Historic HB: Fire destroys Frimley homestead

The Williams Frimley homestead was destroyed by fire in 1950, which led to the gifting of Frimley Park. Credit: Hawke's Bay Knowledge Bank Lovell Smith 878/1602/38851

Unlike other major locations in Hawke's Bay, Hastings was not a government-planned town when it was formed in 1873.

Thomas Tanner was the chief lessee of the Heretaunga block leased from Māori of around 19,385 acres (7844ha).

With Thomas unable to pay the whole lease costs, it was divided in 1867 into 12 blocks for seven men, including Tanner (known as the Apostles, due to the 12 blocks of land), which were then purchased in 1870 from Māori.

James Nelson Williams, son of the missionary and later Bishop of Waiapu, William Williams, had first choice of the land after Tanner and selected two shares of the Heretaunga block of 2462 acres (996ha) adjoining Tanner's, which he would call Frimley after a village in Surrey. He later purchased more land, increasing his holding to 3405 acres (1378ha).

The nature of the lease then purchase transactions by settlers meant that parks and reserves in the new town would be created from a mixture of donated and purchased land ‒ as they were not set aside by government plans.

Hastings resulted from Frances Hicks and later James Boyle cutting up two 100 acre blocks (40ha) for sections. These had originally been part of Thomas Tanner's Riverslea Estate but he sold them to ease his increasingly precarious financial position.

When Frances Hicks heard that the planned railway would pass near his land, he gave the government 1.5 acres (.6ha) for a railway station at the Karamu junction. This triggered the subdivision.

The first mention of the area that would become Frimley Estate was in March 1867, not long after James Williams secured the lease of his two blocks. Michael Groome – who was in charge of James' field at Karamu – placed a notice warning people not to drive stock away from the paddock.

Before James' marriage to Mary Beetham in January 1868, he apparently lived at Frimley in a tent. Their first child was born in Napier in December 1868.

An artesian well was bored for James at 154 feet (47m) in February 1868, and in May 1868 he was advertising for fencers.

The first recorded use of the name Frimley was in December 1870; before that the property was known as being in Karamu. In an advertisement for a servant, applicants were told to go to his wife's residence at the Bishop's house (his parents' home on Napier Hill) or to J N Williams at Frimley.

There are two stories about the origin of Frimley Homestead. One account is that it was built in the 1870s and was added to in the 1880s to become 22 rooms.

The current Frimley Park information board suggests the first homestead built in the 1870s was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1894; however, this could not be substantiated.

Thomas Tanner's Riverslea Homestead, also of 22 rooms, was built around the mid-1870s, so it is likely that James also built his home around that time.

The woolshed at Frimley was significant in that on February 4, 1871, the Heretaunga Road Board (forerunner of Hastings local government) held its first meeting there. The settlers who gathered agreed to rate themselves enough money to construct what would be called Karamu Rd.

Frimley also offered plenty of space for sports, and a polo ground was created in 1894, possibly in the vicinity of the present sports fields. Cricket was also played on the ground in summer.

Part of Frimley Estate of 1133 acres (458ha) was sold in 1898 to the government by James for subdivision and settlement. Excluded were his orchard of 200 acres and 400 acres of swampy land.

James Williams died in 1915, having outlived his wife Mary. She had left for England on medical advice in 1903 and passed away that year.

James and Margaret's daughter Elsie inherited the homestead block, which in 1951 was all that was left of the original Frimley Estate (and a small piece of land on Pakowhai Rd and Frimley Ave) and was living at Frimley Homestead on March 10, 1950 when it caught fire.

She was apparently renowned as a generous host, eager to welcome friends and relatives to stay. Balls and picnics were common at Frimley. Elsie was also the main driver behind setting up Girl Guides in Hastings and was the first president of Hastings Plunket Society.

The Frimley gardener, J A McDonald, who lived in a house near the homestead, was awoken at 10.40pm by the fire. He gave the alarm as it appears the house was unoccupied that night.

At 10.50pm Hastings Fire Brigade was summoned, but upon arriving found the house was "a raging inferno".

There was no water available to fight the fire, so the focus was on salvaging as much as possible. The firemen, along with members of the public, gained access to two ground floor rooms and carried out most of the furniture.

Lost in the fire, however, were antique furniture and irreplaceable Māori art collected by the Williams family.

A report of the fire in The Daily Telegraph said:

"There was an absence of wind last evening, and the whole house – built of solid kauri – became a raging furnace with the flames shooting straight up into the sky.

"Such was the fire, which burned until 1am leaving just chimney stacks, that it could be seen from Havelock North.

"The gardens and trees (some around 80 years old) were seared and scorched."

A year after the fire, Elsie Williams (with her siblings) donated the grounds of the property of 47 acres 2 roods and eight-tenths perches (19.17ha) to Hastings Borough Council in memory of her parents James and Margaret Williams.

In October 1951 she also gifted a small area of land of one rood seven perches (.12ha) on the corner of Pakowhai Rd and Frimley Ave, which also forms part of Frimley Park.

- Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher and commercial business writer of Hawke's Bay history. Follow him on facebook.com/michaelfowlerhistory