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PAGE 16 BAY HARBOUR<br />
Wednesday <strong>December</strong> <strong>21</strong> <strong>2016</strong><br />
News<br />
History of the Teddington smithy<br />
In Governors <strong>Bay</strong> resident Jane Robertson’s<br />
newly-launched book, Head of the <strong>Harbour</strong>: A<br />
History of Governors <strong>Bay</strong>, Ōhinetahi, Allandale and<br />
Teddington, there is a chapter on early transport in<br />
the area. Included in the chapter is the story of a<br />
little corrugated iron shed opposite the Wheatsheaf<br />
Hotel in Teddington, which not so long ago was in a<br />
very sad state. Dilapidated and unused, it seemed<br />
destined for demolition. Few people knew of its<br />
history.<br />
In 1875, the construction of<br />
the Teddington (Wheatsheaf)<br />
Hotel and the formation of the<br />
Charteris <strong>Bay</strong> to Purau road<br />
made the junction of Governors<br />
<strong>Bay</strong> Teddington Rd and Gebbies<br />
Pass Rd a highly strategic<br />
transport hub.<br />
Stables and paddocks for<br />
grazing were attached to the<br />
hotel so that farmers’ driving<br />
stock to the Christchurch sales<br />
could stay overnight there.<br />
It was the ideal spot for a<br />
blacksmith’s shop. Sometime in<br />
the 1880s the Teddington smithy<br />
was built on Gebbie family<br />
land with an adjacent house to<br />
accommodate the blacksmiths<br />
and their families.<br />
The first record of the smithy<br />
appeared in The Press on July<br />
27, 1889, when James Bryden<br />
announced that he had started<br />
a blacksmith’s shop at Head of<br />
the <strong>Bay</strong>, Teddington, where he<br />
hoped to receive a “fair amount<br />
of patronage.”<br />
The blacksmiths at<br />
Teddington for whom there is<br />
documentation were Bryden,<br />
until 1891, Charles Scott, 1895-<br />
90; C. Fleet, 1899-1900; Durey<br />
1905-06; and Burke, 1914.<br />
As a young boy in the early<br />
1900s, Stanley Radcliffe would<br />
take the draught horse around<br />
to the Teddington smithy to be<br />
shod. As a reward, he would then<br />
take the horse across to the old<br />
racecourse on the salt flats and<br />
have a good gallop before riding<br />
home again.<br />
However, as horses gave way<br />
to cars and trucks, the demand<br />
for blacksmith services waned.<br />
Jean Anderson, of Charteris <strong>Bay</strong>,<br />
remembered the Teddington<br />
smithy when it used to be<br />
open only occasionally,<br />
probably manned by a visiting<br />
blacksmith.<br />
The smithy<br />
building was<br />
later taken<br />
over by Ra<br />
Blatchford’s<br />
contracting<br />
business before<br />
becoming<br />
surplus to<br />
requirements and<br />
eventually semiderelict.<br />
Jane<br />
Robertson<br />
In 2015/16, with the support<br />
of the Parkinson Family Trust,<br />
Allandale resident David Bundy<br />
project-managed the restoration<br />
of the old blacksmith’s shop.<br />
The low-lying building was<br />
raised and new wooden piles<br />
installed. The exterior walls and<br />
roof were repaired with period<br />
iron and early peninsula timber<br />
from Ohinetahi.<br />
The forge, and some<br />
blacksmith equipment, was still<br />
intact.<br />
In addition, a set of bellows<br />
made by Alldays and Onions<br />
and some other equipment was<br />
secured from a two-generation<br />
blacksmithing family, named the<br />
Wilsons.<br />
Then, a most unexpected<br />
development. Retired blacksmith<br />
Les Schenkel agreed to take<br />
on the running of the smithy,<br />
transforming it from a static<br />
period piece into a busy, working<br />
blacksmith’s shop.<br />
It is one of the few operating<br />
HISTORIC: The old Teddington blacksmith’s shop in the early stages of restoration. Blacksmith<br />
Les Schenkel (below) fires up the forge now that he has taken on the running of the smithy. <br />
blacksmith forges in New<br />
Zealand. If you drive through<br />
Teddington on a Monday,<br />
Wednesday or Friday, you will<br />
likely find Les (and his dogs)<br />
firing up the forge and making<br />
items for sale. Les loves people to<br />
stop for a chat and look out for<br />
big bee Arthur!<br />
Robertson’s book, Head of<br />
the <strong>Harbour</strong>, published by<br />
Philip King for the Governors<br />
<strong>Bay</strong> Heritage Trust, can<br />
be ordered online at www.<br />
headoftheharbour.co.nz<br />
or purchased at bookstores<br />
in Lyttelton and Christchurch.<br />
•<strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News<br />
received two copies of<br />
Jane Robertson’s Head of<br />
the <strong>Harbour</strong> to give away<br />
courtesy of the publisher.<br />
Thank you for your entries<br />
and congratulations to<br />
the winners: Tui Elliott, of<br />
Lyttelton, and Russell and<br />
Wendy Genet, of Lyttelton.<br />
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