Upper Hutt Blockhouse

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The Upper Hutt Blockhouse also known as the Wallaceville Blockhouse is a 19th-century American-style military blockhouse situated in Upper Hutt, New Zealand. One of very few such blockhouses built in New Zealand, it is preserved as a Category I historic place. It was built in late 1860 as part of a larger Stockade and was one of two Blockhouses and Stockades built in the Hutt Valley that year. It was occupied by the Hutt Battalion of the Wellington Milita from December 1860 to May 1861 without coming under hostile attack.Originally built in a paddock at the end of Fortune Lane, that was later described as the "old Government Stockade" reserve; the Blockhouse can now be found at the end of Blockhouse Lane, off McHardie Street, adjacent to the sports fields within the grounds of Heretaunga College.BackgroundIn 1860, Māori in the Ōtaki district were hostile, and there was also fear of raids from Wairarapa Māori, leading settlers to petition for construction of a refuge. The disputed land sale at Waitara in Taranaki also heightened fear of unrest.In July 1860, after tenders had closed for constructing a Stockade and Blockhouse in Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt settlers formed a Volunteer Rifle Corps and petitioned the Wellington Militia for erection of a stockade in Upper Hutt, also.ConstructionThe blockhouse was designed by Col. Thomas Mould and built towards the end of 1860. On 18 August 1860, Major W. Rawson Trafford, commanding Wellington Militia and Volunteers, announced that plans for a Stockade and Blockhouse to be built at the Upper Hutt, on McHardy's Clearing were available from the Royal Engineers office in Lower Hutt and that tenders for either one, or both closed at Noon on 5 September 1860. The successful tenderer, Mr W. Taylor, had previously constructed the Lower Hutt Blockhouse and Stockade. The frame of the two-story structure is made from timber and double-skinned with shingle infill, to protect it from rifle fire. Loopholes were also built into the blockhouse so defenders could return fire.