In 2001 the residents of Glenside met to form a vision of the future of Glenside. The residents recognise that Glenside is a special area of heritage value and requires protecting.
The community vision is to develop a new economy around rural heritage in Glenside.
The residents objectives around heritage are to:
- Educate people about heritage in Glenside.
- Educate people that Glenside is a special heritage area needing protecting and enhancing.
The Glenside Progressive Association believes that protection in the Wellington City Council District Plan is necessary to retain:
- Heritage of the area
- Heritage landscape values.
- Heritage places.
The Association effort is currently focussed on three areas. These are:
- Correcting existing listings in the District Plan.
- Seeking new listings for protection in the District Plan.
- Inclusion of Glenside as a heritage area in the District Plan.
Successes
Since 2001 the Association has achieved the following:
- Identified and mapped Glenside’s heritage sites.
- The Halfway House and Ivy Bank farm (Nott House) were listed as heritage sites in the Wellington City Council District Plan 2007.
- Corrected three incorrect District Plan listings in 2007.
- Saved the Ivy Bank Farm milkstand and had it successfully relocated. It was later damaged permanently when a tree fell on it in a storm.
- Submissions and representations to Wellington City Council not to bulldoze a c 1841 burial site for the development of the Westchester Drive extension. The Association successfully submitted to have a site on the adjacent road reserve developed as a memorial to the person buried, which was unveiled in 2013.
- Continued representation to Wellington City Council to have the following places listed as heritage sites in the district plan: The survey marker for the centre line of the railway tunnel; Drake's garden; the Glenside corner milkstand.
- Published a book about the history and heritage of Glenside in 2003. Reprinted in 2008.
- The Association regularly submits to Wellington City Council for protection of heritage sites in Glenside.
Losses
The following heritage has been destroyed since 2001.
- Original trees at Woodlawn cut down for Monterey development in 2003.
- On Glenside Road a farm house site and most of an abandoned farm garden of the first white woman immigrant to Wellington were buried under fill for the Wantwood Grove extension, a Churton Park housing development in 2006.
- On the corner of Glenside Road and Stebbings Road, an early settler house site was bulldozed in 2018. An archaeological assessment was undertaken. This site, and the Wantwood Grove extension, were originally set aside as reserve after meetings between the Wellington City Council, the Callender developers and Glenside residents. The City Council and the Callenders changed the agreement without notice.
- The felling of the hawthorn hedge shelter belt around the former site of a bush hut at Takapu. This site was cleared and later developed for a Countdown supermarket. In 2022 the site of the bush hut was bulldozed and built on for housing.
- On Glenside Road, in about 2018, the 1886 Glenugie homstead site and garden was bulldozed for a new home with no archaeological report undertaken.
Currently under threat
- Off Glenside Road, the c1841 burial site is threatened by housing development.
- The railway survey marker at 395 Middleton Road is threatened by housing development.
Historic Places Trust View
In a letter to the City Council in June 2002 about planning growth in Wellington’s Northern suburbs, the Historic Places Trust stated:
“Many significant heritage features are clustered within the Glenside-Middleton Road corridor. The Trust supports a development approach that avoids this corridor.”
During a site visit to Glenside, Mr Robert McClean, Historic Places Trust discussed the significance of Glenside heritage values to the Wellington Region. These included:
- Best preserved examples of technical heritage.
- Significant heritage landscape value.
- Heritage combined in a compact area close to the city.
Mr Mclean said that Pauatahanui and Makara were often upheld as historic areas, whereas Glenside was a better example, as much of its landscape and heritage sites were undisturbed and could therefore be seen in context to each other.
The importance of landscape to heritage
Heritage has more value when it is retained in its original landscape. Landscape features in Glenside would be features that were present in pre-European settlement and in the earliest days of European settlement. Examples of the landscape around Glenside heritage include:
- Folds of hills, some filled with native bush.
- Natural springs and streams.
- The original lie of the land.
- Limited intrusion of modern development.
Alexander Turnbull Library
There are numerous diaries, maps, sketches and letters preserved about The Halfway (Glenside) dating from 1840 held in the Alexander Turnbull Library. These are some examples:
- Survey map of original Porirua Road.
- 1842 Letter from Wall family to relatives in England.
- 1848 Letters of Thomas Arnold.
- 1849 Sketch of Halfway House.
- 1849 Map sent from Captain Russell to his superiors pinpointing The Halfway House.