Memory box
Around the country there are places associated with a particular building material. O¯ amaru has its limestone and rural Canterbury its cob cottages.
On a recent visit to Timaru, the abundance of brick houses was noted and, closer to home, Huntly is also well known for its brick buildings.
Te Awamutu also has a history of brick construction, thanks in large part to the North family.
William North (c.1842-1911) was chairman of the Te Awamutu Town Board and the Mangahoe Drainage Board at the turn of the 20th century.
A brickmaker from Hampshire, he had arrived in New Zealand in January 1875 and manufactured bricks in Auckland before relocating to the Waikato, where he farmed at Te Rahu as well as operating a brickworks from January 1881 until his death.
North had five sons and seven daughters with his first wife, Maria, and was an active member of the Methodist church.
In August 1903, it was announced that William North had completed ‘‘the erection of a new and up-to-date brick and tile-making plant’’ on his farm east of Te Awamutu – 5000 bricks could be made daily and two kilns with a capacity of 45,000 bricks each were then in course of construction.
William North’s sons followed him into the business and some of the bricks made in the Norths’ new plant were used in the construction of a house for Charles North, one of William and Maria’s sons, in 1909. Charles (1879-1958) married Mary Clements in that year and they are both buried in the Te Awamutu Cemetery, along with other members of the family.
The brickworks operated until 1943.
The former North house is a square-plan villa with pairs of archheaded sash windows on either side of a central entrance.
The bullnose return verandah has plain posts with decorative brackets and a handsome corbelled chimney rises above the hipped roof. Extensions to the south and west have had little impact on the street frontage, which is set off by a picket fence. The house is scheduled on the Waipa District Plan and listed by Heritage New Zealand. Its place on these lists and the local heritage trail confers no rights of visitation or access to the public.