Southbrook’s Queen Anne Villa

Rangiora unfortunately lost a prominent heritage building to fire recently, and the residents of the house lost a very nice home. The beautiful Queen Anne style villa on the corner of Southbrook Road and South Belt. The property is steeped in Southbrook history, being owned first by the Grimwood family and later by the Archers, and is a true jewel for Rangiora.

The home is a grand old corner angle bay villa built to a Queen Anne style. I was recently invited to take a look at the villa by one of the owners to try and work out when it was built. It is an amazing house.

Corner bay villas, characterised by two gable bays at a right angle connected by a central room and veranda, began appearing in New Zealand as early as 1877, and they are somewhat unusual for the period.

In Victorian and Edwardian New Zealand working folk tended to build simple square ‘box’ cottages and ‘L plan’ gable cottages. Many of these survive today, including many examples within Rangiora. The corner bay with its two gable bay windows would have been considered an extravagance to the Victorian and Edwardian population, many of whom struggled to afford a single bay window!

Meanwhile, the Queen Anne villa is a type of house that became popular in London about the same time the corner bay villa became popular in NZ. The style was meant to harken back to the 18th century architecture popular during the reign of Queen Anne – a period that saw the formation of modern Britain. In London these houses were large, ornate, and often had spires.

In keeping with the trends of Mother England, New Zealand architecture tended to borrow elements from the Queen Anne design to enhance our own architectural style.

And this Southbrook home is almost a perfect example of a New Zealand Queen Anne style corner bay villa.

• The bright orange ‘Marseilles’ tiles are imported from France. The bright terracotta tiles meant to show an upper-class level of living above the corrugated iron used by the masses,

• The use of fancy patterns of wooden shingles on the gables,

• Sash windows with divided top pains and fanlights (little windows) above them,

• Chimney with bulbous top,

• Splayed veranda posts,

• The wide use of stained glass.

• Amazing pressed tin ceilings (which were different in every room).

Taken all together this Southbrook Villa is an amazing example of New Zealand architecture from the late Victorian or Edwardian period, and an absolute treasure.

At the time of the fire the villa had 5 rooms and a hallway, although a wall has been removed from the southern portion of the home to make a open plan living, dining, and kitchen space. When it was built it probably had 6 or 7 rooms.

The hallway includes a magnificent plaster arch. Arches were a very common design features in Victorian and Edwardian homes that indicated the division between the public and private spaces. Typically historic houses had a parlour or living room at the front of the building that would be used for entertaining guests. Behind the arch would be the bedrooms, kitchen, and scullery.

The plaster arch in this villa is a grand example. It has large fluted trusses and is flanked on either side by friezes featuring stylised feathers. In the keystone position is a heraldic design. On the south side is is a shield containing what appears to be a fleur-de-lis with a crown sitting above the shield. On the north side is a shield containing a floral design that I was unable to photograph (hopefully I can make a return visit at some stage).

And the veranda features some of the most ornate fretwork I have seen in over a decade of buildings archaeology.

The villa has had a couple of alterations of the years. The largest being the application of a layer of roughcast over most of the original weatherboards, and the removal of two chimneys and their associated fireplaces.

This Queen Ann villa is a treasure for Rangiora, if not the nation.

The property is associated with some of the most important people in 19th century Southbrook!

The land on which the corner bay villa stands was purchased by Robert Grimwood in 1868. The original section was a 2-acre, 1-rood, and 7-perch parcel that included what are today the grounds of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Canterbury Deeds Index 4C/S: 79). Robert was issued a slaughtering license in 1870, and presumably he was using the land he purchased on the corner of Southbrook Road and South Belt as a small farm (Lyttelton Times 26/10/1870: 3).

It is also known that Grimwood was operating a store on his corner property. It’s not clear when the store was opened, but it is first mentioned in the newspapers in 1873 (Press 08/07/1873: 3). It’s very likely that the store opened at the same time that Grimwood got his slaughtering licence and probably sold the produce of the farm.

In 1864 Robert established the Rangiora Mill on the banks of the Southbrook stream. This mill still exists today as Mauri Stockfeed at 23 Southbrook Road. The mill advertised as being ready to accept corn (wheat grain) in March 1864 and commenced grinding in April of that year.

The mill was very successful and was responsible in no small part in helping the economy of Southbrook grow into the busy industrial town it is today.

In 1881 the mill was sold to Harry Archer, who held the property until 1883. Don Hawkins 1993 volume states that at the time of the sale the mill as a four-storey wood building with 2 gristing stones – which were driven by a side-race and waterwheel from the Southbrook stream.

Grimwood’s mill stood until Octorber 1890 when it was destroyed by fire. The mill was rebuilt by February 1891 by then owner Alfred Maddison (Lyttelton Times 12/02/1891: 4). Maddison then leased the mill back to Harry Archer who ran it as ‘H. Archer & Sons’. The Archer family retained the lease of the mill until 1990 – a period of 99 years!

