PO Box 56076, Tawa Wellington 5249; Secretary ph 232 5901
Website: tawahistory.org.nz
The Tawa Historian
Newsletter #52 – November 2020
Dear Members and Friends,
If you had to decide on the most historic site in Tawa, what site would you choose? The Bartlett House at 26 Oxford Street? Mavis Bank, the Brown family’s farmhouse at 294 Main Road? The old Tawa Flat school building on Oxford Street? The Tawa Memorial on the south east corner of Grasslees Reserve, with its links back as far as the 19th century to the South African War, and to the World Wars of the 20th century? The monument to Elsdon Best, the Maori scholar, born on Grasslees Farm in 1856, whom A H Carman considered to be Tawa’s greatest son? The Bucket Tree, now about 155 years old, and once the pride of Earp’s farm called Boscobel? Some of the old Tawa trees to be found in Wilf Mexted Reserve? The huge matai trees of the Larsen Crescent Reserve?
As interesting and as valuable as all of these places and objects above might be, my guess would be found on the Main Road, in Linden – the Tawa Flat Cemetery 1866-1978 – where 50 or 51 residents of Tawa Flat lie buried in what was originally the churchyard of the second church built in Tawa Flat in 1866; St Peter’s Church. It remained on that site, given to Charles Abraham, the Anglican Bishop of Wellington, in 1861, by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, till 1902. Then it was uplifted, put on a dray pulled by bullocks or horses, and taken to Porirua to become St Anne’s Church. There it served a much larger population than that of early 20th century Tawa Flat, till 1942, when a new St Anne’s was built at 2 Arawhata Street, Ranui. The Cemetery was at its ‘busiest’ between 1880 and 1899, when 60% (31) of those interred there were buried. In the whole of the 20th century, only 10 were buried there. Each person has a story, and most of those stories were gathered together in 2009 in a booklet the Tawa Historical Society published.
At our last Executive meeting of 2020, we discussed at length a paper produced by the Wellington City Council. Entitled A Draft Cemeteries Management Plan, its purpose was to consider the futures of three Wellington cemeteries - Karori, Makara, and Tawa. As we have a sound historical understanding of the Tawa cemetery’s past, the Tawa Historical Society has been specifically invited to become involved with the planning for the development of the Cemetery as a heritage landscape. It is initially proposed that the Tawa Cemetery be scheduled as a heritage item in the District Plan, and that a Tawa Cemetery heritage conservation plan, including an archaeological assessment and management plan, and a long-term maintenance plan with associated guidance on best practice maintenance of the graves and the vegetation, be developed.
Tawa Cemetery is an archaeological site under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, as it was established before 1900. Tawa Cemetery is already classified as an historic reserve under the Reserves Act to protect and preserve it in perpetuity. Scheduling the cemetery in the district plan will provide another layer of protection, particularly to ensure the cemetery’s significance is recognised in resource management consenting processes.
A conservation plan for the cemetery is proposed to guide future management of the heritage. It will involve assessing the significance and condition of the heritage features and set out future maintenance requirements. The conservation plan will guide prioritising future maintenance and repair work. In addition, a separate or associated archaeological management plan is recommended to ensure that all work within the cemetery ensures the recognition, management and protection of pre- 1900 features and sites. The conservation and archaeological plans should take account of the pre- colonial history of the land or any special significance it may hold for mana whenua.
“The Tawa Historical Society continues to research the cemetery’s history and the people buried there. The first interpretation board was installed through the society’s advocacy in 2009 and has since been replaced once to include new information. The Tawa Historical Society has been instrumental in researching most of what is known about the Tawa Cemetery and its work to date will be invaluable for the proposed heritage conservation plan. There may be further opportunities to work together on planning and implementing the cemetery’s heritage conservation” [pp10-11 of the Draft Cemeteries Management Plan.]
Your Executive believes this is an exciting development both for Tawa in general, and for our Society in particular. It gives us opportunities to share what we already know or have discovered about the Cemetery and our district. The Cemetery is, in our view, in need of considerable ‘sprucing up’ (as my mother used to say), and has the potential to make the Cemetery a place well worth visiting and maintaining. It also has the opportunity to provide members of our Society with the opportunity to become involved with a particular historic site and project in a way which has not been possible previously. The Executive believes that, from our point of view, this is the best feature of this whole project, and would welcome as many members as possible becoming involved. We all have much to gain.
If any member would like more information, or would like to be involved in this Cemetery project, please contact either:
Bruce Murray 021 240 5515 bagmurray213@gmail.com or
Ken Woodgate 04 232 5901 ken.woodgate@xtra.co.nz
Kind regards,
Bruce Murray
Chairman,
Tawa Historical Society