By Roselyn Fauth
A neighbourhood leaves its mark
After learning more about the Gloucester Gates at the Botanic Gardens, I began to wonder whether they were part of a wider Timaru pattern. Were other parts of town also marking their public places with gates? That question led me north, and to a story that feels quite different in tone but just as revealing.
According to the Aoraki Heritage Collection, the Evans Street gates to Ashbury Park were erected by the North End Ratepayers and Improvements Association in 1926, and the site includes an accompanying plaque. That is such a good built heritage clue because it ties the gates directly to the people who cared enough to make them happen.
The park itself already carried history before the gates were built. Aoraki Heritage notes that Belfield Woollcombe built his house Ashbury overlooking the Waimataitai Lagoon, and that when the lagoon was later drained the reclaimed land became Ashbury Park. So the gates do not simply open onto a reserve. They open onto a landscape already shaped by settlement, environmental change, and the remaking of land for public benefit.
Timaru from the Air when Waimataitai Creek still ran through what is today Ashbury Park. You can see how close the Caroline Bay Tea Rooms used to be to the sand. For many of the aerial photographs, while Doug Mill was piloting the plane his wife Audrey was leaning out of the open cockpit with a camera. Between 1927-1937. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections FDM-0690-G - Creative Commons Licence: Attribution CC BY
What makes the Ashbury Park story especially rich is the role of the North End associations. In 1922, the North End Improvement Association helped organise a tree-planting ceremony at the reserve. The Timaru Herald reported that the ground had been cultivated, cleaned, and drained, and that nearly 1000 trees had been planted. Mayor F. J. Rolleston attended. Schoolboys took part. Local women provided hospitality afterwards. That feels far more alive than the stereotype of a committee sitting in a room discussing procedure. It shows people physically making a place together.
A view from Edward Sealy’s House (just east of Craighead Diocesan School) looking towards the Waimataitai Lagoon in 1873. On the left, the small bridge crosses Athol Place. In the middle distance, you can see what is now Ashbury, with Ashbury Park situated behind. To the right, the original "Ashbury" stands—home to Belfield Woollcombe. The park was once known as "Woollcombe’s Paddock," and the surrounding grounds were informally referred to as the "Waimataitai grounds" by rugby players in the 1880s and 1890s.
By 1924, the North End association had become a highly visible civic voice. It wanted to raise up to £500 to help complete the park scheme, and the newspaper noted that it had already given “valuable assistance” to the park’s development. But the most telling line came later that year, when G. H. Andrews said a “decent entrance should be erected” so that people would know where the park was and appreciate what a pleasant place it had become.
That phrase is wonderful because it says so much. A gate was not simply about control. It was about recognition. It was about making the park visible in the urban landscape. It was about saying: this place matters.
The broader context helps explain why that mattered. In the wider parks movement, public parks were increasingly seen as places of health, recreation, civic pride, and public improvement. Entrances were part of how those places became legible and valued. A proper gate or entrance helped mark the threshold between ordinary street and meaningful public green space. In that sense, G. H. Andrews was not saying something quaint or decorative. He was expressing a very modern urban idea: that design shapes how people notice and value a place.
This is where the North End association’s wider role also matters. It was not just a loose neighbourhood committee. By 1924 it was acting as both an improvement body and a local political voice, pressing for practical works, worrying about representation on Borough Council, and trying to make sure the North End was not overlooked. In that context, wanting a “decent entrance” to the park makes perfect sense. It was about more than appearance. It was about neighbourhood standing.
That is why the Ashbury Park gates feel like such a strong companion to the Gloucester Gates. One came wrapped in royal ceremony. The other grew out of neighbourhood effort. One speaks of civic display. The other speaks of local people organising, planting, fundraising, and wanting their end of town to have something proper and visible. But both come out of the same larger impulse: the belief that parks mattered, that entrances mattered, and that public places should feel dignified, welcoming, and complete.
