Howick Historical Village

Howick Historical Village is a living museum in Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand. It is a recreation of a New Zealand colonial village between the years 1840 and 1880, focusing on the history of the Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps, and the local European and Māori history of Howick and Pakuranga and the surrounding areas of East Auckland. Established in 1980 by the Howick & Districts Historical Society, the village has grown to include over 33 historic buildings, including three which are listed on the Heritage New Zealand historic place register. Location and scope Howick Historical Village is an open air living museum, which depicts a New Zealand village dating to between 1840 and 1880. The museum primarily focuses on local history, exploring Māori and early colonial European history of East Auckland, including Howick and Pakuranga, as well as the Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps, settlers who established local defensive settlements to the south of Auckland. As a living museum, the village features a large number of costumed volunteer interpreters, primarily in domestic or agricultural settings. Every second Sunday of the month, the village hosts a live day, which includes activities and larger numbers of costumed staff. The historical village is located on Bells Road in Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga in Auckland, and covers an area of 7 acres (2.8 ha). It contains over 33 historic buildings, including Fencible cottages, a parsonage, a court house, an old shop, and manages 1860s heritage gardens that surround the buildings. The village is used as a wedding venue, and is used for school group education programmes. History Establishment Howick Historical Village has its origins in the Howick Historical Society (later known as the Howick and Districts Historical Society), which was established on 23 May 1962 by Dee Collings, Eileen Martenson and Alwyn Zellman, three women from Howick who had an interest in protecting the history of Howick. The members had prepared a collection of Fencibles artefacts for the 1947 centenary celebrations of the All Saint's Church, Howick. The members were joined by historian Alan la Roche, who became the driving force behind the establishment of Howick Historical Village. The society first began planning a historical village in the 1960s, in response to encroaching urbanisation in the wider Howick area, and a need for a location for historical houses to be moved. In 1964, the Howick Historical Society was offered a Fencible cottage from Jellicoe Road, Panmure, to use for a museum. The society intended to collect older buildings for donation to the Howick Borough Council, however the council refused to support these plans, due to concerns about borer from Panmure being transported to Howick, and insisted that the building be heavily fumigated. The cottage was gradually restored by Arthur White, a retired builder, reopening at the Emilia Maud Nixon Tainui Garden of Memories in October 1966. The society's second building, Bell House, was offered by the Bell family in 1972. Originally located near Pakuranga Creek, the house was moved to Bell Road in 1895. In 1972, the Manukau City Council acquired Lloyd Elsmore Park from Neil Housing, which included Bell House, and began allocating areas for sporting and cultural activities within the park. The council offered a 5 acres (2.0 ha) block next to the location of Bell House to the society, which became the future site for the Howick Historical Village. In 1976, Howick Historical Society opened Bell House to the public, which was operated as a restaurant. Development of the historical village began in 1977. Over the next three years, 13 additional buildings were moved onto the site, including many that had been located at the Emilia Maud Nixon Tainui Garden of Memories in Howick. The Howick Colonial Village was formally opened on 8 March 1980, in a ceremony attended by Minister for Sport and Recreation Allan Highet. In 1983, two trained teachers were appointed to the village as full-time education officers, in response to the village's popularity with school groups and children, and in the following year, Howick Colonial Village won the Tourist Facility section award for the Tourism Design Awards. A monument to Wiremu Te Wheoro was donated to the village by Te Wheoro's grand niece Rachel Ngeungeu Zister in 1988. In the year 2000, the monument was removed and returned to the Waikato Region. The Howick Colonial Village was renamed in 1990, becoming the Howick Historical Village, due to the growing association of the word colonial with British colonialism. Development as a living museum Historian Alan la Roche served as the honorary director of the village from 1980 until 2007. In 1991, la Roche was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship, which led to him touring the United States and Canada, investigating how similarly-focused museums operate in these countries. This led to la Roche redeveloping the village as a living museum, where history is experienced through experiential interpretation and recreation of historical settings. In March 1997, White's Homestead was opened as a new administration building for the village. By 1999, the museum had approximately 120 volunteers. Restoration of Sergeant Ford's Fencible cottage began in 2016, supported by the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board. After further deterioration was identified, the Stevenson Village Trust helped fund the additional $30,000 needed to restore the cottage. In 2019, the Pakuranga School house was restored with funding provided by the lotteries commission. On 26 May 2020, the village reported that it had suffered serious financial difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, had cut staff, and was actively seeking financial support from Auckland Council and other agencies. In the following year, the first artist in residence was appointed at the Howick Historical Village, Toni Mosley. Governance and funding The museum is owned and operated by the Howick & Districts Historical Society, a registered charity. It is primarily funded through the Howick Local Board and by visitor donations. The facility was almost entirely volunteer-based for its first 18 years of operation. Many volunteers have connections to Howick, including volunteer carpenter Arthur White, who is a descendant of James White, and historian Alan la Roche, whose father was Ernie La Roche, the first mayor of Howick Borough. Krissy Perrett became the general manager of the Howick Historical Village in 2020. In 2022, Lexie Palmer-Gapper, formerly of the Cashmere Museum and Pioneer Village, became the general manager of Howick Historical Village. Buildings and features Collections Howick Historical Village operates a by-appointment research library. The Howick Historical Village has one of the largest historic textile collections in New Zealand, and holds historical artifacts from the area that have been collected by the Howick and Districts Historical Society. This includes farm machinery displays, including a McCormick Deering horse drawn reaper and binder, a wheat drill from Cascade Farm in Pakuranga, a manure spreader, a farm sledge, a farm roller and a solid rubber tyre. Media Howick Historical Village has been used as a shooting location for various film and television projects, including the films Savage Play (1995), Mahana (2016), and the Cannes Film Festival-entry short film Jess (2014). The village was the shooting location for the New Zealand historical drama series Hanlon (1985), and the television series The Brokenwood Mysteries' 2017 episode "Stone Cold Dead". Since 2016, the village has been used as a set to film for the YouTube group Viva La Dirt League. References Bibliography La Roche, Alan (1997). An Introduction to the Howick Historical Village. Auckland: Howick and Districts Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-473-04666-8. La Roche, Alan (2011). Grey's Folly: A History of Howick, Pakuranga, Bucklands-Eastern Beaches, East Tamaki, Whitford, Beachlands and Maraetai. Auckland: Tui Vale Productions. ISBN 978-0-473-18547-3. External links Howick Historical Village The collections of Howick Historical Village