Timeline for Glenside Reserve (Section 23)
1839 Maori walking trail across hills connecting Petone-Korokoro-Takapu-Porirua and Porirua-Takapu-to Ohariu and Makara (through Glenside) and Paparangi-to Ohariu and Makara (through Glenside). Hills to the east called Pukehuia. Local oral history recall a Pa site (near railway viaduct). There is written reference to an old Maori trail from existing Halfway House on Section 23, south through Section 21, to where there were springs and a cultivated area visible into the 1970's.
The British Government doesn't support the colonising of New Zealand or the New Zealand Company. In 1839, the New Zealand Company offer for sale in London, one acre town sections and 100 acre country sections. The future Glenside Reserve is on Section 23.
In London, a group of prospective emigrants meet to form “The First Colony of New Zealand”. Patricia Burns in "Fatal Success A history of the New Zealand Company" (1989, p.104) describes the committee as a mutual support group dedicated to ‘lay the foundations of Charitable, Scientific, Religious and other Institutions for the Colony'. To be on the committee, one had to buy five land orders. Edmund Halswall (1790-1874) was on the committee and his name is on Section 23.
1841 Edmund Storr Halswell arrives in New Zealand on the ship Lady Nugent on 17 March 1841, having been appointed by the New Zealand Company to the management of Native Reserves and Protector of Aboriginees. In May he was appointed a Magistrate and in February 1842 Judge of the Country Court. In 1845 he was one of the officers of the Militia for the Te Aro district. He did not live on Section 23 as his home was Goathurst, in Brooklyn. He returned to England in 1846. He held Section 23 until his death in 1874. It's believed the land was leased by the Halswell family until it was sold in 1908.
c1841 First Halfway House established by the Wall family. Accommodation, food and liquor offered in their home which became known as the Halfway House, being halfway between Wellington and Porirua. This was located on Section 24, the west side of present day Glenside Road, which back then, was the main road north. This part of the road was by-passed betwen 1846-1847 by the upgraded road to Porirua.
1846-1849 Halfway House marked on Section 23 on a map by military men building the road to Porirua. Approximate location is former Twigland office and carpark. It was adjacent to an old ford across the stream, which was bridged. Occupied and managed by John Ward McKain (b1816-d1863) from 1849-c1855. McKain provides accommodation, food and liquor for people travelling along the route.
Between 1 May 1846 - 30 November 1849 an improved North Road from Johnsonville to Porirua, around to Pauatahanui and over the hill to Paekakariki was constructed. Capt. Andrew Hamilton Russell, the Military Superintendent of the Road, wrote on the road map in 1849, the following description of the area between Johnsonville and Porirua:
"The distance from Hawtrey Church (Johnsonville) to the termination near Jacksons Ferry (Porirua) is 7 miles 4 chains, of which there is not half a mile of flat country but the road crossing an infinite number of small steep spurs thrown off from a range of hills supposed to run parallel with its direction, has from the number of log bridges which have been necessary have become much more expensive...Its general width is 15 feet and it was opened in December 1847 having occupied 18 months on its construction. The distance from Kaiwarra bridge to Jackson’s ferry is 11 miles 4 Furlongs and 33 yards."
1855 The Clapham and Edwards family manage the Halfway House.
1855 - 1857 Sarah (nee Tomliens) and Joseph Clapham
1857 - 1865 Mary Ann (nee Bould) and William Thomas Clapham
1866 - 1871 Elizabeth (nee Clapham) and William Edwards
1866 Halfway House is a Mail Coach destination between Porirua and Wellington, and continues to provide food and accommodation for travellers.
1874 Hugh Halswell inherits Section 23 on the death of Edmund Storr Halswell.
1877 Locality administered by Makara Riding but became Hutt County Council when Hutt County formed in 1877.
1880 A new Halfway House is built by horseman Alexander Brown (Scottish descent) and is named Gowan Bank. This is the house still standing today on Glenside reserve. It retains the name Halfway House and is referred to as the "new" Halfway House. The "old" Halfway House remains on its site nearby. Brown is renound for his horsemanship of "heavy" horses i.e. strong horses used for doing heavy work such as hauling and ploughing.
1885 In 1885 the Manawatu Steam and Rail Company rail line is built, cutting across the hills and farms of early settlers in the Halfway, separating the main grazing land from the farm homesteads and the centre of farm operations. Section 23 was one of several affected, with the Company taking 3 1/2 acres. Railways built a railway viaduct across neighbouring Section 21. In 1950 the former railway line land between Takapu and Johnsonville is redeveloped into the motorway.
1891 Old Halfway House burns down.
1895-1896 From 1895 to 1896, Gowan Bank and Section 23 was leased to Fred Rogen, who bred poultry, and Collie dogs, an ancient breed used in Scotland for herding sheep.
