This unique room, built in the 1880s, used to house the dairy for the Doctor's home. A feature of this room is the clay brick wall. It has a dressing room, a separate private bathroom with shower and a super king bed that can be made into twin beds.
A decade later, another similar cottage was added. This extra space provided successive town doctors with their waiting room and surgery. With little available timber to hand, this dwelling was built from bricks crafted from the local clay at Dansey’s Pass.
In 1895, when New Zealand-trained surgeon Robert Church occupied the house, Naseby was promoted as “one of the cleanest and healthiest towns in the colony; it possesses an excellent climate and atmosphere”. At this time, the busy town boasted a Courthouse and Warden’s Office, County Council Chambers, a Town Hall, Masonic Hall, Athenaeum, a District Hospital, Anglican, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic places of worship, a state school and a Roman Catholic school, a flour mill, and several hotels and stores.
In the early years of the new century, further residential accommodation was built onto the Doctor’s Residence in the style of the Victorian villa. Newspapers dated 1902, and used as wallpaper backing, have recently been found in the villa section of the house.
These three disparate units have combined seamlessly to create the gracious dwelling which is now The Old Doctor’s Residence luxury bed and breakfast.
The Dansey’s Room reflects the Oriental heritage of the Chinese gold mining era by introducing a beautiful antique hand painted Chinese Camphor cabinet and two unique hand painted decorative panels. The Parker’s Suite is furnished with an antique colonial kauri dressing table, wardrobe and washstand and decorated in tones of earth and sky to reflect the colours of the vast Maniototo landscape.
Our wonderfully comfortable super king beds are dressed with top-quality cotton sheets. These are teamed with a goose down underlay, quilt, duvet and pillows from Novadown in Dunedin.