9 minute read
Rawene
Sweet RETREAT
WORDS: MARGO WHITE • IMAGERY: JESS BURGES
The restoration and repurposing of a Rawene church into an artists’ retreat has been the latest project for a couple committed to giving new and productive lives to historic buildings while supporting the arts
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For Lynn Lawton and Linda Blincko, a belief in the capacity of the arts to invigorate us all has underpinned their track record of creating spaces and initiatives that nurture and support the creative arts.
And their latest project – restoring a kauri-clad former Methodist church in Rawene and repurposing it as an artists’ retreat – is also adding to the wider story of heritage revival during the past decade in the historic Hokianga town.
For more than 26 years, in the Auckland seaside suburb of Devonport, the couple ran the Depot Artspace (‘the Depot’) – a former council works depot that they restored and opened as a community art space. They also bought, renovated and established Satellite Gallery in Newton, which supported talented emerging artists in a more commercial environment.
One creative initiative often leads to another, and through relationships developed at the Depot, Lynn and Linda began working with Village Arts – a non-profit, charitable organisation supporting the development of an arts community in Kohukohu and Hokianga – on a 2009 exhibition in Kohukohu that included works by Ralph Hotere.
Working with Village Arts meant spending a lot of time in Rawene and Kohukohu, and on their visits their attention was often drawn to the Ferry House in the centre of Rawene, which was closed and in a dilapidated state.
Lynn recalls waiting for the ferry and he and Linda turning to each other and saying, “We have to buy it and do something with it that will support the community.”
In 2013 the couple bought the Category 2 historic place, which they restored and converted into a gallery and café named ‘No. 1 Parnell’, after its address on Parnell Street. It opened in 2014.
Then when the former Methodist church – a simple Gothic Revival structure that has stood in the town centre since it was built in 1876 – came on the market in 2017, they couldn’t resist.
“It’s such a beautiful, iconic building,” says Linda. “We really wanted to make sure it stayed with the community, and we thought it would be a beautiful building for an artists’ residence.”
The church’s previous owner had obtained consents to convert it into a private residence, but Lynn and Linda wanted to restore and preserve it in its original state.
“The first time I walked into the church I felt a significant spiritual presence,” recalls Linda.
“It stands on the crest of a hill so it’s very exposed to the south, east and west, and there are only single kauri weatherboards between the inside and outside. But even in the middle of winter it had an abiding silence, which embraced you, like a korowai.”
The church was constructed at the time that Rawene became the main administrative centre for Hokianga Harbour, and is listed as a Category 2 historic place on the New Zealand Heritage List/ Rārangi Kōrero. It was constructed by notable builder William Cook at a cost of £160.
The opening service was conducted in te reo, reflecting the strong connection the Wesleyan mission had with local Māori in what became the Hokianga circuit for delivering services.
Early parishioners were clearly committed: they brought their own cushions to sit on until fundraising efforts eventually allowed for the commissioning of pews. Prior to World War I, it was the only purpose-built church in Rawene, and was used by Protestants of many persuasions, reinforcing its religious and social significance to the town.
The church has been restored as closely to the original as possible, while the annex, which was added in 1922, has been converted into a modest artists’ residence. It includes a mezzanine floor as a sleeping area, and a small bathroom and kitchen on the ground floor.
“We didn’t want to compromise the integrity of the church itself, which has been maintained as it originally was,” says Linda. She and Lynn envision that resident artists will use the original church area as a studio, exhibition or possibly performance space.
The restoration work – which was partially funded through the National Heritage Preservation Incentive Fund, administered by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – was led by James Land, head of JD Builders Northland.
James grew up and lives in Whirinaki and has worked on buildings in Hokianga since he was 15 years old, initially with his father’s building company.
1 The kauri-clad former Methodist church in Rawene is being restored and repurposed as an artists’ retreat.
2 An old newspaper was found during the restoration.
3 4 The annex has been converted into an artists’ residence, with a mezzanine floor sleeping area and a small bathroom and kitchen.
5 Lynn and Linda relax inside the partially restored retreat.
1 No. 1 Parnell gallery and café, owned by Lynn and Linda.
2 Inside the gallery at
No. 1 Parnell.
3 Rawene township.
4 The waterfront and the
Boatshed Café.
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He remembers crawling under historic buildings with his father from the age of seven to assess the state of their piles.
