Burtergill William Atkinson was born at Worcop, in the County of Westmorland, England, in 1816. He spent the early ages of his life there, learning farming skills. At the age of twenty five he was engaged by a Mr Cooke, of London, to come to the Nelson settlement to instruct that two gentlemen's sons in the art of Farming. Arriving at Nelson on the 'Thomas Harrison' in October 1842 he was duly employed by Henry and John Cooke on their land at Waimea West. Later he acquired a small amount of land of his own in that locality. He was said to be among the select group of trained farmers who were a great asset to the new settlement and who soon progressed from managing for the gentlemen to managing for themselves. In allocation of the 150 acre rural section in the Awatere in March 1848, the Cooke Brothers were allocated section No.39. An arrangement was soon make to lease this section to Atkinson, whom the Cooke's well knew to be the right man to pioneer a new area. He did not possess capital like his neighbours on the big runs, and started in a humble way rearing cattle and carting wool for the more well-to-do settlers. Nevertheless, in the next twenty years, by hard work and taking advantage of every opportunity that came his way, he turned out to be a remarkably successful man, with wide pastoral interests. In 1851 he made several attempts to expand by trying to buy nearby rural section, but each time he was forestalled by the adjacent run-holders. However, in 1854, he was able, as a result of Grey's new land regulation of the year before, to buy 1520 acres on the low hills to the north of section 39, at ten shillings per acre. Until this purchase, this land formed part of Dr. Renwick' Dumgree run. Also in that year, fearing a shortage of firewood, he bought 80 acres of land nearby, covered in heavy Manuka, on Edwin Dashwood's run. Then, in 1858, when he was able to buy section 39, he had, with some allowance for roads, a freehold property of 1865 acres, which he named Burtergill after his home in Westmorland. It is one of only two properties in the Awatere still in the hands of descendants of the original owner. In 1844 Atkinson married Dorothea Henrietta Adams at Waimea West. In 1850 he brought his wife and family through from Nelson to live in the Awatere. The children, aged three and one, were carried in saddle bags slung on either side of Mrs Atkinson's saddle, and the luggage was carried on pack horses; the journey taking six days. On arrival, a tent served as a home until one of cob was built. Expansion beyond Burtergill first began in 1855. In that year Atkinson began a fifteen year lease of Alfred Fell's run at the mouth of the Blind River. In the following year he bought the freehold of some 1200 acres of choice land about five miles inland on the Blind River, naming this property Sedgemore. Soon with increasing flocks and herds, more land was necessary. There was no chance of further expansion in the Lower Awatere, and in the back country, all but the most inaccessible had been taken up. Accordingly, in 1859, Atkinson successfully applied for the occupation rights to 30,000 acres beyond the Elliott stream in the Clarence Valley. This, known as the Lake McRae run, was later combined with Molesworth. In 1860 he bought form Edwards and Bennett, a 49,00 acre lease hold block at Hanmer, probably paying little more than the value of a few improvements on it. During the next decade he secured his tenure of this property, later known as 'Woodbank', by the purchase of about 9000 acres of freehold. Woodbank is still owned by his descendants. In 1870, Caton and Murphy, who had been running cattle on the Molesworth homestead block, went bankrupt. Atkinson bought the occupation rights to it's 73,00 cares for only 700 pounds. He is credited with being the first to stock the Molesworth with sheep; merinos taken up from Burtergill. This was the beginning of that famous property as a sheep station. During his occupation, the sheep were driven down to Burtergill each year for shearing, along and difficult drive. In 1879 Atkinson sold Molesworth and Lake McRae to Fuhrmann and Willis for 10,500 pounds. When gold was first discovered on the West Coast there was a big demand for fresh meat form the thousands of miners there. It was a lucrative business for those prepared to face the trials and hardships of getting cattle through the mountains and bush to the 'Coast'. In 1865, Atkinson, with cattle from the Hurunui Saddle and down the Teremadau River, arriving at Hokitika with the second mob ever to have travelled through. Only twenty of them provided the price he paid for Molesworth five years later. He continued to do a large business in the sale of cattle on the West Coast while the gold rush lasted. In the early 'sixties the small cob dwelling at Burtgergill was incorporated in a new two-storied wooden homestead. In