From the MTG: Katherine Mansfield reflects on Te Pōhue

Bodleytown in Te Pōhue was once visited by writer Katherine Mansfield. Photo / Supplied

Cromwell Museum in Central Otago has recently donated to the Hawke's Bay Museums Trust a photograph dated between 1895 and 1907, showing a group of buildings set against the backdrop of the Te Waka hills on the remote Napier-Taupō Rd. Included in the conglomeration of buildings is Bodley's accommodation house, homestead along with vegetable garden, Post and Telegraph Office, stables, school, blacksmith's shop and bake-house along with various other out-buildings.

Henry Bodley (1855-1938) emigrated from England in 1878 and married Elizabeth Dockrill in 1882, after which the couple settled at Pētane. In 1888, Henry secured a contract to metal a section of the Napier-Taupō Rd, so they moved to Church Crossing close to Titiokura where for three years the family lived in tents. The road works were carried out using picks, shovels and wheelbarrows, the metal being spread by a V-shaped dray with an adjustable aperture to suit the size of the metal.

The family's next move was to Te Pōhue in 1893. Te Pōhue was originally known as Pohui until 1910, when the New Zealand Geographical Board changed the spelling. The 1908 "Cyclopedia of New Zealand", described the small village as a "favourite stopping place for tourist and traveller" offering "many attractions to the sight-seer".

The small sawmilling settlement had a hotel, public school, blacksmith, store and hall which was used for all types of community events including church services once a month. By 1910, the hills surrounding Te Pōhue, once swathed in native bush, were severely denuded by the numerous sawmills operating in the area.

At Te Pōhue, Henry went into partnership with T N Allwright and established the Allwright and Bodley Sawmill which cut up to "an average of 1.2 million feet of timber per year". The family settled on land a short distance from Te Pōhue in the direction of Titiokura. The settlement, aptly known as Bodleytown, began with building stables which were used as a polling booth during the December 1893 elections. By early 1895, the "Hawke's Bay Herald" regularly advertised the Pohui Accommodation House as a place for travellers and workers to stay.

To cater for the education of children living on and around Bodleytown, Henry engaged a private governess named Miss Hinty. A small building opposite the accommodation house was used as a school room. By 1897, a Government-subsidised school of eight pupils was established on the property. The school grew slowly until by 1905, there were 15 pupils on the roll. In 1907 the school was taken over by the Education Board and the building shifted to the more central Te Pōhue village.

Bodleytown in Te Pōhue was once visited by writer Katherine Mansfield. Photo Supplied

In November 1907, Katherine Mansfield aged 19, took a camping tour of the central North Island with a group of travelling companions amongst whom was George Ebbett, a Hastings lawyer and one-time mayor. She wrote her experiences into a journal which culminated into "The Urewera Notebook".

In short snippets she scratched out phrases aptly describing Te Pōhue and the accommodation house - "The Manuka and sheep country – very steep and bare – yet relieved here and there by the rivers and the willows – and little bush ravines – It was intensely hot – we were tired and in the evening arrived at Pohui where Bodley has the accommodation House – and his fourteen daughters grow peas – we camped on the top of a hill – mountains all round and in the evening walked in the bush".

She also "saw the sheep sheds – smell & sound – 12 Maoris – their hoarse crying – dinner cooking in the homestead the roses – the Maori cook", and she deftly captured the essence of Henry by describing him as "a great pa-man". It was at the Bodleytown Post Office that Katherine mailed letters home.

On 14 May 1912, in the early hours of the morning, the accommodation house was destroyed by fire. Henry, who reportedly had not been well for some time, "was aroused by the smell of burning". He got up and searched the premises but could find nothing to cause alarm, so returned to bed. Shortly afterwards he was awaken by an earsplitting crack and getting up saw a "huge body of flame issuing from the windows of the billiard room".

With little time to spare, Henry quickly awoke the household who all escaped unscathed "but the fire in the building was too far advanced". Efforts were made by a bucket brigade to try and save the adjoining stables, which contained "feed to the value of £600" and was "insured for £350". This was accomplished but the remainder of the buildings became a "smoking heap of ruins".

Without the accommodation house and adjoining buildings, Bodleytown at Te Pōhue ceased to exist and is now a forgotten memory. Even the landscape where Bodleytown once stood is unwilling to give up its secrets and remains eerily silent. Until a photograph, capturing a moment in time, comes full circle and re-ignites interest.

• Gail Pope is social history curator at the MTG.