 The Solway property was a colonial homestead sited in a originally owned by the Donald family who had first settled the area in 1877.The adjacent to what would become Solway College were purchased by the Masterton A & P Society for a showground leaving some planted in heritage trees - silver fir, deodar, spruce, larches, lime, weeping ash, cypress lawsoniana, photinia, juniper, Californian redwood and poplar.A large number of shrubs and native New Zealand bush completed the beautifully laid out grounds.