To me, that is where the built heritage value of the Ashbury Park gates really lies. They are attractive, certainly, but their deeper significance is social. They show us ordinary people acting as custodians of public space. They remind us that public places do not simply appear. People imagine them, work for them, and mark them. In this case, a neighbourhood did just that, and the gates still stand as the record of that effort.
Sources
https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/3953
https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/2035
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19220810.2.20
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19240826.2.26
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19241003.2.9
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19240707.2.11.1
Section on the map showing the stream running through what is today Ashbury Park. The stream now runs through a storm water drain under the feild. Section of An early map of Timaru in 1860. Courtesy of the National Library. Archives New Zealand/Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga. Christchurch Office. Archives reference: CH1031, BM 245 pt 2, R22668176
In this map you can see the waimataitai lagoon before it was drained and turned into a park. The stream was piped underground and can be seen at the golf course. Miscellaneous plans - borough of timaru, south canterbury, 1911 - t.N. Brodrick, chief surveyor canterbury ndhadeliver.Natlib.Govt.Nz/ie31423732
Centuries before European settlement, Māori Park was home to Moa-hunter Māori. Evidence such as moa bones, flint tools, and cooking ovens reveals the site was an ideal location, offering rich resources from the nearby Dashing Rocks, beach, and Washdyke Lagoon. Later generations of Māori, including the Ngāi Tahu, continued to live here.
The Māori name for the area, Te Upoko a Te Rakai Tauwheke, honors a Ngāi Tahu chief who led his people to victory in tribal wars. Te Weka Street is an abbreviation of his name.
Virtue Avenue, now a street, was once a stream with a waterhole named Ponuiahine, shared by Māori and Pākehā. According to legend, Ponuiahine was named after a maiden from the Mangarara canoe who was turned into a rock for glimpsing a sacred dog without proper rituals.
What was once a lagoon, is now Ashbury Park. Aerial view of Timaru, showing Caroline Bay, harbour and town between 1920 and 1939. - Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections FDM-0690-G
Timaru has always struggled with a lack of open reserves. Māori Park, Ashbury Park, and West End Park are rare exceptions. Unlike other cities with abundant green spaces—such as Christchurch’s Hagley Park or Dunedin’s Queen’s Gardens—Timaru lacks similar provisions near its center. As the city grows, the importance of retaining open spaces like Māori Park becomes critical. It is the only hill-crest reserve offering breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean and an invigorating escape from urban life.
In New York’s Central Park, landscape experts rejected proposals to build structures, stating that parks should remain open and uncluttered. Timaru must adopt the same philosophy to preserve Māori Park. Let us honor the legacy of those who came before us and safeguard Māori Park as a heritage for future generations—a place windswept, free, and untouched by unnecessary development.
1936-01-22 - Timaru, the principal centre of South Canterbury: an aerial view of portions of the business and residential areas - Supplement to the Auckland Weekly News, 22 January 1936, p.49. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19360122-49-02. No known copyright restrictions. https://kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/photos/id/271698/rec/2
Eliot, Whately. 1874, Mr. Woollcombe's house, Ashbury, Timaru, N.Z., October 1874 , viewed 22 November 2024 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138582421. Out of Copyright. Creator Date of Death is Before 1955
Woollcombe Wych
TIMARU Ashbury Park
Planted in memory of Captain Woolcombe who used to own the Ashbury property. The tree under which the WOOLLCOMBE memorial lies is a horizontal Elm - Ulmus Glabra 'Horizontalis'. It is just inside gate of Evans street. The Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Horizontalis', commonly known as the Weeping Wych Elm or Horizontal Elm, was discovered in a Perth nursery circa 1816. The tree was originally identified as 'Pendula' by Loddiges (London), in his catalogue of 1836, a name adopted by Loudon two years later in Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum, 3: 1398, 1838, but later sunk as a synonym for 'Horizontalis'. - https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nzlscant/woollcombe.htm
TIMARU Ashbury Park - 2022 Ashbury Park - Woolcombe Wych - Roselyn Fauth
Planted in memory of Captain Woolcombe who used to own the Ashbury property. The tree under which the WOOLLCOMBE memorial lies is a horizontal Elm - Ulmus Glabra 'Horizontalis'. It is just inside gate of Evans street. The Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Horizontalis', commonly known as the Weeping Wych Elm or Horizontal Elm, was discovered in a Perth nursery circa 1816. The tree was originally identified as 'Pendula' by Loddiges (London), in his catalogue of 1836, a name adopted by Loudon two years later in Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum, 3: 1398, 1838, but later sunk as a synonym for 'Horizontalis'. - https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nzlscant/woollcombe.htm
Woolcombe Ash
TIMARU
Ashbury Park
On 8th July, 2010 the Woollcombe Ash tree was removed from Asbury Park. It was no longer structurally sound and children were playing in and around the tree. Recently the external circumference of the tree had decayed further so that it was only alive in two or three thin sections. It was the first ash tree planted in Timaru. A replacement ash is to be planted at the site.