1900 Alexander Brown dies at Hawera on November 16, 1900. His body is brought back to St John Anglican Church in Johnsonville for the funeral service and he is buried in the Church cemetery. His wife moves to Pahiatua and dies in 1923, aged 79, and is buried at Mangatainoka cemetery.
1901 Gowan Bank (The Halfway House) and Section 23 is leased.
1908 Section 23 is sold by Hugh Beauchamp Halswell to Charles Izard for £19,000, with the sale finalised in 1910. Izard is a bird fancier, having competed against Fred Rogen in the Wellington Poultry, Pigeon, Canary and Dog Association Shows.
Izard was a prominent Wellington lawyer and politician who served as a Wellington City Councillor 1898-1907; MP for Wellington North 1905-08; and member of Legislative Council 1915-25. He and his wife Stella had one child, Keith (1887-1919) who died in England of pneumonia during World War I service.
The Izard's do not live on site. The Izard’s have their own home at Talavera Terrace and an impressive country home, 'Totara', situated at Maoribank, Upper Hutt. A few years earlier Izard had taken over management of his father’s large house ‘Woodmancote’ in Khandallah.
1919 Section 23 is sold to the New Zealand Meat Packing and Bacon Company
1923 Section 23 purchased by Philip Chetwoode Watt (1876-1940), well-known in Wellington for construction. Watt had recently completed the contract for the three-story reinforced concrete fellmongery at Ngahauranga for the New Zealand Meat Packing and Bacon Company Limited.
Watt came to Wellington in 1892 and joined the firm of J. and A. Wilson. In 1904 he founded the P. C. Watt Construction Company, building contractors and constructional engineers, becoming the managing director of the company. He was responsible for the construction of many prominent buildings in Wellington. One that survives today is Shed 22, the former Wellington Wool Store, corner of Taranaki and Cable Street.
In 1906 Mr. Watt married Jeannie Tait and they have two sons, Charles Michael Watt (1907- 1982) and Laurence Philip Watt (1909-1933) and adopt a neice, Mary. Watt is a member of the Wellington Rotary Club, the Miramar Golf Club and is a keen angler and sportsman.
He champions the history associated with the name Halfway House, develops a nine-hole golf course and subdivides Section 23 for the Glenside village. His wife gives the name Glenside to the Halfway.
He installs his nephews Charles Watt Fisher and John Fisher, who are cousins, in the house. They run a dairy farm. In 1929 John relinquishes the lease to return to Scotland. His 14 head herd is described by the auctioneers as “one of the best among the nearby farms”.
At some point the Crown purchase half the land however the Watt family retain and live in the Halfway House.
1927 Public works camp established on Section 23 and Section 21 for about 300 railway workers constructing railway tunnel.
1928 Locality name officially changes from Halfway House/The Halfway to Glenside. A competition was held to rename the locality and Mrs Jeannie Watt won with her suggested name Glenside.
1929 James Patrick Morris, Tunneller, Miner, killed falling down Railway lift shaft. Buried in Karori.
1930 Glenside Estate - The Watt’s subdivide Section 23 into 26 lots. These were offered for auction on Wednesday, 25 June, 1930 for ten pounds deposit, with balance due in five years at 6%. The marketing points included the short trip to town via the new railway deviation, the chance to buy land with prospective value, plenty of sunshine, rich gardening soil, frontages to the main road, and a bitumen road all the way to Tawa. This subdivision became the village of Glenside. Watt is required to provide a recreational reserve as part of the subdivision. This is the reserve land on the north side of present day Westchester Drive.
1934 Glenside Tennis Club is formed on adjacent section 21.
1936 Nine-hole Glenside Golf Course opens, and was still in use in 1944. The front rooms of the Halfway House are used for Golf Club meetings and the tennis club are invited to share the rooms for a cup of tea. Public Works move onto Homer tunnel.
WWII Land used for NZ Army Camp. Public excluded.
1950 Motorway opens. It's constructed on former railway land and slices through Glenside farms including Section 23.
1951 Victoria College (Victoria University) extends onto Town Belt land. Wellington City Council purchase the Halfway House and its associated land for 6000 pounds with 4000 pounds provided from Crown funds paid in compensation for the encroachment on Town Belt. Council intends using the land as a recreational reserve.
1961-1989 Wellington City Council establish the Glenside sewerage treatment plant on Glenside Reserve with opposition from locals who live and work beside the stream. It opens in 1962 and is decommissioned on 1 April 1989.
