Community Contributed

94 Winchester Street, Levin

Kete Horowhenua2020-03-23T16:52:10+00:00
Levin Historian traces the history of 94 Winchester St ... 'The house where I was born'.

This house is listed Category II with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.

Corrie Swanwick wrote an article on it:

94 Winchester Street


The house on the northeast corner of Bath Street was built in 1908 or 1909 for Mr Frank Swanwick on three sections totaling approximately half an acre, subdivided from section 44 of the Levin Village Settlement.

These were bought in 1907 from Mr W. G. Adkin who subdivided the block from Queen Street to Bath Street of 5 acres 2 roods. Part of the short end of Kent Street adjoining the block was surveyed out then.

The house on then current costs would have been priced at about £400 ($800) with the sections cost being about £50 ($100). My cousin Arlette Reading (Scott) said when her family came to Levin in 1905 the sections were a forest of dead, burnt trees.

My father came to Levin to work before he was married to work for his future brother-in-law, Mr Joseph Scott, a baker. He leased Mr F. O. Smith's bakehouse near the southeast corner if Bath Street and Winchester Street from 1905. This was sited west of the Maternity Hospital along Bath Street. A flat No 148, now occupies the site. .

One of my earliest memories is of seeing the words F. 0. Smith in large letters right across the bakehouse roof, to my wonderment. The bakehouse was operated definitely from 1900 and probably well before. Mr Smith's house was the house to the south along Winchester Street, which is now No 88.

My father boarded with his brother-in-law when he came to Levin at first. Often he found his tobacco pouch empty. One night he came through the gate quietly and saw a hand out of his room's window emptying his tobacco pouch. He was suspicious of his future nephew but did not catch the culprit.

Some nights later he went to the bakery and found Joseph Jnr and Les (Boy) Smith tying the harness of the delivery cart in knots. A larruping with the harness strap was the reward of the boys for their pranks.
I was born in the house in 1910 - born on the floor as I was in a hurry to get to Levin.

The Kent St - Bath St pit was behind our house, now Jubilee Park opposite the Maternity Hospital. These old metal pits often had water in them.

My elder brother Fred, remembers this story;

Dad had some ducks and these were attracted to the water in the pit. They laid their eggs on low knolls in the pit. The water level rose one night and next morning Dad had to ride his horse into the water and then reach down under the water to gather the eggs. Some he could not reach. It has been recorded that the pit overflowed in 1947 into and down Kent Street.

Between our section and the pit there was a paddock, now occupied by houses Nos. 157 - 161. This was in a rough state after stumping. Hollows were left where stumps had been, with a hump where the soil had fallen off the stumps. An earlier memory is of my brother, Fred, playing war with other children. The humps and hollows were the trenches (during 1914 -18 War).

The fighting got too serious. My mother shouted out, "Stop the fighting, there is enough fighting in the world now."
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The "footpath" in the front of the section was of grass and bare soil. In the bare patches there were narrow holes. When playing with Tom Barnett or Ken Hook, we poked straws down the holes and often pulled up a grub clinging to the straw. We called them "butcher- boys".

Our house was on the edge of town. There were no houses visible to the east except that the short end of Kent Street had some houses there and Queen Street was fairly well built up to the present Parker Avenue. There were only about five houses to the south in Winchester Street from Bath Street.

Bath Street in a formed state ended at Winchester Street with a fenced road width in grass connecting with a road strip which is now Parker Avenue. Mrs Emma Teal said that this was known as the "tram" for a reason unknown to her. There was probably a sawmill tramway there once. Bath Street, east of Winchester Street, was not formed until after about 1945.

In 1916 our property was sold to Thomas Nicholas and my family moved to Beach Road, (now Hokio Beach Road).

The property was transferred to Christine Nicholas in 1919 and later transferred to her married name, Brown.

In 1942 a section was surveyed off the rear of lots 21,22,23 making a section fronting making a section fronting Winchester Street and sold to Elizabeth May Capper. The original property, No 94, was sold to Mr William Mudge and transferred to Mrs Hettie Mudge in 1960.

The house is of six rooms. A roomy lounge is at the south front with a bay window and fireplace with the usual carved supports for the mantelpiece. A living room is towards the back and this has been relined but has the original fireplace. There was once a pull up window from floor to ceiling which has been replaced by a French door leading onto the side verandah.

There is a main bedroom at the north front with a fireplace now made into a small cupboard. There is a built in wardrobe in one wall which was very unusual for the time the house was built. This room originally had a French door leading onto the side verandah, now replaced by a window. There are two other bedrooms of good size. The front entrance is enhanced by a six-foot wide hall.

Verandahs are around the front and side of the house. Except for the replacement of the verandah railing and fancy corner pieces on the exterior being removed, the house is not greatly changed. Since 1916 until 1950 the house had been let to tenants most of the time.

In 1936 Mr Henry Playford bequeathed all his property to the Levin borough. This included most of the present Playford Park, the land where the motor camp and the site of a number of clubrooms is. The land where the properties in the south end of George Street are was included in the bequeathment, as was part of the original F. O. Smith's property, being the house on three sections. This was sold in 1944 by the Public Trustee on behalf of the borough for £ 685 ($1370).


A voluntary contribution by Francis Corrison Swanwick, Horowhenua Historical Society.