Pt. Chevalier Times No. 7

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Times

Newsletter for the Point Chevalier History Group No. 7 September 2009

Pt Chevalier Sailing Club Committee: Do You Know the Faces?

Can you help? Pt Chevalier History Group member Elaine Read would like to know more about the photo and fill in some of the question marks. “This is the Sailing Club committee at the opening of the Clubhouse – I think it was 1923 but have not been able to confirm. Dad had written the names on the back of the photo and he was not a good speller, especially with names. He was born 1919 so am fairly sure that he would remember these men.” Back row :

?

Tom Courtenay

Front row: ? McMillen Buckley Harry Empson If you can help, please contact us.

Tom Taite Tom Cleal

Les Eggleton

Fred Dyson

Bill Oliver

? Hugh

Next meeting: 10.30 am, Thursday 24th September at Pt Chevalier Community Library.

Next issue due out October 2009 Contact Lisa Truttman (editor) : 19 Methuen Road, Avondale, Auckland 0600,phone (09) 828-8494 or email [email protected]

Pt Chevalier History Group Minutes of meeting Thursday 13th August 2009 Meeting started at 10.30 am. 24 members present. Minutes of previous meeting read. Accepted (Wright / Pearce) Matters arising from minutes: Western Bays Community Board awarded group $1000 towards start up costs. Tim Codyre spoke about the Coyle Park sculpture. Bruce Parkes spoke on proposed Transition Towns walk and called for help with choice of suitable historic sites within Pt Chevalier and organisation before and during event. Chairperson called for volunteers to help run the group. Help with specific tasks volunteered by Pamela Pearce and Mary Brien. Show and tell: 5 members presented and discussed items of historical interest. Meeting closed at 11.30

Cleal family of Pt Chevalier by Elaine Read Sometime during World War One the Cleal siblings shifted to Beach Road (now Pt Chevalier Road) from Ponsonby. They had continued to run the family fruit and greengrocer business in Ponsonby Road after the deaths of their mother Jane in 1910 and their father John in 1911. The house is still standing at 448 Pt Chevalier Road owned by Jo Cleal, a grandson of John, and his wife Chris. The family was four brothers (Tom, Ritchie, Lew and Jack) and five sisters (Annie, Cassie, Jane, Thelma and Ethel) ranging in age from 11 to their early 30s. Annie did not live in Pt Chevalier for long. In 1916 she married in Australia and made this country her new home. Ritchie Cleal died at home in 1917 and the age of 28 years. Tom and Jack continued in the greengrocer business selling fruit and vegetables door-to-door, initially from a horse and cart and in later years using a small Ford truck. The two draught horses, Darkie and Whakanui, were housed in a stable behind the home. Also behind the house was a shed where the produce was stored. Locals came to buy fruit and vegetables directly from the shed where it was weighed on scales suspended from the ceiling. Cassie married Charles Spearpoint in 1921. The Auckland directories from 1919 to 1921 list Charles’ mother Catherine at a tea kiosk in Pt Chevalier Road. Charles and Cassie lived in Albert Street (now Alberta Street) until 1930 when they

shifted to Wellington. They had one daughter Beryl born in 1928. Jane married Harold Broadhead in 1924 and they made their home in Buxton Street. They had one daughter Jeannie who taught at Pt Chevalier School for a short time. Also in 1924 Lew married Jean Boyd, a widow with four children (Ena, Cis, Jack and Bub) living in Bella Vista Street (now Bangor Street). The family settled in Johnstone Street and were soon joined by Ritchie and Johnston (Jo). Ethel was the next to marry. In 1935 she wed local Jim Milne who lived with his mother in St Michaels Avenue. Ethel and Jim lived with Mrs Milne in the family home. During this time Tom, Jack and Thelma had remained in the family home. Thelma worked at Auckland Hospital while Tom and Jack sold their fruit and vegetables. In 1946 Thelma married Fred Meyers, a tailor, and Fred joined the household at 448 Pt Chevalier Road. Pt Chevalier Sailing Club was established in 1919. Two of the founding members were Tom and Jack Cleal. During the 1920s Jim Milne was sailing with the club in his yacht Ivy and Charles Spearpoint was Club Secretary. The Pt Chevalier Rugby League Club was formed in late 1919 and players in the first season included Charles Spearpoint, Harold Broadhead and Jack Cleal. These three were also members of the 1929 Senior B team that won the Stallard Cup, the first title won by the Club. Tom Cleal was also involved for many years as a delegate. The next generation of Cleal’s, Ritchie and Jo, also played for the Club.

