AN HISTORIC WALK THROUGH HOWICK

Howick was first settled by the Ngai Tai people about 800 years ago and their major pā (fortified villages) were at Ohuiarangi (Pigeon Mountain, in Bucklands Beach), Te Waiarohia (Musick Point, Howick) and Tuwakamana (Cockle Bay).  The Ngaitai marae (meeting ground) today is at Umupuia near Clevedon.

The first European settlers, who arrived in 1847, were retired soldiers from the British Army and Marines.  Together with their wives and families they were offered a free passage to New Zealand, a house, an acre of land and a pension in return for military duties.  The soldiers were enlisted to defend Auckland (the capital of New Zealand at the time) from possible attack by Thames or Waikato Māori or by the French (who had taken control of Tahiti and New Caledonia from the natives by force).  Howick was the largest of the fencible (the word is derived from defencible) settlements set up to protect Auckland.  Other fencible settlements were at Otahuhu, Panmure, Onehunga and Mangere.

1. This walk starts at the oldest building in Manukau city, All Saints Church, on the Selwyn Road/Cook Street corner in Howick.  All Saints (Anglican) Church was built in 1847 ready for the first fencible soldier-settlers.  It was originally in the form of a cross, and was designed by Auckland architect Frederick Thatcher for Bishop George Augustus Selwyn - the first Bishop of New Zealand, from 1841 - 1868.  The colonial wooden Gothic style of architecture is characteristic of the "Selwyn Churches" - which are dotted all over Auckland and are so named because of Bishop Selwyn's strong influence on their architecture.  Note the font (chipped during its voyage in a sailing ship), the graves of early settlers and the grave of the Lush children - the offspring of Howick's first resident vicar, Reverend Vicesimus Lush, and his wife Blanche.  Three Lush children died in nine days in a scarlet fever epidemic in 1854.

2. Walk down Selwyn Road.  On the Glebe Corner, Hughes Bakery operated early in the century from this house.  Historic plaques identify many historical sites in Selwyn Road.

3. Walk to Shamrock Cottage.  Shamrock Cottage was originally built as the "Royal Hotel" here in 1848.  A "wet canteen" (liquor store) for the fencible soldier settlers had been opened here soon after their arrival in Howick in 1847.  The Royal Hotel was noted for its hospitality and fine wines.  In 1849 it boasted 11 rooms on the first floor and three rooms on the second floor, with a kitchen and stabling for four horses.  The well at the rear was 33 feet deep and the brickwork below ground is still the original.

Shamrock Cottage was named by Captain William Crush Daldy after his first command, the schooner "Shamrock", which he sailed from Liverpool to New Zealand in 1841.  Captain Daldy was the founder of the Auckland Harbour Board and the Auckland Fire Brigade and his wife, Amy, was a notable suffragette.  The cottage was their holiday home from 1894 to 1903.

4. Walk down to Howick Beach.  There was once a Maori Pā near Howick Beach called Owairoa Pā.  It was occupied until 1680.

The first fencible soldier settlers, with their wives and families, arrived here at Howick Beach on 15 November 1847 off the government brig the "Victoria".  They had arrived in Auckland Harbour on the "Minerva".  Others off the "Sir Robert Sale" and the "Sir George Seymour" followed soon afterwards.  A short wharf was built here in 1854.  An 800 foot wharf was built in 1898 and the piles and stone steps remain today (a plaque identifies the site).

Note the World War II gun emplacement at either end of the beach erected in 1942 during the threat of Japanese attack on Auckland. 

Walk back up Selwyn Road to Sale Street.

The Norfolk Island pines near Cook Street were planted close to Hawthornden homestead probably by Colonel Ponsonby Peacocke, who became a Howick identity.

5. The tall Wahingtonia fan palm that dominates the skyline above the upper part of Sale Street is close to Captain Alexander MacDonald's homestead called "Keppoch Lodge".  It is an excellent example of a fencible officer's home.  Captain MacDonald and his wife Mary were first cousins and were descended from the 17th Chief of Keppoch (an ancient Scottish clan) who was killed at Culloden in 1746.  This is private property but may be viewed from the street at 1 Tanglewood Place.

