History High School Teacher
The lads from Timaru Boys High School must have had facinating lessons with Miss Harland. She has travelled the world to breathe in the stories from the past. Her passion for history led her through the story of her 1936 home on Beverley Road with a very arty history...
Unveiling the History and Heritage of your Home
I was born in Llandaff in South Wales and have been living and working in Timaru for the past five years. During my career I have lectured and taught History, Ancient History, Art History and English and am currently teaching History and Social Studies at Timaru Boys’ High School. One of the most enjoyable studies I have undertaken apart from my Ph.D in History was a diploma course in Local and Applied History. The latter provided knowledge concerning both genealogy and the heritage of buildings within communities and has been extremely valuable to me while conducting research on my current home in Beverley Road, Maori Hill. When I first saw the house with a real estate agent approximately 4 years ago, I had recently failed securing a house in Orbell Street, Highfield, which I had already started to research and had traced back to 1914. However, it takes time for a house to give up its secrets- so where do you start?
I was initially impressed by the one storey double brick house in Beverley Road built in 1936 and was intrigued by the agent’s comments on how it had been built by a Scotsman, who had chosen the brick construction because it reminded him of home and felt it would be protection for the harsh South Island winters. I have not been able to substantiate this story but am surrounded by timber homes! The house is decorated by volcanic brick and art and craft touches such as the window and interior doors which have leadlight with 5 different types of glass, some textured, some shiny and mirror smooth. I love that period of decorative art so have taken the opportunity to enhance the interior of the house with William Morris inspired fabrics. As Morris himself suggests, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or beautiful.”
A house as many restoration experts suggest chooses you rather than the other way around. I would totally agree. I knew after the second showing that this was the house for me as it is a period of architecture I am interested in and would take the same vintage period of Welsh furniture that I had in storage for 7 years that belonged to my grandmother and great grandmother.
My research started with gaining access to the Property File of the house at the Timaru District Council building located at King George Place in Timaru Central. Unfortunately, there was very little information on the history of the house apart from details on extensions and refurbishment. This is not always the case as I had previously secured detailed information on the Orbell property including the Note of Intention to Build document which confirmed that the proposed cost for a five roomed house was 550 pounds and the deposit a mere ten shillings in 1914! One of the most frustrating issues I found was that many primary documents were not dated which makes it harder to place the owner within a decade.
One of the most underestimated resources I started with was the Lim Report. Like many people before me I had to wait patiently for the availability of this document and focused intently on what could be plumbing, electrical or tree root issues. I remember skimming through the last few pages unaware that they contained fascinating hints to the history of the building and past owners. An example being that I had heard that my house had once been owned by an artist, however, it took me a long while to be able to confirm the identity of this person as Mrs Mollie Steven, a name which had been included on the Lim Report all the time, in the application of an extension known as the Art Room. In my defence those words were in very small print! With assistance of the Aigantighe Art Gallery team and the internet, I found that the artist was also known as Astrid Mollie Steven. She was born in Nelson in 1906. According to her biography she had exhibited at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and The Group in Christchurch. She spent time training in Paris which is possibly where her love of Impressionism and Cubism began. Art works such as Breakwater Stone (oil on board 1962) archived at the Aigantighe Gallery confirm her use of these dominant art styles and the influence of Cezanne in the use of abstracted fragments in her work including stone, water and sand. In 1939, while in Toronto she studied the art of young Navago and Pueblo Indians. She is also known to have had a passion for Māori art and culture.
After spending many years in Europe and North America she married and in 1951 arrived back in New Zealand. She finally settled in Timaru at Beverley Road in 1952 and lived in my current home until 1972, when she left for her birthplace in Nelson, where she died on the 23rd April 1999.
It is my intention to arrange for prints to be made of some of her artworks so at some stage when my studio ( her Art Room) is decorated, I can return examples of her work to the very spot where they were created.
Researching the history of one’s house is very much a work in progress and quite honestly information can appear from many different sources. The staff of the South Canterbury Museum were very helpful in revealing more about the house and Beverley Road. Educator Ruth Gardiner confirmed that her mother knew the road as Influenza Alley. Interesting for me as I teach the Influenza Pandemic of 1919 to Year 11 History students. Beverley Road was also the site of the diptheria outbreak which resulted in the draining of the Beverley Pond. The pond in its time drew many visitors to the vicinity to see the wonderful weeping willows, the irises and marsh flowers that surrounded the pond. There were also many brightly coloured ducks for children to feed. The gardens at Beverley Hill ( later to be subdivided into what is now known as Beverley Road) were regarded as showcases for those interested in plants and flowers because of the rich soil. I credit the latter for the magnificent roses I have inherited in the garden.
Neighbours and local store owners can also provide the home researcher with leads to further documented information. At O’Loughlin’s Antiques and Collectables, owner Terry O’Loughlin has a vast knowledge of the area and the heritage homes in Timaru and Christchurch. On one of my visits he introduced me to an original copy of the Streets of Timaru, I was amazed by the detailed history it contained in regard to both Beverley Road and Beverley Hill and early settlers like Henry Le Cren. The 2011 edition of The Streets of Timaru by Jack Hamilton and Keith Bartholomew is available at the South Canterbury Museum and the Timaru Public Library and is a wonderful resource for the historian.
Well I still have the anomaly of the Scotsman who possibly built my home who I have not been able to identify. There is also a fascinating stone decoration at my gate which looks like an early version of Timaru Rocks but includes multiple rocks and sea shells in a perplexing pattern. It is dated 1958, so I am sure that this was when Astrid Mollie Steven was in residence, however, the purpose of the decoration I can only guess was an important year in her life in Timaru! So many leads to follow but I am constantly reminded that we are solely custodians of our homes and their rich legacies for future generations.
Join the History Hunt
Read an article in The Timaru Herald about the grand old days of Beverley - the large house and section that was later sub-dived: pressreader.com/20070410/282033322750542
Read about her artwork: pressreader.com/the-timaru-herald/20140329/281930245941484
Learn about the tallest tree in town here: timarucourier.co.nz/landmark-tree-has-storied-past/
Timeline for Beverley Hill / Beverley Road
1857- First cottage built by Henry Le Cren.
1873- Land purchased by Mr and Mrs Arthur Perry.
1872-75: Diptheria outbreak in Christchurch.
c1893: Painting of Beverley Pond by artist William Greene.
c1899: Draining of Beverley Pond (sometimes referred to unromantically as Beverley Creek).
1918: Influenza Pandemic (at least 500,000 cases and 9,000 deaths in New Zealand.)
1936- The building of Jill Harland's home in Beverley Road
1951: Astrid Mollie Steven arrives back in New Zealand and purchases a home in Beverley Road.
1958: Unusual stone and shell decoration is created at the back of her home.
1962: Oil painting Breakwater Stone painted by Astrid Mollie Steven.
1968: The Canterbury Society of Arts (September 28th- October 10th) exhibition of Astrid Mollie Steven. Referred to at the time as a “one man show.”
2014: Breakwater Stone gifted to the Aigantighe Gallery by Mary and Sinclair Raymond by their daughters Anne Perry and Rosie Fuller.