Beazley's Pre-Cut Houses

Construction of Beazley Homes’ admin block, Hull Road, Mt Maunganui, November 1966
120-format film negative, Published in the Bay of Plenty Times, 9 Nov 1966
Collection of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī photo gca-13802

In 1950 local father and son home builders, Barry and Fred Beazley, began expanding throughout the North Island. By 1961 they were in the South Island and a year later the company Beazley Homes Ltd. came into being with its head office at Hull Road, Mount Maunganui.

Aerial view of Beazley Homes’ yard, Hull Road, Mt Maunganui, c. October 1966
35mm-format film negative, Unpublished Bay of Plenty Times photograph
Collection of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī photo gcc-11112

They occupied a large block of land which included the timber yard, Mount Timber and Hardware, the truss plant, the moulding shed and the pre-cut division. The main entrance to the yard was off Hull Rd. The company was known for its pre-cut timber frames that could be sent all round New Zealand and the Pacific.

Train load of Beasley [sic] Homes leave Mt Maunganui
Black-and-white postcard (140 x 88 mm), publisher unknown
Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0039/11

The pre-cut division was staffed with approximately twenty people; one quantity surveyor, three draughtsmen and seventeen others whose job it was to set out the plates and frames, cut the roofs and studs and pack up each completed house lot.  A train came in to the rail siding each day to pick up the wagons loaded with the pre-cut houses. Forty went out each week to franchise builders from Whangarei to Wellington.

Beazley Homes Ltd brochure, c. 1970s
Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0390/24/1-28

In 1974 all the plans and quantities had to be changed from imperial measurement to metric – a massive job as every measurement on the plans were affected. As a cost saving exercise Beazleys decided to change all inside walls from 4x2 to 3x2 and so all the plans and quantities had to be changed again. After six months it was discovered that 3x2 walls couldn’t keep the studs straight so the plans had to be changed back again.

Beazley Home exhibit at Trades Fair, October 1966
(Detail) 120-format film negative, Published in the Bay of Plenty Times, 11 Oct 1966
Collection of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī photo gca-13393

The completed houses left Beazleys like giant flat packs and were loaded onto ships at the wharf for the Maldives, Papua New Guinea and Australia. The pre-cut houses sent to Australia were destined for miner’s homes at Mt. Tom Price and a hundred at a time went to Weipa in far north Queensland. One delivery of a hundred arrived there without the kitchens, there was a ‘slight delay’ as the kitchens caught up with the rest of the houses. Hurricane bolts were sent for each corner of the house to prevent the houses from being blown apart during a cyclone.

Pre-built Beazley Homes Ltd. accommodation unit for export market on back of truck, 1977
Fletcher Holdings Archives, Ref. P9006/6

Beazleys sold out to Fletchers in 1973. Pre-cut houses have been replaced by pre-nailed frames and the pre-cut roofs with trusses.

Sources

Fletcher Trust Archives
www.nzherald.co.nz
Pae Korokī Tauranga City Library
Selwyn Neal
Tauranga Heritage Collection

Brain Watkins House Garden Party – A Special Milestone

 

Mr and Mrs B.C. Julian examining a family postcard album on the front steps of Brain Watkins House at the Tauranga Historical Society’s inaugural Garden Party in December 1979
Photograph by the Bay of Plenty Times photographer, published 3 Dec 1979
Courtesy of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo nzmec-33738

In November the Society hosted visitors to the Brain Watkins House and garden as part of the biennial Bay of Plenty Garden & Art Festival, the second time we have done this instead of our usual Garden Party. What members and visitors alike probably didn’t appreciate was that the occasion happened to be the 45^thanniversary, almost to the day, of our first Garden Party on 1 December 1979.

Willie Watkins and Elva Brain, c. August 1965
Photo Brain Watkins House Collection

The home of Elva Brain and Willie Watkins on the corner of Cameron Road and Elizabeth Street was left to the Society earlier that year as a bequest in Elva’s will and the garden party was an opportunity for members and guests to inspect the house and gardens which are still the Society’s home, and an important focus of our activities. More than 150 members and their guests attended, many in Victorian costumes, including then Mayor Eric Faulkner with his wife Connie, MP for Tauranga, Keith Allen, film and television actress Pat Evison, and visitors from historical societies in Hamilton, Whakatāne and Te Awamutu. We retain strong links with the Whakatāne & District Historical Society in our joint publication of the Historical Review, the Bay of Plenty Journal of History.

