Cottage on the Corner #2

In 1928 the Cottage was transferred to Edgar Allan Bradley, Painter, who owned it until 1945.  We assume he was a member of the Christchurch Masonic Lodge no. 91, because we found an agenda for a Lodge meeting in Gloucester Street, in 1936.

In 1946 the title was transferred to Albert Victor Gatenby, Linesman, who lived there with his wife Myrtle.  I saw that the Post Office had been granted an appeal against service for Albert in 1944, so he must have been considered an essential worker.  Their nephews Bill and Don Clark lived with them in the 1950’s.  Bill visited us in the late 1980s and gave us several photos from the 1950s. One shows Don Clark in the back garden with two friends.  The meat safe can be seen on the left.

Don Clark in the back garden, 1955

This safe consisted of two iron tubs, with a space in between.  Artesian water ran in the gap between the tubs, so the meat in the inside tub was kept cool.  The inside tub was later removed to the front verandah where it holds a lemon tree.  The outside tub is now our garden pool.

Bill told us that an uncle came to live with the family and built our back shed as a sleep-out.  He didn’t have planning permission to build a sleep-out, but could build a garage, which is why our shed has garage doors facing Nova Place, but no vehicle bridge over the gutter.

In 1982 Daphne Terpstra bought the property.  Daphne was a weaver who used the cottage as a studio.  She was one of the founders of the Women’s Centre, and the cottage was sometimes used as a refuge.  Daphne, from whom we bought the cottage, later rented a property in nearby Hurley Street and I was able to get to know her.  She died in 2017 aged 86.

When we took possession of the Cottage on 20 February 1987 the interior linings were of scrim and paper in the living rooms, with hardboard in the service areas.  Floor levels were uneven, indicating settling in the foundations.  The floors in the two living rooms and two bedrooms had been clad with particle board, suggesting that the original floor boards were either decayed or borer infested.  The exterior paintwork was in very poor condition and the interior decoration in only fair condition.  The small kitchen had only a Formica sink bench, cooking facilities being provided by a rangette in a separate area.  The laundry at the rear was a rough lean to with a concrete floor and two concrete tubs with an exposed hot water cylinder.  There was very little storage or cupboard space.  The total floor area was (still is) 70 square metres.

Old laundry tubs and cylinder

The chimney had been removed, and the bricks used on the floor of the verandah.  Boundary fences were in poor condition and consisted of corrugated iron to the boundary at Nova Place, four foot palings on the front boundary, and some netting at the rear.

Before we moved in Stephen spent several weeks making the cottage habitable.  The three small rooms that comprised the kitchen and laundry were amalgamated into one, the hot water cylinder replaced and closed in, and the concrete tubs removed to the back garden.  He installed a stainless-steel kitchen bench, a washing machine, and a steel laundry tub.  The back door was moved to the side of the house, and the roof re-aligned (because it sagged in the middle).  The back shed became Stephen’s work area and home brewery.

We needed a cat, and Blott joined the household (from the SPCA) in May 1987.  In August Stephen removed the old fence at the front and built new steps and gateway while also being the Values Party candidate for Christchurch Central.

Fence-less cottage 1987

Before we moved the work began
to try to make it spick and span