an age when there was very little social life in the district, this home became a centre of hospitality for a wide area, the people rode long distances on horseback to many happy gatherings there. Jane Atkinson was born in Waimea, Nelson in 1847. On September 23rd, 1865,at Burtergill, the Rev. H. F. Butt, first Anglican clergyman in the Wairau, officiated at what must have been the first double wedding in the district, when William and Dorothy's two oldest daughters were married. Jane, the eldest to William Blick, and Sarah married William Henry Bursill. In 1876 William and Dorothea Atkinson retired to 'Marchmont', a small property at Rangiora. William died there in 1888 and Burtergill passed to his daughter Jane Sinclair (her first husband, William Blick had died in 1882 and in 1883 Jane married James John Sinclair, (son of the founder of Blenheim). Over the next fifteen years Mrs Sinclair leased Burtergill to a number of people and in 1902 Robert Bell, of Riverlands, took over the lease of it until March 1917. Then Edward Gay Blick, Grandson of William Atkinson, leased it until 1923. In that year Jane Sinclair died, and, Burtergill being an entailed property, was inherited by her oldest son, Charles Atkinson Blick. However, in that same year, by the process of a 'disentailing deed'. it passed to Edward Gay Blick. On his death in 1944 Burtergill again passed to a daughter. In 1988 Dorothy married Maxwell Gerrit Van Asch of Blenheim. Today three generations of Van Ashes live at Burtergill. Mrs Dorothy Van Asch, whose family interests were merged in a company, Burtergill Farm Ltd., in 1964. In 1966, to honour the memory of its founder, descendants of William Atkinson erected a memorial cairn at Burtergill. It stands on a hill overlooking the scene of his early labours, where its white outline is plainly seen from the Picton to Bluff highway, about one mile north of Dashwood. The stories of these two freehold farms, both dating back to the eighteen fifties, were so inter-related in the early years that it is easier to record them together. In 1883, William Atkinson's sister, Sarah married Isaac Airey in Appleby, England. In 1855, this couple, with their family of five, the eldest Robert, being nineteen years of age, came to New Zealand on the ship 'Maori', under the arrangement to be employed by Atkinson. The children's births in England are recorded as Airey, yet a letter of introduction brought to this country by their father named him as Aroa. In New Zealand the name was spelt in various ways until finally Aroa became permanently used. Isaac was illiterate and it is thought that it was this fact and his 'North Country' pronunciation which caused all the trouble. When Atkinson acquired his Sedgemere block in 1856 it was Aroa who took charge of the stock there. Tow years later he began to buy freehold of his won to the south east of Sedgemere. He started with 88 acres out of Samuel Stephens' run and by 1862 he had a small holding of 260 acres, on which he built a home. This property later became known as The Willows. Aroa and his son Robert continued in the employment of Atkinson, and when the latter retired to Rangiora in 1876 he leased Sedgemere to Robert. Isaac Aroa died in 1877 and was buried on a hill on the family property where his son Isaac already lay buried, having died of diphtheria in 1868, aged eighteen years. In October 1886, Robert Aroa, while making a visit to Blenheim for stores, was killed in a dray accident. He had loaded his dray and was proceeding up Maxwell Road on his way to stay the night with his sister, Mrs Dinis Broughan, at New Renwick Road. While sitting on the front of the dray he went to light his pipe just as the wheel went over a bump. He fell, a wheel passing over his chest. He left a widow, formally Miss Ellen Soper of an old Wairau family, and nine children. They carried on with the Sedgemere lease. When Atkinson died in 1888, his daughter Sarah inherited Sedgemere. Her fist husband, William Henry Bursill, had died in 1868 and she later married Thomas Cottle of Cust. In 1892 Sarah Cottle leased Sedgemere to her son, Frederick William Bursill, who took over from Mrs Ellen Aroa. It was then that the present Sedgemere homestead began to take shape. Sedgemere passed to F. W. Bursill on the death of Mrs Cottle in 1908. When he died, in 1943, without family, the 1240 acre property was taken for subdivision under the Servicemen's Settlement and Land Sales Act 1943. It was the first in Marlborough to be taken under this Act and one of the Choicest. It was divided into three farms and the successful ballotees, in 1944, where Messrs J. M. Davidson, A. L. Ferguson and M. E. Hammond. In 1924 that Aroas' long associated with The Willow came to an end when Isaac, son of the ill-fated Robert Aroa, sold the property to Michael McKee. The Awatere A district and it's people A.L. Kennington