Reno reveals hidden memories
Paul Thompson and Natasha Bell’s 110-year-old villa is so full of history it’s literally falling out of the walls.
While spending Easter weekend renovating their New Plymouth villa the couple pulled one of their fireplaces apart.
As the rubble began falling so too did a time capsule of family memories – photographs, a New Plymouth transport pass, an invitation to The Upland Tea Co. on Powderham St from the 1920s, and postcards sent from Greymouth.
‘‘It must have just fallen behind the fire place,’’ Thompson said.
Although none of the handwriting remains legible, most of the photos have been well preserved.
There are images of different children cuddling each other and some pictures have scorch marks, hinting at their fiery hiding place.
There is also a photo of a sternfaced couple that says it was taken by Berry & McAllister in Ha¯ wera.
Thompson and Bell are now looking to reunite the photos with relatives and ‘‘in doing so, finding out a bit about the house’’.
‘‘If it was my greatgrandmother, I’d like to have a photo,’’ Bell said.
The pair moved to Taranaki two years ago, after living in Australia for five years, and began looking for homes straight away.
Bell, a dentist originally from Auckland, said they had seen the house for sale while still in Australia.
It was still available when they relocated, and so they jumped at the chance to take a look.
‘‘We came through and fell in love with it,’’ Bell said.
The couple, and golden retriever Rosie, have owned the house for 18 months, and have been spending weekends and week nights renovating and restoring it ever since.
The pair know very little about their home other than the fact it was built in either 1905 or 1908 by ‘‘P Jury’’, who built an identical one next door.
They also understood the O’Connell family lived in the home for 50 years, and had six children.
The pictures have no dates, but a stub for a photo has a price in a pre-decimal currency, while a transport ticket appears to be priced in cents.
This isn’t the first time Taranaki people have found the history of their home buried in the walls while renovating.
In 2019, teacher Katey Pittwood discovered 1960s teenage pop magazine posters hidden behind the gib on the walls of a bedroom in her 120-year-old cottage.
Last year, when Adam and Nicola Warner were renovating the 91-year-old doctors’ surgery they relocated to be their family home, they found old medical journals, dated from 1943-44, addressed to one of the previous owners, Dr Thomas Howard Thorp.