James is passionate about preserving the area’s old buildings. His team recently completed the restoration of the church in Omanaia, which was built in 1884 and is thought to be the second-oldest standing church building in Hokianga.
“It’s similar to the church in Rawene,” he says, “but simpler and smaller.”
His experience with historic buildings has been in demand. “I’m really interested in figuring out how they built these historic buildings with hand tools – remember, these buildings were built long before we had building codes,” he says.
The Rawene church was in reasonably good condition, he says, although when removing the lead paint from the building they identified rot in the cladding close to the ground.
While the rot had affected only the lower metre of the church, the builders had to remove more to conform to the structure of the building, with kauri timber sourced from a Northland mill.
But as builders and architects are all too aware, good wood has been hard to find since the Covid-19 pandemic began, and every piece is worth preserving.
“It’s not like we can ring up and say, ‘We’ll have another packet of kauri please’. Well, you can, but it won’t be New Zealand kauri, and it won’t be heart kauri, so any timber that comes off a building is valuable,” says James. “So we took all the old kauri back to the workshop, chopped out the rot, and got the rest machined down to size, which we used to laminate onto the plywood kitchen – the kitchen bench top, the drawers, the doors, the splashback and so on. So we were able to use the timber that came off the church, and put it back into it.”
There were challenges, of course – particularly replacing the roof, which has a pitch of 53 degrees. This involved James and his team doing what could be described as abseiling, carrying sheets of corrugated iron.
“You have to have complete trust in your team and gear,” says James. “So you get up there, and remind
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yourself ‘this system is going to hold me’, get yourself mentally comfortable, and then do the work. We had two on the ground, one at the top of the roof and one at the bottom of the roof, and passed each sheet up one by one. It worked like clockwork.”
James also collaborated with Aranne Donald, a trained architect and designer and heritage advisor. Aranne moved from Auckland to Rawene in 2011 after buying one of six migrants’ cottages in Rawene, all built in the same year as the church.
Aranne helped Linda and Lynn apply for heritage funding for the project and designed the fit-out of the artists’ residence in the annex.
She also advised on the church’s spouting so it wouldn’t detract from the original aesthetic. Most churches built in the area and era didn’t have spouting, so Aranne looked at how other heritage-listed churches in Northland had dealt with the issue.
“As one example we looked at St James [Anglican Church] in Kerikeri and, working closely with James, we problem-solved our way through it.”
The project also included restoring impressive turned-wood finials, each more than a metre long.
Aranne and James also worked on restoring and repairing the belfry on the west end of the building, which had rotted away. They identified the design of the original bell tower, at the building’s east end, which had either fallen off or been removed.
They examined digital images of Rawene captured by Northland photographer Charlie Dawes, who ran a photographic studio in Kohukohu circa 1892-1925. The photographs were part of a large collection of Dawes’ work recently made available through Auckland Libraries.
“Apparently the bell in the belfry was too loud, so they created a bell tower at the back and put the bell there. But there was very little left of the bell tower, so with Dawes’ photographs we could get a clearer idea of what it looked like, which allowed James to recreate it.”
The hope now is that the missing bell will be found.
Aranne bought her cottage in Rawene in 2003, when “everything was for sale”. The town has since changed – in a good way.
“Lynn and Linda restored No. 1 Parnell Street as a gallery, and two friends – Gaynor Revill and David Truscott, who coincidentally live down the road from Linda and Lynn in Devonport – bought and restored The Wedge on the corner of Clendon Esplanade and Parnell Street and made it available for tenancy for local businesses.
“That, in turn, encouraged other building owners to paint their buildings,” says Aranne. At the time of writing, Gaynor and David were restoring the Masonic Hotel at No. 8 Parnell Street.
“So Rawene is going through a bit of a renaissance. With new galleries in Rawene and Kohukohu and in Opononi, it has created a kind of mini art trail.”
Auckland was in lockdown for much of the church restoration, so Lynn and Linda were unable to view the progress of the restoration in person.
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They had complete trust in both Aranne and James, however, who kept them abreast of developments and were as committed to the restoration, and to Rawene’s heritage, as they are.
“I grew up with a respect for and awareness of the value of small family businesses, and how they can help create a sense of community,” says Lynn.
“I love running and developing businesses that serve a community, and also creating opportunities that help build creative infrastructure.
“The restoration of the church is an extension of that.”
