House and Garden
Henry and Marianne moved from Paihia to Pakaraka in 1850 after Henry Williams was summarily and unfairly dismissed from the Church Missionary Society in 1850. Although without his own home, Henry insisted that a church was built first on family land to accommodate the Maori congregation who moved with him.
The house is believed to have been built between 1851 and 1852. The original part was rectangular with four main rooms (kitchen, parlour and two bedrooms) and a central hallway. The style is a colonial adaptation of Georgian architecture, with a hipped roof, symmetrical French doors and an extensive verandah. It echoes earlier buildings familiar to Henry and Marianne, such as the Waitangi Treaty House, the Waimate North Mission House and the two houses which Henry and William occupied at Paihia; the latter no longer exist.
Although Henry was reinstated by the CMS in 1854, he and Marianne continued to live at the Retreat for the rest of their lives and they were buried in the churchyard of the adjacent church. The link between house and church was of great importance to the couple who planted a linking avenue of oak trees. Although now severed by the main road, the avenue of oaks still provides a dramatic landmark for both properties.
A conservation plan and condition assessment of the house has been prepared by Dave Pearson of Dave Pearson Architects Limited, Auckland. He has commented on the original part of the house as follows:
.jpg "House from the South")
“The Retreat, as originally designed, can be considered to be the epitome of the colonial ‘Mission House’ style. In its design, Henry Williams got everything right. With its large hipped roof and simple verandah, it is splendidly and elegantly proportioned. The low eaves line of the verandah provides the house with a horizontality that counteracts the very high roof over the main part of the house.”
While the elegant north-facing aspect remains largely unaltered, modifications have changed the character of the house elsewhere. A two-storied cottage, built probably in the 1840s and believed to have been elsewhere on the property, was added later to the south-west corner to provide better kitchen facilities. Its upper floor was originally reached by an outside ladder but now a staircase leads off the kitchen to two attic rooms. On the north-west corner was added a new building in 1950 to provide more bedrooms. This was subsequently a tea-room and is now a self-contained studio. Internal modifications include the addition of a bathroom and conversion of the original kitchen and parlour into a large well-proportioned drawing room.
The Trust is fortunate that the three tenants holding the lease since 1950, particularly Mrs Cecily Poore who lived there from 1951 to 1978, have undertaken extensive and sympathetic renovations to the property. The house is therefore in good structural condition for a building of that age.
.jpg "Grounds with Oak trees")
The extensive grounds are also of historic interest as they contain plantings dating from Henry Williams’ time, including a huge totara and several large English oaks. A stream runs through the grounds, originally supplying water to the house; an artificial lake has since been formed from the stream. Additional plantings by the Poore family include an American oak and a beech tree. Recent plantings of olive trees and buxus hedges reflect more modern trends.
The garden with its large trees, water feature and farming landscape provides an appropriately lovely setting to the elegant 19th century house. The property has been recently surveyed and in due course the Trust hopes to commission a conservation plan for the grounds.
Visiting the property
Both the house and garden are important and beautiful historic landmarks which will attract the attention of visitors to Northland. They can be easily reached from the main road. The church opposite, which is an integral part of the property’s history, would be part of the visit experience. Although the church is occasionly open to visitors, The Retreat is not, because it is privately tenanted.
An Open Day was held on 22 January 2010 by kind consent of the current tenant to enable family donors and other supporters to visit the house and garden. It is hoped further Open Days can be held in future for donors.
Photographs of the open day on 22 January 2010