Wooden half hull model by Joseph Brain, Brain Watkins House Collection

Guests had an opportunity to view the rooms of the home containing not only the existing furnishings in a setting reminiscent of earlier decades, but also mementoes collected over a century. On display were old family photographs and documents, including Joseph Brain’s will, plans of his engineering projects around Tauranga, early photographs of the house, cups won at sailing regattas and even prizes won by Elva when a schoolgirl.

Elva Brain in the arms of her mother Kate, with her four older sisters, on the steps of their home, c. early 1890s
Carte de visite photograph, Brain Watkins House Collection

Elva was born in 1891 the house which her father Joseph Brain had built a decade earlier, and she lived in it for most of her life. She and her sister Bessie inherited the property when her mother died, and she became the sole owner after her sister died in 1957. The layout of the rooms and their contents have changed little since 1979, the Society choosing to preserve and maintain the look and feel of the early New Zealand home, with all its idiosyncrasies.

Brain Watkins House guides Leslie Goodliffe and Glennis Smith with the Brain family postcard album which featured in the 1979 Garden Party photo, 16 Feb 2025
Photo: Brett Payne

We also look after the more ephemeral contents of the house, such as the postcard album pictured in the photograph. Our conservation plan is currently being updated and our volunteer team not only show visitors around the house, but keep up an ongoing monitoring of the house’s condition. With the assistance of both the Tauranga Heritage Collection and the Tauranga Library’s Archives, the Society is in the process of conserving and digitising many of the house’s artifacts, and ensuring that they are cared for in the most appropriate physical and environmental conditions.

Exciting donation of natural history illustrations to Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries

 From Tauranga City Library’s archives

Small in stature and slight of frame; Arnold Henfrey Watson led a demanding outdoor life. New Plymouth born in 1882, he moved to Australia for a few years, droving in New South Wales and later in Tasmania, where his grandparents resided. Returning to New Zealand, he took up farming in Shannon, bush-felling in Hawkes Bay, and shepherding on large stations in the Gisborne region. He and his brother Spencer broke in a large block of undeveloped land in the Pongakawa Valley, Te Puke. They felled a rimu and built a homestead from split slabs and shingles, far from the nearest road and neighbour. A keen observer of the natural world he had a love of sketching and painting what he observed.

With the onset of World War I, he travelled to the Rotorua recruiting office to enlist, where he was drafted into the Auckland Mounted Rifles before being transferred to the 15th NZ Company of Imperial Camel Corps in Egypt and Palestine. During his service, he participated in key campaigns across the Sinai and Palestine regions, secretly documenting the landscapes and wildlife through sketches in a series of diaries, against army regulations. Some of his illustrations made their way into the ‘Kia Ora Coo-ee’, the magazine produced in Cairo for ANZAC troops in the Middle East. Stumpy, the camel assigned to him, featured in at least one of these. These diaries make up part of Ams 294 and until recently were the only artistic records we had of his. 

Arnold aboard Stumpy, Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 11-168

The passionate natural historian he was, he continued to capture detailed watercolours of insects, spiders, and fish after successful fishing trips later in life.  The illustrations reveal his efforts to capture each species' local and scientific names, a difficult task in the 1930s to 1950s.  Modern marine biology students might be interested in his observation of local species during that time. His family cherished these natural history illustrations but they were nearly lost when a fire broke out within a moving van between Wellington and Christchurch. The works survived, but not without sustaining some smoke damage. 

Arnold's granddaughters at the Tauranga Archives with Heritage Specialist Harley Couper, in 2024.

In April 2024, two of 'Bang’s' granddaughters, as he was affectionately known, donated a significant collection of his natural history illustrations to our archive. These are now part of Ams 507, which was digitised in September of 2024. 

"Sepioteuthis bilineata", an older name for "Sepioteuthis australis", commonly known as Ngū, the Southern Reef Squid or Southern Calamari

 

1 of 79 colour illustrations on card featuring various butterfly and moth specimens collected mostly in the Bay of Plenty

Arnold Henfrey Watson retired to Mount Maunganui when his asthma made it difficult to keep working.  He died suddenly in 1960 while swimming at Puru near Thames. 

By Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Heritage and Research Team: Harley Couper

Sources: 

• The Natural History Illustrations of Arnold Henfrey Watson
• Arnold Henfrey Watson (1882-1960)
• Diaries of Arnold Henfrey Watson

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 This archival collection was digitised in September 2024 and is located on Pae Korokī. For more information about this and other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: Research@tauranga.govt.nz