Wolesley Saskatchewan has a building that’s over a century in regard to age, that holds information that may not be well known outside of its small town.
This building was built in 1905, by Edwin Banbury, who is the founder of the Beaver Lumber Company, and was first built to be a lavish home for Mr. Banbury and his family.
It remained that way until 1939, where it was converted into a nurse’s residence and administration office for a nursing home for some time.
Later on, the Banbury House was purchased by the Boehme family, and its location was moved to 104 Front Street, and in 1990 it opened as the first European bed and breakfast in Saskatchewan. It was then called the Banbury House Inn.
Though it sounds simple enough, there was more information about the Banbury House Inn that was left unmentioned.
Dean Craven grew up playing around the Banbury House Inn as a child. It was one of his favourite places to play hide and seek with his friends.
Mr. Craven is now the late owner of the Banbury House Inn, and he had a lot of hidden facts relating to the Inn that not many people outside of Wolesley would know. Starting with the fact that the inn was never located at 104 Front Street; it was moved there.
The original location of the Banbury House Inn is where Wolseley’s nursing home is now located on 701 Ouimet Street. So, how did they move the original building? Mr. Craven said brick-by-brick. “They didn’t want to destroy this building; they wanted to move it. So, they took every brick off it, picked it up, moved it all the way around the edge of town, put it back down, put every brick back and then they converted it into a bed and breakfast.”
Before the inn was converted into a bed and breakfast and moved onto Front Street, it used to be a housing location for guards that worked at an old reformatory building that was structured by the Wolseley Court House.
Then the reformatory building was restructured into a Wolseley geriatric center. The guards no longer had a reason to be housed at the Banbury House Inn and moved out. Once the geriatric center was completed the Banbury House was then converted into a nurse’s quarters. Where it remained that way until the late 1900s.
The Banbury House Inn has a second structure beside it called Le Parisien, which translates to “The Parisian”. The Le Parisien and the Banbury House Inn were both owned by the same family and were structured to come as a set.
Before the Le Parisien was converted into another housing building for the Banbury House Inn, it was a house. But what Le Parisien was before it was converted into a house and then part of the inn, was a well-known restaurant. And according to Mr. Craven, a very popular fine dining restaurant. “It wasn’t strange to see a limousine pull up from the city, you know, when the people were looking to get out and it was a pretty ritzy, like, high end dining place.”
Now Le Parisien and the Banbury House Inn are used to rent rooms in Wolesley Saskatchewan. The Inn itself doesn’t receive a huge amount of business anymore unless major events like weddings take place at some of Wolseley’s other venues.
The Banbury House and Le Parisien were both renovated before becoming an Inn, changing some of its original layout over many years. Though, some rooms still hold small details of some original layouts. Like the Banbury House’s basement, and certain rooms where the sinks are separate from the bathrooms.
The Banbury House itself has an important role in Wolesley history all on its own before ever being converted into an Inn or used as a restaurant. Many pieces of information about it being used as a guards housing unit, to a nurse’s quarters is information that is not well known outside of Wolesley.
