Pre-WWI  Kew. Our venue name originates from one of the original owners who were named Kew. The Kew family established a homestead on the original larger property, and in 1912 they built a very large barn with massive wooden beams (this still stands - out of sight - on what is now an adjoining property). Unfortunately they experienced financial troubles and sold out to a Baltic German family via an agent. However, these folks never arrived as WWI broke out while they were en route to Canada, and they re-routed to Mexico instead.

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Post WWI  1919. After the  war the Solder Settlement Board purchased the entire property and had it divided into 4 pieces. The Wilson brothers, Cecil, Roland and Morris each received a strip, and a different soldier, Fred Logan, received the 4th piece which is the location of this venue. Fred fixed up the little house that was at the location of the current house, and tried to grow logan berries. He gave this venture up and returned to Alberta.

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Rhodes  Our location, the '4th piece' was then purchased by an English gentleman named Rhodes who rebuilt the property in an English manor style- expanding the house into a large manor house with 12 chimneys, adding tennis courts and outbuildings. There was a gardener's cottage at the bottom of the hill, a shed for rabbits part-way up the hill, a power shed, and where the large yellow barn is (close to the road) there was a cow barn and dog kennel.  The tennis courts were located behind the blue trees. He also built a greenhouse with a boiler to heat it and planted orchards on the side hill. Because he loved hunting pheasants he added a fence around the property to force the pheasants to fly out when chased. 

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Wilson   Eventually the venue property was acquired by the Wilsons. At this point Morris Wilson had already purchased the 2 lots from his brothers and created one farm which he named Kew Farm,  growing crops and dairy cows.  One of Morris's three sons, Ridley, took over the operations of the farm, eventually purchasing the 4th piece to create one farm.  In the late 1960s the old house was in severe disrepair and taken down. With dynamite. Ridley lit it up and drove down the hill, with his new fiance, Gitta von Transehe [another Baltic German immigrant] sitting in passenger,  watching the bricks flying.

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2009  The current house was built in 2009, decades after the removal of the old manor house. Original bricks and old cold cream jars from a former rubbish heap were raked out of the lawn. Below the house one old plum tree still remains from the original orchard, as well as a heritage apple tree ['Wealthy'], a hazelnut grove, sequoias, oaks, and Blue Atlas Cedars. These are unique to the property and add to the heritage feel.

 

Your host is Nancy Wilson, daughter of Ridley and Gitta Wilson, who resides in the house with her 3 children. 

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