6. Continue walking up Sale Street and cross over Cook Street.  Abercrombie Street was  named after General Sir Ralph Abercrombie - one of the Duke of Wellington's generals.  Most streets in the fencible settlement of Howick were named after military or naval heroes and famous battles.  At 34 Abercrombie Street we view the double unit fencible cottage built for Private William Cherry and for Private Henry Rowe in about 1848.  This is the last remaining recognisable fencible cottage in Howick.

7. Continue down Abercrombie Street past the Howick Domain (on the left) formerly called the Village Green.  This was planned as a fencible parade ground but, being a rush covered swamp, the soldiers preferred to use the present "Prospect of Howick" site in Picton Street.  Important meetings, cricket matches and athletic meetings were held on what was the Village Green.  Around the green were the Prince of Wales Hotel, the Thistle and Shamrock (both large two storied buildings), the Howick courthouse, gaol, library, James White's Store, Wagstaff Store (both general stores) and forge.

Continue walking up Howe Street.  Howe Street was once the "main street" of Howick.  Only a few older homes have survived.

8. At the top of Howe Street on the southern corner is Kelseys.  Once it was a two storied furniture factory and general store built in about 1870.  Fred and Clara Kelsey moved the top storey to Seymour Road in 1890 to retire, and their son Ken carried on the business.  Their store sold fresh produce, ironmongery, crockery, drapery, groceries, cement, tar, sawn timber, coal, coke, firewood, cattle, patent medicines, stationery, paint, bran, chaff, oats and confectionary.

9. On the northern side of the Howe Street/Ridge Road corner pass 40 Ridge Road built last century for Captain John Charles Irvine and called "Prospect Hill" after his home in Northern Ireland.  He served in the British Army in India and like many of his contemporaries retired to New Zealand.  He served as Magistrate at the Howick courthouse until 1870 when the courthouse was closed.

10. Cross Ridge Road and walk up the path to Stockade Hill War Memorial.  Women and children slept here for several weeks in 1863 when there was fear of attacks (which never eventuated) by hostile Maori during the Land Wars.  The Land Wars were a series of confrontations from 1845 to the mid 1860s when a number of Māori tribes fought against the sale of land to Europeans.  The stockade was constructed of loop holed sheets of iron surmounting a ditch and bank, and enclosed barracks for regular troops.  Bavarian mercenaries stationed here in 1863 erected a Christmas tree (believed to be one of the first public Christmas trees in New Zealand) and sang carols around the tree which, according to the diary of Charles Lush (son of the Reverend Vicesimus Lush), "twinkled with lights and gay decorations."

Note the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, the Tamaki River, the volcanic cones - Mt Wellington and Pigeon Mountain are nearest, Otahuhu portage and Manukau Heads.

11. Walk down past the Crawford Reserve  A similar horse bus depot operated from this site from 1880.  The last horse buses were phased out in about 1920 as motor buses finally took over.

Cross over Walter MacDonald Street named after the well loved Roman Catholic priest MonsignorWalter MacDonald who served here from 1886 to 1899.

The first Our Lady Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church was started here in 1848 under the care of French  Marist missionary Father Antoine Garin.  It was replaced in 1960 by the present church.  Of 773 fencible soldiers brought to Howick from 1847 to 1854, 368 were Catholics.

12. Walk past the site of the oldest shop in Howick, at the corner of Picton Street and Parkhill Road.  It was built in 1904 as a clothier/drapery store for Ben Hardy.  The Rishworth family later operated a drapery and haberdashery store from the site for nearly 50 years prior to its closure in December 1989.  The building was demolished in late 2005, and a more modern shop and office complex occupies the site today.

13. Walk past the Prospect of Howick, an English-style hotel which was built in 1929 as the Marine Hotel to replace a large wooden hotel of the same name built in 1906.  The wooden marine hotel burned down in 1923.

14. Outside the Fencible Walk (next to Spiller's Hardware), is a plaque recording the first Methodist Church, built here in 1852, and now in the Howick Historical Village (qv)

The walk ends at All Saints Church.

If you are interested in knowing more about Howick's history, you may like to visit the Howick Historical Village - a living museum in Bells Road, Pakuranga.  Visitors are entertained by historical interpreters (who role play people from the fencible village) in period costume.  There are over 25 buildings of the 1840 to 1880 period laid out in an authentic manner with old fashioned gardens.  Allow at least an hour.  It's an ideal place to bring a picnic lunch.  Village hours are 10am - 4pm (winter) and 10am - 5pm (summer) seven days a week.  Howick Historical Village Telephone 64-9-576 9506.