1953 And All That by Des Gates 1953 was a year when loyalty to the Crown reached its peak. For the first time the Reigning Monarch visited New Zealand. The Queen and Duke arrived on the Royal Yacht “Gothic” (known to us as a Shaw Savill Passenger/Cargo ship). The City was decorated and we loyal subjects crowded into Queen Street for the Civic Reception at the front of the Town Hall. The event was, of course, made more memorable with the announcement that Hillary and Tensing had conquered Everest. In the few days that followed rumours spread locally that the Queen would visit the grave with a royal connection in the Avondale Presbyterian Church on the corner of St Georges and Great North Road. With a lot of other people we spent the afternoon outside the Avondale Town Hall to no avail. While Avondale did not get its visit by Royalty that day Point Chevalier did a few days later when the Duke of Edinburgh left Government House in the city for Whenuapai and the announced route to the airport was via Meola Road. Herewith is a photo of the neighbours and my father and brother outside our home at 53 giving him a wave.

Point Chevalier Hub A local from the “Point”, Cameron Grieg, has recently put together a website called “The Point Chevalier Hub”. Included on his website are digital versions of the Pt. Chevalier Times as they come out (they are republished on

Scribd as I complete them), plus a history summary for which Cameron has asked for information and input. Great to see the Point showcased on the internet liked this: http://www.pointchev.com/

History of the Coyle Park Sculpture Arch by Tim Codyre In early 2005 I approached Warren Pringle, Senior Arts Planner for Auckland City, with the idea of carving an ornate arch telling the story of Meola Reef, from macrocarpa timber needing to be removed from Coyle Park. He referred me to the Western Bays Community Board with the view to seeking funding from small Local Improvements (SLIPs) funding. Following a meeting with Board Member Bruce Kilmister and Warren a proposal was forwarded and funding eventually approved. Coyle Park is a truly beautiful park with panoramic seaviews in all directions, including the view of Te Tokaroa or Meola Reef. One of the Maori legends concerning the creation of this reef involved the Patupaiarehe or fairy people. Under the tutelage of master carver Alan Notera I had already been involved in telling this story almost twenty years ago in the form of a poupou for the whare wananga at Auckland Girls Grammar School, where I had been the head carver. Having subsequently been to England and trained in the European heritage of ornament I thought it would be nice to tell the story again in the form of a representational frieze with an ornate border of local motifs. The timber was felled, transported to my place and milled into two six inch slabs. Luckily the timber proved to be sound and I proceeded to

carve the arch in the garage of a friend, local historian Pam Burrell. The arch was erected in late May 2009.

Editor’s note: It tells the Maori legend of the formation of Meola Reef at the bottom of each piece of timber. "Patupaiarehe, fairy people, lived in the darkness of Waitakere bush. One night, on the shores of the Waitemata Harbour, two opposing groups were doing battle. The weaker ones tried to escape by building a stone causeway." "They laboured on unaware of the rising sun. The tree limbs sticking out of the lava flow of the reef, Te Toka Roa, are said to be the bones of the Patupaiarehe fairy people, petrified by the sun."

Memories by Pamela Pearce. I moved into my home in Buxton Street in November 1977 so have seen a few changes to the neighbourhood. Mainly, I suppose it moving from mainly older people to young families. This had a big impact on the school, and so on us, as our section backs on to the Primary School. A new swimming pool was built, and local people were asked to contribute towards this, which I did, hoping it would be an asset on the corner of Buxton and Walford Roads. In the place of the former swimming pool, double storey classrooms were built, so our house was somewhat more overlooked than previously.

I remember the motorway being extended towards Auckland across the golf course. Smale Street was used as an access road to build a new off ramp, so lots of heavy trucks used to go up and down that road most days. My parents lived in Smale Street at the time, and I remember that the trucks used to leave the road in a bad state. What I cannot remember about the new motorway building, though, is when the Carrington Road overbridge was built. I cannot remember Carrington Road being closed at all. Does anyone know how and if the road was kept open throughout the building operations?