It was a case of two steps forward and three back when a group of walkers, keen to learn more about Wakefield's past, went on a tour up Edward Street, the main street of Wakefield on Tuesday 25th October 2022. The Village of Wakefield, 29 km from Nelson, was the second planned European settlement in New Zealand under the scheme devised by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, and the area's first settlers began arriving, mainly from England's southern counties in 1842.
Guided by committee members of the Waimea South Historical Society, who took it in turns to provide a walking commentary, they progressed up one side and down the other, pausing at significant old buildings and some modern ones which had replaced them since Grace Smith set up her small shop in front of the present Wakefield Hotel in 1846 selling, one surmises, a range of necessities for the first settlers in the area-probably basic food items and hardware.
For buildings which had morphed into something more modern or for those that had disappeared altogether, we were greatly assisted by A3 size photographs which our Secretary had assiduously put together in a large folder. This was of great help in visualising William Painton's store that had been moved from the corner of Pitfure Road and Edward St, down the school bank, to the present site of the white Carrara marble statue of a World War I soldier that had originally been positioned in a corner of the Wakefield Domain in 1922 overlooking the playing fields. The 1950's building beside it was originally built as a WWII memorial and Plunket Rooms but has since become the Wakefield Library, as the Health Centre, which opened in 1989, provided rooms for the Plunket Nurse.
Just next door was the 1909 Post Office Building with its cupola-topped tower originally surmounted by a flagpole and a clock facing the street. Now in the sympathetic hands of new owners, this iconic 113 year old landmark still contains a strongroom and an attached flat at the back where once the postmaster lived.
Moving further on we came to William Painton's second shop purchased in 1883 from Mr John Currin who built it, along with a flour mill behind, about 40 years earlier. Running along its eastern boundary is a concrete-block firewall about 8 feet high. This structure saved the shop from being consumed by the flames that destroyed the Oddfellows' Hall, built about 15 feet away, on the coldest night of the year, the 3rd July 1968, thus meeting the same fate as its predecessor which had been built on the same site 69 years before. We could find no photograph of the hall but those who remember it can say that its flat rectangular facade was cream coloured with double opening doors in the centre front and a row of ball shaped finials on short, concaved necks evenly spaced along the top
A modern town house now stands on the corner of Edward and Arrow Street, once called "Shinbone Alley" but in earlier times a large villa with a shop attached to the front stood there where James Thomas plied his bootmaking trade. He was one of several bootmakers in the area and had originally been based at Belgrove.
Across Arrow Street still stands an attractive and well-preserved building, erected in 1919, that until modern times was home to Methodist worshippers but is now a private residence.
On its eastern side is the Masonic Forest Lodge building which was moved from its original site beside the Forest Inn on the south side of the Jimmy Lee bridge by traction engine some time after its formation in 1873. Recently, in a return to their roots since a fire damaged their central city premises, the Nelson branch of the lodge has built a much smaller building at Willow Bank.
A few steps further up the school bank brought us to the second Wakefield library building, this one constructed of wood. As well as housing books, it also provided rooms for the Plunket nurse after this system of early childcare was set up in 1907 and the Nelson Branch established in 1913. When school rolls increased in the 1950's, it provided an extra classroom. The Plunket Nurse would visit twice a month on Newman's bus. Mrs Mabel Win, an original Karitane nurse, would ensure that in winter a fire was lit and that a sufficient supply of water was on hand for necessary uses as there was no piped water to the building. A bicycle was provided for the nurse to visit mothers up some of the valleys who did not have suitable transport to Wakefield. She carried out this work for over 40 years until the new Plunket rooms were opened on 25th April 1955 – truly a "labour of love."
We trekked on up the school bank, past Bastin's timber yard and one of the original school buildings which had been moved across the road when the V shaped "West Wing" was built in the 1940's and eventually reached Felbridge House on the eastern corner of Edward Street and Pitfure Road. This two-storied substantial residence had been built for Dr Pearless in 1885 and quickly became known as "the Doctor's House". It had many modern conveniences which were a source of pride to the locals including lighting by acetylene gas. There was an asphalt tennis court and "telephonic communication with his partner in Brightwater." Through his dedication to patient care, love of cricket, and war service (Boer War and Gallipoli campaigns) he achieved the status of a local hero and when he died in 1924, aged 70, was buried in St John's cemetery with full military honours. As a mark of respect the people of Wakefield erected a stone archway and gates over the entrance to their domain in his honour.
We crossed Edward Street and walked a short way up the hill towards the church to find the plaque erected by our society marking the site of the second Wakefield School. The building was originally designed as a store but very soon became a school. The first teacher, J.N.Wilkinson, was shortly followed by James, Thomas Smith, a barrister, who had taught men to read and write on the Whitby. He was so highly regarded that after a time people in the areas around Wakefield were sending their sons to him for tuition.
This created the need for a larger building. Some time after 1848 an additional room was added on the western side with a dormitory above so that students could live at school during the week. By this year it was reported that the school's daily average attendance was 40 with 50 "on the books." There was also a night school with 14 adults. In 1850 a kitchen, oven and dairy with a bedroom upstairs were added to the original cob section. It is possible that Wakefield was the first school in the South Island to provide boarding accommodation.
We moved on down towards the village, passing the "oldest school in continuous use in New Zealand" and reached the bottom of the school bank. Here we were confronted with the incongruous sight of Fort Haldeman with a statue centre stage of ex USA President Richard Nixon-arms and fingers extended in characteristic victory pose. There was a cluster of modern buildings all with pillared porticos reminiscent of the White House which our tour guide, Warwick Johnson explained were commercially zoned-all behind a high metal fence and gate – securely padlocked.
A gated community! Here in Wakefield! This seemed to raise more questions than any of our group could answer. Most of us understood the Nixon-Haldeman connection but why here in Wakefield with no obvious link to America? Was this to be a commercial enterprise set up re-establish the reputation of a dishonoured leader, the last ditch effort by a loyal acolyte to give honour to a vanquished President. It had all the shades of Ozymandias in the desert: "Look on my works ye mighty and despair." As for the "lone and level sands stretching far away" all that was here were the village remnants of a once mighty British empire - only in this case Ozymandias remained triumphant.
This strange and bizarre situation prompted more philosophical questions as we moved on to "Sweetbites" aka Johnson's Saddlery which "on a fine spring morning in 1904 was...ruthlessly split in two." This act was performed by local builder John McPherson who with his handsaw cleared the boundary line that had inadvertently been built over. Why anyone would insist on this course of action rather than, as was offered at the time, shifting the whole building over the line, tests ones confidence in human rationality – but it does add to the quirkiness of the Wakefield street scene.
At this point we had run out of time and were forced to leave the remainder of buildings on our list for another "Walk through Wakefield" sometime next year.
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