Timaru Herald, 11 June 1914, Page 7 A FORTNIGHT'S JOURNEY.
CHRISTCHURCH TO TIMARU. In 1861 the late Captain Woollcombe brought his bride from Christchurch and the journey occupied a fortnight. Miss Woollcombe told a representative of the "Herald" some of the adventures they experienced, as she had heard the story from her mother. They set forth from Christchurch with a bullock dray, two bullock drivers, a dog cart towed behind the dray, and a dog. They had great trouble with the rivers, and the dog cart breaking its axle, had to be brought most of the way on the dray. The Geraldine Creek was to high for them to cross, and a stay of several days had. to be made with Mr Alfred Cox, of Raukapuka. When at last they reached their home at Waimataitai it was impossible to use the dog cart because the road from there to Timaru would not allow it to be used. Journeys to the settlement or to distant neighbours were not made then by the road so often as in a direct line "across country." When the Woollcombes' present house was being built, Bishop Harper had occasion to hold a meeting at Mr Herbert Belfield's house, on the adjoining hill, and the foundations of the Woollcombes' dwelling were taken to serve as chairs for the assemblage. Mr Belfield, who was afterwards proprietor of the "Herald," was the first milkman of Timaru, carrying the milk himself, so simple were the times, in two large vessels.
Death: WOOLLCOMBE - On July 22nd, at his residence, Ashbury, near Timaru, Captain Woollcombe, R.N.; aged 75 years.
Obituary page 3
Another old identity, Captain Belfield Woollcombe, passed away very suddenly on Tuesday night, being nearly seventy-six. He had been seized with a fatal stroke of apoplexy, or heart failure. Dr Hogg was sent for.
Captain Woollcombe was one of the oldest settlers in South Canterbury, he had been engaged in many public capacities. He was born 1st January 1816, in Pellerton (North Tawton), on the borders of Devon and Cornwall, of which his father, the Rev. Henry Woollcombe, was Rector. The family presently moved to High Hampton and Ashbury, after which latter place the deceased named his residence near Timaru. Losing his father when he was but two or three years old, the future naval officer and colonist was brought up by his grandmother Lady Louis, until he was thirteen, at which age he entered the Royal Navy, 26th Nov. 1829, as a midshipman on board the H.M.S. Thunderer, and his memory carried him back to the demonstrations on board, in 1830, while the vessel was in the West Indies, in respect for the death of George the Fourth, and the immediately succeeding demonstrations in honour of the accession of William the Fourth. Later he took part in the "Opium War" with China, of 1839-42, for his services he received a medal. Promoted to lieutenant 8th June, 1841. The later portion of his naval career, which closed in 1850, was spent as Staff Lieutenant at Plymouth, under his uncle Admiral Sir John Louis. After completing 21 years service Lieutenant Woollcombe retired from the Navy, with the service pension. Subsequently he was ranked as commander, and still later as Post-Captain. He came to New Zealand in 1852, and became a partner with Messrs Lee, Mallock and Lance (all well known names) on the "New Zealand Wool Growing Company" at Mount Parnassus, in the Nelson Province, just over the Canterbury boundary. In October, 1857, Lieut. Woollcombe came to Timaru, and buying a small section whereon he has since lived, he built himself a small whare, which still stands to attest the honesty and thoroughness of his handiwork. At the time of his arrival there were only one or two dwellings on the site of Timaru, occupied by the late Sam Williams and Captain Cain (if indeed the later had then come here.) The country was however being rapidly taken up as sheep runs, and there was a good deal of travelling