1965 Makara County dissolved. Glenside now under Hutt County Council. Porirua is declared a city.
1973 Hutt County Council, including Glenside, is absorbed into Wellington City Council.
1979 Halfway House listed as a historic house in the Wellington City Council Review of the District Scheme.
1989 Dispute between Wellington City Council Parks and Reserves and other City Council Departments over the future use of Glenside Reserve. City Engineer and City Solicitor want to subdivide it into industrial and commerce business park. Parks want to retain it for recreation. In the interim, the land is approved for lease to Newlands/Paparangi Riding Club in 1989, which continues until 2024, with requirement to vacate land by May 2026.
1990 Audit Office findings are that Section 23 land purchase was intended as a recreation reserve and proper process for public consultation must be followed.
1991 In March 1991 the Parks and Recreation Committee agree to release part of the Glenside Reserve for the construction of the Westchester Drive link road from the Motorway to Middleton Road. An additional 966m2 land is taken from the reserve to widen Middleton Road to service the access.
1991 The Economic Business Development Unit (EBDU). Wellington City Council, commission a report on the viability of a business park on the reserve land, which was circulated in July 1991. The study was compiled and coordinated by Paul Frater of BERL utilising the services of Business and Economic Research Ltd, Australasian Property Consultants Ltd and the National Research Bureau Ltd. The comprehensive work, A marketing study of the proposed Glenside business park revealed that in the short term, the business park was a high financial risk. Paul Frater presented to Council on broader economic development strategies recommended for Wellington City. These likely addressed the findings that the rail did not service the airport, the airport was difficult to get to and outdated, and people didn't find Wellington attractive because of its climate.
Peter Healy, Manager EBDU & Chris Mitchell, Acting City Solicitor to Economic Development and City Promotion Committee. 24 July 1991. Wellington City Council Archives, 00277-1179 (p. 23-26).
1991 Tourism Resource Consultants complete their report, Glenside Reserve Recreation Study, in April 1991. The report identified the site was best for soft recreation such as family outings, kick about space, walking and running. It was considered a vital link in recreation provision in the area because it offered shelter from the wind. The Halfway House was seen as having an important role however this was not defined.
The report offered two Options, a multiple use recreation area, incorporating the Pony Club; or a compromise recreation-business park. The consultants did point out that any form of commercial development on the site would 'fetter all future options for use on the reserve.' A third Option, to continue with the current lease to the Newlands Paparangi Horse Riding Society, was not supported as it provided limited access for other users. Nothing came of this report and the Riding Society remained.
Glenside Reserve Recreation Study (1991). Tourism Resource Consultants. Wellington City Council Archives, 00551-15.
1993 April. A subdivision of the Downer and Company Ltd land enablesTwigland Gardeners World to purchase part of section 23. This parcel of land included the section taken by Railways in 1928 for overseers houses, and where the old Halfway House site (1849-1891) once stood.
The surveyors, acting for Twigland owner Don Liddle, propose that Wellington City Council subdivide their Halfway House block and sell it to Twigland – in return Liddle would lease the Halfway House and open a café. Before Council could properly respond to this proposal, a resource consent was notified in July 1993, for the garden centre, along with a café in the Halfway House. Roger Still, Parks Planning writes to Don Liddle, his surveyors and solicitors about the lack of courtesy for not communicating their intentions to put the Halfway House in the consent application.
There were objections from the community defending the Halfway House, its purchase with Town Belt compensation money, and its reserve status. The City Council Hearing concludes that the Garden Centre proceed without the Halfway House and its surrounds.
1993 The Clerk of Works for the Council, who had carried out an inspection of the Halfway House in September, writes to the Parks Planner recommending the house be demolished, as it had deteriorated, and he felt any money spent on it was a waste. (Works have a bad reputation in Glenside due to the Water Treatment Plant, proposed Business Park and roading plans on the reserve).
Memo from Kevin Doyle Clerk of Works to Roger Still, Parks Planner. 11 October 1993. Wellington City Council Archives, 00444-6/32/4 Part 2 (p. 35-36)
The Liddle’s solicitors propose that they support Historic Places Trust (who had visited the property with Council officials) to restore the house and in return asked that a large area of the Halfway House section owned by Council be exchanged for a small area of stream esplanade, with the cash difference paid to Council. This proposal is not supported by Council.
1998 In December 1993, Council develop a process to decide the future of their houses on reserve land. In the list of surplus houses tabled 1 July 1998, are five Parks houses on land classified as reserve land under the Reserves Act 1977. Two of these are on Glenside Reserve, the Halfway House (246 Middleton Road) and the caretakers house (250 Middleton Road). Council prepare the subdivision of the properties and are about to revoke the reserve status, when it is realised that a mistake had been made in the order of the process. The reserve revocation process has many steps including that Council has to publicly notify it and justify to Central Government the reasons for their decision to sell. In 2003 the process is revisited and the houses are proposed for sale again.
