Know your town
George Pain corner
For those who think Pain and Kershaw’s was established on the Square in Martinborough in 1873 , please think again. The building there now is the third George Pain Building, having been completed in July 1908. The first store and dwelling was built in 1873 on George Pain’s land in where the road branched south to go to the Smith and Bidwill’s farms or west to the Inn and Ferry crossing. The track is now the boundary of Martinborough Transport yards.
The store was run by George Pain’s wife while he went around the Stations selling good from his pack horses. There is no photo of this store but it was probably of the same plan as his second store.
George Pain later sold his business to John Gallie however a few years later he bought the business back from Gallie and formed a partnership with T O Haylock to form the company Pain and Haylock. John Kershaw was the accountant for this company becoming a third party in 1899 with the store then trading as Pain, Haylock and Kershaw. John Kershaw bought out Haylock in 1905 with George Pain becoming a silent partner at that time.
The second store was opened on the Martinborough section in 1882. It was a stop gap building as while the present building was planned and built.
In 1907 work started on an new upmarket building on the Square, this featured an ornate façade. The Kershaw family bought the building from the George Pain Estate when he died.
On the night of July 22nd 1908, just as the new store was preparing to open, store number two caught fire and burned down.
During the 1942 Wairarapa earthquake most of the facade fell down and that which didn’t was pulled down by the army First Battalion Scottish Regiment who camped in the Town Hall during the operation. Grimmer and Bicknell builders from Carterton boarded up the frontage to make the building workable. In the early 1950s Riggs did the complete restoration of the building.
In 1973 the company celebrated one hundred years of service and is now looking forward to the one hundred and fifty years celebration in 2023. Over the years both the Pain and Kershaw families have given freely to many causes in the district.
Mate Higginson
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