A wooden framework is being built to mimic the shape of the former lounge room and also brace the chimney. Photo / Supplied
A wooden framework is being built to mimic the shape of the former lounge room and also brace the chimney. Photo / Supplied
Comment
Roll back 80 years to the era before much radio and telephone, let alone television and internet. Eighty years takes you back to the era of the family fireplace.
In winter evenings this was where family members congregated for those few hours between dinner and bedtime.
Fireside activities included conversation, debate, planning, homework, reading, gramophone music, singing, writing letters, knitting, supper cuppa, nightcap ... The warmth and light of an open fire was a drawcard attracting all.
Some think it reflects a deep primitive connection going way back to our origins.
For families in the primitive houses in the Mangapurua Valley in the 1920s and 1930s the fireplace was a central lifestyle element.
These houses had poor wall lining and no insulation. The radiant heat from the fire was practically the only warm place in the whole house.
In bedrooms as cold as iceboxes children had only hot water bottles and one another for relief. No wonder that evenings around the fireplace feature highly in childhood memories of life in the valley.
Today only one chimney remains standing in the Mangapurua. It is located close to the track so has potential to be a visitor site.
A heritage inspection by the Department of Conservation in 2018 revealed it would eventually topple and the villain was the wind.
While the house existed, its roof framing helped support the brick chimney.
Once the chimney stood alone the wind slowly weakened it at one point so that action was required to stabilise it.
The site was closed off while a plan was agreed from four options, and the funds secured.
A wooden framework is being built to mimic the shape of the former lounge room and also brace the chimney.
It is engineer-designed to resist the forces of both wind and earthquake. The chimney is very well built and is in overall good condition so with ongoing care it should last for hundreds of years.
The Bettjeman house in the Mangapurua Valley in 1936. Photo / Supplied
The house was that of the Bettjeman family: Fred, Nancy and their five children.
Fred fought in World War I in tough places, at Gallipoli and then trenches in France. He was blown up by artillery and hospitalised in London for six months.
He romanced and married Nancy, the charge nurse, who came out to New Zealand - from London to Mangapurua.
A government scheme encouraged returned soldiers to clear farms from the bush in the remote Mangapurua valley.
Fred was one of the most committed and successful farmers. He even built a small hydro plant to provide electric lighting in their house.
The friendly Nancy was popular and much loved in the valley and was valued for her nursing and midwifery skills.
Her sister Jenny, visiting from England, married the farmer opposite, creating a valuable family tie. All their children attended the Mangapurua school.
Creating farms here was very tough going because the land was unsuitable and access poor.
Over the next 20 years most of the 41 soldiers gave up and walked away from the valley with little to show.
The Government forced the remaining three out in 1942 and burned their houses down to prevent them returning.
Fred Bettjeman bounced back and farmed near Te Kuiti and, when Nancy died, he remarried.
He lived to almost 103, one of the last surviving World War I soldiers.
Fred liked to come back to the Mangapurua with his children and grandchildren while he physically could.
This fireplace was the destination that held such special memories.
The Bettjeman chimney is the only one still standing in the Mangapurua. Photo / Supplied
Today DoC manages the Bettjeman chimney as a heritage site.
People involved in the heritage side include Raewyn West who wrote up the family history and heritage architect Paul Cummack who proposed recreating the outline shape of a room.
The Bettjeman chimney stabilisation project is in full swing right now.
Contractor Chad Hooton and his team are enjoying living on the job in some of the best autumn weather.
With such a great back story this should be a popular visitor site. The old road route past the house is now the Mountains to the Sea Cycleway and also the Te Araroa Trail.
Adding in the trampers and hunters, around 15,000 people pass annually. Here they can pause to reflect on life at a place of great memories from an era of hard work and family values. A heritage that is worth preserving.
*Paul Mahoney is the senior heritage adviser for the Department of Conservation's central North Island region.