2001 Thursday, 23 August. Glenside residents meet at Herbs Cafe in the evening to discuss the identity and character of Glenside they wanted to save. The consensus is that Glenside is a special and unique place, characterized by its streams, landforms, history, bird life and green spaces.
The community want Glenside to be retained as green area for recreational users, with strong emphasis on its historical character, the trees, the living streams and rural space. They want Glenside Reserve to be made legal reserve (it already was, but no one had informed the community); the Halfway House to be turned into a community asset, even a museum, and access re-established between Glenside Reserve and the land on the other side of the motorway i.e. Seton Nossiter Park
2002 Blessing of the streams hosted by Glenside Progressive Association with Ngati Toa and St John Anglican Church, before stream restoration commences in Glenside. Glenside Progressive Assn. Inc. makes submissions to City Council for restoration of Halfway House and Glenside suburb status.
2003 September. Following a review in 2000 the five City Council properties on reserve land are bought to the table again, with the recommendation to publicly notify Council’s intention to revoke the reserve status under the Reserves Act 1977.
By December however, there had been a shift in Council thinking and it is recommended that the sale of the Glenside Reserve properties is not progressed unless supported by the Northern Reserves plan and in respect of the Halfway House, a heritage evaluation outcome.
2003 2 November. The Glenside Progressive Association host an Open Day at the historic Halfway House on 2003 to gauge support for Council retaining, protecting and restoring the house, and to seek possible uses of the house and grounds. About 700 people attend from as far afield as Palmerston North, Waikanae and the Wairarapa. Visitors are treated to a heritage and contemporary photo display compiled by the Association, who also provided handouts with a photo and history of the house. Onslow Historic Society sell copies of the recently published Glenside heritage booklet.
Visitors are invited to write their ideas for the future of the house and garden and these are compiled by the Association into a report for Council and community. The findings are that people do not want Council to sell The Halfway House. The main reasons given for retaining the house are its heritage value, value as public amenity and the relationship of the building to Glenside Reserve. There is strong support to return the land to gardens and lawns.
2004 Ian Bowman, conservation architect, is commissioned by the Council to undertake a report on conserving the Halfway House. Julia Williams of Drakeford Williams Ltd, Registered Landscape Architects, iss commissioned to write a Future Options Report for the larger Glenside Reserve and Halfway House. The Glenside Streamcare Group write a report on their vision for the Glenside Reserve, and the Glenside Progressive Association survey the community on how the smaller Glenside Reserve, (the former rugby club rooms and composting site) could be used.
2007 Halfway House is again listed on the Wellington District Plan as an historic site and building.
2008 The draft Northern Reserves Management Plan released for consultation propose that the Halfway House land will be subject to a zone change from Recreational Reserve to Local Purpose Reserve -the latter less about conservation and heritage values and more about provision of services and infrastructure.
Glenside Progressive Association oppose the change. The Council agree not to make it Local Purpose, but keep options open by saying a future reserve classification will be determined after a sustainable use for the house is proposed. The draft Northern Reserves Management Plan proposes the redevelopment of Glenside Reserve and the restoration of the Halfway House.
2010 First community streamside restoration planting at Halfway House. Memorandum of Understanding between Wellington City Council (Parks) and Glenside Progressive Association Inc. is signed with the shared obejectives to:
Improve the Reserve ecology
Improve the condition of the riparian zone of streams and waterways within the Reserve
Educate people about the ecology of the reserve
Develop and implement landscape and revegetation plans
Enhance the rural qualities of the Reserve
Protect and enhance the historic sites and areas of historic interest in the Reserve, including the Halfway House
Educate people about the history of the Reserve
Preserve the archaeological elements of the Reserve and Halfway House precinct.
Planting
2014 At the request of Glenside Progressive Assn. Inc. the Halfway House section of the reserve is changed from recreation reserve designation to historic reserve per section 18 of the Reserves Act 1977. Halfway House Heritage Gardeners established. Wellington City Council commission Halfway House Landscape Plan.
2017 Official opening of the restored Halfway House.
2021 Halfway House public rooms opened for hire.
2021-2022 Glenside Reserve loop tracks constructed by Wellington City Council (following submissions from Glenside Progressive Association Inc.).
2023 - 2024 Glenside Progressive Association host walks with local authority officials, Glenside residents and wider community on Glenside Reserve to discuss its future. Feedback is to return it to a natural wildlife area with stream restoration and protection of ground nesting birds.
2025-2026 Wellington City Council contract Morphum consultants to develop a water plan for the reserve. Glenside Progressive Assn. Inc. contract Wildlife Management International Ltd. to produce a Safe Haven for Birds strategy and landscape plan for the reserve.