Home & People

Press, 8 April 1978, Page 8

Home & People

Story:

JOHN WILSON.

The pictures show the

100-year-old dwelling formerly occuped by the • schoolmaster at Belfast.

When former pupils and teachers of the Belfast school assembled over the Easter week-end for the school’s centennial celebrations some of their attention turned to an old house which is on the other side of the Main North Road from the present school and a few hundred yards closer to Christchurch. This old house with three dormers set high on a cottage-like facade has

caught the eye of many travellers up the Main N >rth Road — it is one of the few buildings with any distinction in an otherwise rather uninteresting township (from an architectural point of view). The house is, in spite of its separation from the present school, the original schoolmaster’s house and the last remaining physical link the school has with its original site. The house and the first school buildings were erected in 1877 on land purchased about a year earlier by the Provincial Government. The school openel in January, 1878. Its roll that year was less than 50. Ten years later, when the name of the school was changed from North Road to Belfast, the roll had topped 200. The school buildings themselves stood behind the schoolmaster’s house (only a few pieces of concrete at ground level remain of the old school). Most of the school’s child* ren would have approached the school up the drive from the Main

North Road, so the schoolmaster’s house was built without windows on the s'de facing the drive — for the obvious purpose of preventing prying pupils from satisfying their curiosity about the private life of its occupants.

The first schoolmaster to occupy the house may have been the Mr Kay who was headmaster for the first term of the school’s life. His place was taken in May, 1878, by Mr Henry Wilson, a

certificated teacher, who definitely lived in the house with his wife and children.

One of the physical changes which the schoolmaster’s house has undergone over the years has been the conversion of the old pantry and scullery into a modern kitchen. A window was then put in the otherwise windowless south side of the house. The old coalhouse and washhouse at the rear of the building have become a modern bathroom and laundry. Other alterations have changed slightly another side of the house, but from the front, at least, the house has retained much the same appear-nce for the 100 years of its life.

The future of this 100-year-old schoolmaster’s house is still up in the air, but vigorous efforts are being made to ensure that it is preserved and put to good use. When the school was

shifted to its new site in the late 1930 s the old sire was subdivided. In 1940; an area of nearly threequarters of an acre on which the house was standing was vested in the Canterbury Education Board as a site for a public school.

More recently the board has decided that it has no use for the land. In the normal run of events the land would pass to the Ministry of Works for that department to investigate whether any other department had any use for the property and then, if the investigation drew a blank, to the Lands and Survey Department for disposal. In August, 1977, a public meeting in Belfast gave unanimous support to the principle of preserving the schoolmaster’s house under some form of public ownership. A steering committee of local residents was formed to look into ways of preserving the house and the uses to which it could be put. These questions have occasioned some debate in Belfast. Shqpld the property be retained simplv as an historical monument and as an interesting reminder of Belfast’s pioneering past? Or should it be put to use in the future as a public amenity?

Difficulties are envisaged by some if uses of the building are followed which are not compatible with its role as a reminder of the past. But some people in Belfast at least see no problem finding activities —- probably with a cultural or artistic emphasis — which will allow the building to be used without its historic associations being compromised.

What does seem likely is that once the property has passed from the Education Board through the Ministry of Works into the hands of the Lands and Survey Department, the Waimairi County Council will come into the scene. Last December the county purchased a section of about half an acre next to the schoolhouse, on which there is a fine stand of trees and an interesting old cottage. The two sections would together make an attractive historic reserve which could be vested in the County Council.

All that would be required for the schoolmaster’s house and its grounds to become a reserve would be a declara-

tion accordingly by the Director-General of Lands. The Director-General would act on the recommendation of the local Commissioner of Crown Lands who would call for a report from members of his own staff and, probably, from the Historic Places Trust. There are, clearly, a large number of ifs and buts before all the steps have been completed. But with the Waimairi County Council taking an interest in the property, and with a reasonable degree of local support for the project, the chances appear good that Belfast will acquire its first historic reserve soon.