A SMALL, SMALL WORLD
THE KEY IS GETTING THE PROPORTIONS RIGHT — WHETHER YOU ARE DESIGNING A MANSION, A BRIDGE, OR FURNITURE FOR A DOLLS’ HOUSE
Peter Brocklehurst might have guessed he was starting something big when he gave his wife Lynda a copy of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House by Mary Stewart-Wilson, inscribed “To Mummy at Christmas 1988 from Claire and Helen”. The girls were preschoolers at the time, so they cannot be held accountable for what was to come.
The beautifully photographed book is a record of what is probably the largest and most detailed dolls’ house in the world. It has inspired miniaturists and dolls’ furniture-makers since 1924, when more than 1.6 million people saw it at the British Empire Exhibition. It is now on display at Windsor Castle.
Peter’s interest in dolls’ houses really came alive when his father, Joe, made one for grandaughters Claire and Helen in 1994 while he was visiting from the UK. Peter made several pieces of wooden furniture for it, and since then he and Lynda, with help from Claire as she grew older, have worked together building and furnishing two dolls’ houses. A third is under way, and Lynda is working on a tiny fourth.
She has impressive skills with fabric, sewing the dolls’ soft furnishings and fashioning non-wooden miniatures in her dedicated workroom, while Peter makes the wooden furniture in his shed.
New home, new shed
Peter has always had a shed. In their previous home on a 10-acre block at Irwell on the outskirts of Christchurch, he had one that suited his practice of building extensions to the family home. In retirement, he and Lynda have moved to a smaller property in Springston, Canterbury, where his little gem of a shed — 4.2 x 2.4 — was the biggest he could build without a permit, and perfect for turning out miniature furniture as well as one-off pieces for the family home.
For Peter, furniture-making is most often a winter pursuit. In the summertime, he turns to fishing, boating, and driving his vintage Riley RMB, complete with period clobber.
Born in Cheshire in the UK, he gained a BSc in civil and structural engineering from Leeds University in 1970, a time of industrial unrest in the UK when there wasn’t enough electricity being generated for businesses to operate full time. As a result, he could work only four days a week.
“I began looking for new opportunities and was interviewed by a New Zealander recruiting for a consulting engineering practice in Wellington. I got the position, arrived here in 1974, and was asked to open an office in Christchurch in 1980. I met Lynda in 1981, and we’ve lived on the outskirts of Christchurch ever since.”
Peter’s professional life has always been in civil engineering, mainly in contracting. He retired at 68 in 2016.