Under the Archer’s the mill was a pillar of the local economy, and the Archer name remains recognised in Rangiora today.

The Archer mill was demolished in 2018 after falling into disrepair. I undertook the archaeological work for it back when I was employed by Underground Overground Archaeology Ltd. The remains of the original water race and waterwheel possibly built by Grimwood were still in place at the time of the demolition.

Another piece of history related to the villa – in 1871 Robert Grimwood was at public meeting at ‘Rangiora Bush’. Here he seconded a motion for the area to get its own post office. But this place needed a name so letters could be delivered. After some debate the name for the small town at Rangiora Bush was decided to be “South Brook” (Lyttelton Times 01/02/1871: 2).

But back to the villa…

Robert Grimwood took out a mortgage on his Southbrook Road property in 1880. What this mortgage was for remains a bit of a mystery, but the mortgage times perfectly with the sale of the mill property. There is a good chance that the Grimwood’s had been living on the mill grounds prior to the sale, and that the mortgage was probably to build a new residence of some sort.

Robert died in 1884, aged 74 years. The property passed to Ann, who would go on to marry Henry Judd – a man 16 years her junior. Ann sold the property in 1898 to James Seed. Seed operated the Southbrook flax mill (near where Pak n’ Save is today) and manufactured rope. Both Ann and Henry would die in 1901.

As an interesting aside, in 1892 Ann wrote to the Road Board demanding that a freshwater spring that existed on Southbrook Road near her house was her property as she had used it for water for over 20 years. This is how the property got water in a time before the public supply was piped to every household, and Ann was probably very familiar with going out to the freshwater spring each morning to collect the family’s daily water.

This request was denied, and the freshwater spring was paved over to form the footpath on Southbrook Road (Lyttelton Times 15/06/1892: 2).

James Seed moved to Wellington in 1902 and put the property up for sale. It was sold to Edward Hill who kept it until 1905. The property then passed through several owners until 1919 when it came into the ownership of Norman Archer, the son of Harry Archer. And once again the property was in the ownership of an important Southbrook family.

Working out the exact that this amazing villa was built is proving to be a little difficult as there is a little bit of conflicting information. Taking a close look at the building there are features that hint towards a construction date.

• Corner bay villas were a house design used in NZ from around 1880 until about 1910-1920 when the American style bungalow became popular,

• The sash windows have bullnose lugs on the top pains that are typical of 19th century design. 20th century sash windows tended to have chisel shaped lugs,

• The villa is constructed using nails hand-made by a blacksmith,

• The stained-glass windows are in an art nouveau style. The art nouveau movement began in Europe around 1890 and reached its peak popularity in 1900. The style began falling out of fashion around 1915 and was replaced by art deco by around 1920.

• The distinctive orange Marseilles tiles were made by Pierre Sacoman at Saint-Henri, Marseilles, France, between 1890-1914. Such tiles began being used in Australia c.1890 and are first mentioned in the newspapers as being available in NZ in 1897 (Evening Post 01/10/1897: 4).

This suggests a construction date somewhere around 1897 – 1915.

That said, in his 1993 volume ‘Rangiora’ Don Hawkins states that Grimwood’s store burnt down in 1911 and that the corner bay villa was built in its place by Norman Archer (page 256).

While this is possible, I think it is unlikely.

I have found no evidence of such a fire. And Norman Archer didn’t buy the property until 1919 and didn’t take out a mortgage until 1920 (certificate of title CB222/159). If he did build the villa, then he did so in a style already considered old fashioned at that time, with decorative elements that were out of date, and used tiles that had stopped being made several years before.

Another consideration is a 1902 advertisement for the sale of a property in Southbrook that includes a “corner section of 2 acres, with a grocer’s shop and dwelling of 6 rooms, granary and stables” (Press 02/08/1902: 12). While circumstantial, this advertisement seems like it may possibly be describing Grimwood’s corner section, suggesting that the villa already existed in 1902 (and that Gimwood’s store was a separate building).

In any case the physical evidence points to a construction period of 1897-1915. This corresponds with several mortgages taken on the property:

• James Seed in 1898 and 1901,

• Robert Stout in 1905,

• Albert Small in 1908,

• Frederick Baker in 1913.

Any of these could have been to finance the construction of the villa, and more archaeological and historical research is necessary. I’m going to continue working on this and will post an update when I figure it out.

But while the construction date is still in question the villa is nonetheless an absolute treasure for the town and an important archaeological artefact that speaks to the history and development of Southbrook. The fire is a true loss for the town, and a sad end to a long story.

The owners are looking at ways to restore the building. Watch this space for updates!