to and fro, and already some wool to be shipped by whale boats of from the beach. Lieut. Woollcombe was appointed Government Agent at Timaru, a multifarious office, which he held for some years and which required him to be by turns Resident Magistrate, Immigration Agent, Post-Master, Customs Officer, Harbourmaster, Beachmaster, Pilot, Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, and Health Officer. His naval experience was brought into play in the survey of the Timaru harbour, which is often appealed to as a standard survey. When the town and district increased in population these duties were divided among other officers. Lieut. Woollcombe retaining the post of Resident magistrate, adding to it that of returning Officer. He held the Resident Magistrateship till September 1878, when he relinquished it and was succeeded by Mr Richmond Beetham. Since then he has frequently sat on the Bench as a Justice of the Peace. Captain Woollcombe has always taken a keen interest in the harbour question, and lately had been a useful member of the harbour board. In every aspect he was the father of Timaru. Beside his official duties his work as a member of the Anglican congregation deserves special attention. He has not only been a pillar of the church; he was the architect of the first church of St Mary, and did a good deal of work upon it with his own hands, and the energy and Christian zeal thus displayed at the outset has been maintained to the last, he having been the Incumbent's Churchwarden for many years. In December 1878 on leaving the Bench, he entered into partnership with Mr George Clulee, and up to the very day of his death took an active share on the work of the well-known firm.
The deceased married a daughter of the Rev Mr Fendall, of Fendalltown, near Christchurch, and leaves to mourn for him, besides the widow (who is unfortunately an invalid) one son and five daughters. The son is in the Eastern Extension Telegraph Co. in Sydney the eldest daughter is married to Mr Bradshaw, of the Hook, and the other three daughters are at home. The funeral will take place on Saturday afternoon, at an hour to be advertised tomorrow.
Timaru Herald Friday July 24th 1891 Funeral Notice
The friends of the late Capt. Woollcombe, R.N., are respectfully informed that his Funeral will leave his late Residence, Ashbury, Waimataitai, near Timaru, on Saturday, the 25th instant, at 2 p.m. arriving at St. Mary's Church at about 2.30 p.m. J.E. Beckingham, Undertaker
Timaru Herald Monday July 27 1891
The funeral of the late Captain Woollcombe took place on Saturday afternoon, and was largely attended. The coffin was first taken to St. Mary's Church where the funeral service was performed by the Ven. Archdeacon Harper, and then, about 3 p.m. the cortege started for the cemetery. The hearse was followed by two close carriages, and an open one containing the members of the Vestry of St. Mary's, then came about 50 persons on foot, most of them very old residents of Timaru and districts, and following them about a score of vehicles, containing the townsmen and persons from the country districts. Several business people in Stafford street put up their shutters, expecting the cortege would go along the main thoroughfare, but it was taken by Sophia and Barnard streets to Shepherd's corner.
Timaru Herald July 27th 1891
Correction. The partners in the 'New Zealand Wool Growing Company' at Hawkswood (an adjoining property to Mount Parnassus) were Messrs Woollcombe, Stewart Wortley and Thomas Hanmer. They sold out to Mr J.S. Caverhill, and the present owner of the property is Mr John Mcfarlane. The original owners of Mount Parnaasus were Messrs Edward Lee and Edward Jollie.
P.B. Boulton, Christchurch, 24th July, 1891.
Matson Tree
TIMARU Ashbury Park
Dedicated to the memory of the late W.M. Matson by the N.E. IMP, Assoc. Oct. 1922
