style that became popular in New Zealand in the 1930s. McKelvie was the owner of an estate of over 3000acre. The property, including the Homestead, was sold in 1923 to the Fund, that would use it as an agricultural training farm from then on.History of the schoolFollowing the First World War, Edward Newman, Member of Parliament for Rangitikei, proposed that sheep farmers in New Zealand should acknowledge a "debt" to the British Royal and Mercantile Navy. These seamen had kept the shipping lanes open enabling New Zealand's wool-clip to be sent to England. The New Zealand Farmers Union established the "New Zealand Sheep Owners Acknowledgement of Debt to British Seamen Fund", from farmers' wool-clip earnings and from 1921 funds were distributed to dependents in England.