Home History

Heritage NZ run ‘Research you own home’ workshops to help you investigate things like and have a great list of online resources to get you started on your home investigation journey. Here is a great list and a few sites that we like to use:

When reproducing other peoples information and images, it is ideal to be aware of Copyright from the outset so if you need to, you can easily find the source and arrange copyright permission. Here is some helpful information from copyright.co.nz

How long does copyright last?

Who Owns Copyright in a Work?

Infringement of Copyright

What Qualifies for Copyright Protection?

When Permission is Not Needed

Protecting Copyright Material

* this is just general information on copyright issues. If you require expert or legal advice on copyright, you should seek the services of a legal professional.

Making a connection to someone who lived in your home could be as simple as a cemetery search on the Timaru District Councils website: timaru.govt.nz/cemetery-search

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... 

Architecture & Urban Design Consultant

You might have seen Nigel Gilkison in the Timaru Herald, he is pretty passionate about Timaru's heritage and keen to celebrate and preserve it. When we got in touch with Nigel he had heaps of ideas and was happy to share his own tips and tricks to finding history about where we shelter. 

Museum Educator

Keely Kroening has heaps to share and she does a wonderful job as the Museum Educator at the South Canterbury Museum. We thought you might like to learn about the discoveries that Keely made about her own home on Beverley Road in Timaru.

Amateur Columnist

If your looking for an excellent read about Timaru's important buildings, you may have read Karens articles on the Civic Trust website: timarucivictrust.co.nz. Karen has written up a piece about her background and a home where her heart is...

Artist, Creative Writer and Family Historian

Cynthia has been helping us at WuHoo Timaru get our heads around the importance of respecting peoples research,  how to acknowledge it and thinking more critically when interpreting it. This is a fantastic write up about her home and how she researched it with wonderful suggestions on how you can do the same to find your own WuHoo.

Collection Curator at the Aigantighe Art Gallery.

When you read an artwork label at the Aigantighe Gallery, chances are it has been prepared by an art curator like Petrena. Her art history skills help her learn about the past. Her office used to be home to the Grant family. She has a great story to tell about Helen Grant's daughter Jessie Wigley.

In a few special circumstances, peoples homes were generously gifted to the people of the Timaru District in a pioneering spirit to help establish public buildings. There used to be a house called Linwood (or sometimes spelt with an Y Lynwood) House has a fascinating history, and although it is long gone from the corner of George and Latter Streets in Timaru, it's legacy remains. A bold gift to the community thanks to a hard working committee and a grant from wealthy steel merchant Carnigie. Next time you are visiting the Library wander down the road a block to the Council building. If you look closely today you will see "Library" formed from Oamaru stone and a gentleman's face looking out from an arch. 

When Timaru had only a small population, before the first immigrant ship arrived, Margaret - the wife, and the young children of Henry Le Cren moved from Lyttleton to Timaru to join their father. Henry Le Cren established Timaru's first store which Captain Cain managed. They lived up on a hill with views to Caroline Bay and the Port, and the house they built was named ‘Beverly’. Back in 1858 the town was just starting out but was soon to grow rapidly when wool could be shipped directly from Timaru to London. After a stint living in London, Henry would return without his wife and move to Craighead. He died in 1985 and the house was sold to the 4 Shand sisters to start a school in 1910.

The first house at Beverley was a small cottage built by Henry L. Le Cren in 1857. The Beverley was built by Henry Le Cren in the 1860s and purchased by Mr and Mrs Arthur Perry in 1873. On the rise of Beverley Hill a lavish home once stood. Ringed by pines the property was big.

In 1861 a pioneering couple set off from Scotland for the other side of the world. Catherine MacKay 1837-1914 and Andrew Burnett 1838-1927 travelled by bullock wagon and camped at Perth Street, Timaru. They later planted an oak tree there. The Burnetts' first home at Mt Cook station was a "one-room hut of black birch logs plastered with clay and thatched with snowgrass." Thier youngest son Thomas David (TD) represented Temuka in Parliament until he died in 1941. He left in his will the Perth Street property to The South Canterbury Historical Society. It was TD's wish that any new building on the site be named Pioneer Hall, so the Historical Society gave that name to their new museum on the site. In 1966 the museum building was replaced with a new building in the iconic octagonal design by Ron Dohig. Next time you are at the museum, seek out a boulder with a plaque. You will find it under the oak tree planted by the pioneers all those years ago. 

Feeling stuck at home with the kids right now? You can probably relate to the widowed woman with 6 young children, living in a tiny cottage in Peeress town… The town was only supposed to be a temporary settlement, for 24 immigrant families who arrived on the Peeress Ship in 1874. But with nowhere else to go, many families stayed on. After a typhoid breakout and issues with some "un-savoury characters" the area got a bad reputation and some Timaru Borough residents wanted it gone. Eventually the town was emptied and the buildings razed, leaving the former residents to find new homes.

All houses have different stories of the people who lived in them. 26 Preston Street was home to Elizabeth Blackham and her family. Originally from Invercargill, Elizabeth and her husband Richard had a large family with 11 children. Sadly, as was common in those days, three of them died in infancy. After Richard also died, in 1912 Elizabeth moved the family to Timaru where they settled at the house on Preston Street. The Blackham family were living there in 1915 when World War I broke out, changing their lives forever.

Ever wondered how the Aigantighe Art Gallery got its name? Before it became a gallery, it was originally the home of Alexander and Helen Grant. The Grants were Scottish immigrants who farmed a rural high country station, Gray’s Hill. But they wanted a house in town for their retirement, so in 1905 they built a beautiful new home on Wai-iti Street and called it “Aigantighe”. Pronounced “ay-gan-tie”, it is a Scottish Gaelic term for “Welcome to our home”. (Other earlier documentation prounced it "egg-an-ie). Helen lived in the house until she was 101, and it was her wish for it to become a gallery. After she died, her family gifted the house to the City of Timaru and it has been used as a gallery ever since.

Imagine who lived in one of Timaru's early cob cottages and who helped build it? Made of clay and tussock and built for the young wife of an early settler, this one is amazingly still standing on Avenue Rd – though it has seen some changes. As Timaru evolved, so too did this cottage with the building clad in weather board over the cob and a kitchen added at the back. It is thought to have been built around 1860’s by Samuel Barkley, who is thought to have had the help of the Deal Boatmen: skilled boat handlers and the first the be burried at Timaru’s Kensington cemetery.

Ever walked down the drive lined with old English trees at Ashbury Ave and wonder who planted them? There used to be a colonial cottage here called "Ashbury" where the Woollcombe family lived. In marched Lieutenant (later Captain) Belfield Wollcombe in 1857. Often referred to as the grandfather of Timaru, he would later claim to be the oldest resident of Timaru. In his time, he was the government rep, beach master, health officer, registrar, coroner, returning officer and over seer of public works and magistrate. (That’s a lot of multi-tasking!) He built Timaru’s third house at Ashbury Park. Though the house is long gone today, you can still walk beneath the English trees that he planted on his land that overlooked the Waimataitai estuary at southern end of the park. The Waimataitai Lagoon was later drained and the reclaimed land became Ashbury Park. However despite settling in one of the most remote parts of the world, this didn’t stop his eldest daughter venturing out and even being caught up in the Boer war.