The Battle of Boulcott’s Farm

I wonder how many times have we passed the stone memorial on the corner of Military Road and High Street, not too far from Hutt Hospital,  and not given it a second thought?   It is such a busy road, with cars, buses, trucks and the occasional cyclist whizzing past.  Placed on a corner of a road with a name like “Military Road”, there is sure to be a story attached.

The memorial

The plaque

Fifty men of the 58th Regiment were stationed under Lieutenant Page at Boulcott’s Farm during 1846, and it was suspected that an attack was imminent.  A stockade of slabs and small logs had been erected and loop-holed for musket-fire. On the morning of 16th May, 1846, 200 Maori warriors crept up on the camp, screening themselves with bushes and branches of scrub.  The Maoris had hoped to surprise the troops; but what they did not accurately estimate was the steadiness of disciplined Regular troops.  Lieutenant Page, having hacked and shot his way to the stockade, assembled his men, and attacked his antagonists. He advanced his soldiers in skirmishing order, with fixed bayonets.  A party of seven of the Hutt Militia, who had been disbanded on the previous Monday, came to the assistance of the hard-pressed troops, and fought side by side with the redcoats. Their arrival was the turning-point in the fight. The rebels, seeing these Militia men dash into the battle, began to retire, and at last were driven away, after a fight  lasting about an hour and a half.  Six soldiers lost their lives

The bravery of two young men stand out on this day.  One of these was William Allen, a tall, young soldier who was the company bugler.   When the first sentry's shot was heard he leaped up, and ran outside, put the bugle to his lips to blow the alarm. In the act of sounding the call he was attacked by a Maori, who tomahawked him in the right shoulder, nearly severing his arm, and felled him to the ground. Struggling to rise, the brave lad seized the bugle with his left hand and again attempted to warn his comrades, but a second blow with the tomahawk, this time in the head, killed him. The bugler's call was not needed, however, for the whole camp had been awakened by the sentry's shot and the answering volleys.

A little later that morning John Cudby, a youth of seventeen, harnessed up in the yard of the “Aglionby Arms,” Burcham's Hotel,  and drove out into the bush to deliver supplies to the troops at Boulcott's Farm .  He was unaware of the fight which had just been waged a short two miles away. The carter and his companion were in the middle of the bush, jolting over the boggy ground,  when they were met by two men in a cart driving furiously from the camp. One of them shouted: “Go back boy, go back! The Maoris have attacked the camp!” But Cudby did not turn his team. “I dursen't go back,” he cried in his broad English dialect, “I dursen't go back; I've got the rations to deliver.” He continued on, in fear every moment of receiving a volley from ambush in the dark timber that almost overhung him, but resolved to fulfil his duty.  When he arrived at the camp he saw the six bodies laid out, and later in the day, took the bodies in his cart to a spot on the river-bank where they were temporarily buried.  

Boulcott’s Farm

  From a water-colour by Lt G H Page (58th Regt) 1846

The Hutt Valley is a completely different place from those long ago days of the early settlers, soldiers, and Maori attacks.  The valley was originally covered by dense  forest and the Hutt River, which runs from Upper Hutt down to the sea at Petone, regularly flooded the early settlements.  These days, the Hutt Valley is full of housing, roads, schools, parks  and shops, and the Hutt River is lined with stop banks to control any flooding.  The surrounding hills are still covered with native trees, but it is all secondary growth, all the tall old trees have long gone to early timber mills.