9 minute read
MUCKING IN
WORDS: GEORGIA WEAVER / IMAGERY: MIKE HEYDON
For one young family, restoring a landmark historic place in Invercargill has meant getting their hands dirty
Growing up watching his parents collect antiques and renovate old houses, Will Finlayson knew it was in his blood to honour that legacy.
One of the more prominent properties that Will’s parents owned was Lennel, a Category 1 historic place in Invercargill. As a young man, Will admired his father’s work on the grand house, which had been built in the early 1880s as the retirement home for John Turnbull Thomson, the man who surveyed the site for Invercargill in 1856.
Now that job has fallen to Will and his partner Laura Thompson, who have delved into the ambitious project to restore Lennel.
Will’s parents, Jocelyn and Denys, bought the house in 1998 for a mere $90,000 at a bank auction, and focused largely on renovating its interior. Jocelyn envisaged passing the eightbedroom house on to subsequent generations, just as John Turnbull Thomson had done. (Following the death of John’s wife Jane, a granddaughter bought the property, and it was held in the family until 1992.)
When Jocelyn died in 2020, Denys decided it was too big for one person and sold it in November 2021 to Will and Laura, who now live there with their boys, Patrick, 6, Arthur, 3, and Forbes, 2.
Renovating a large historic property wasn’t something Laura had ever seen herself doing, although her grandfather had had a nursery and her parents both loved gardening. After their purchase, she and Will got stuck into the property’s overgrown 1.2-hectare section (subdivided from the 159.5 hectares that John originally purchased).
“It wasn’t until I got started that I realised how much of it was in my blood,” says Laura.
“I only had what you would call a backyard gardener’s kind of knowledge, so I’ve learnt a lot in the past year.
“Our love for and connection to the property has become so strong because we are doing the work ourselves. We have to do things properly and prioritise. If we had money, we’d sink it into things we don’t need to, whereas this way we can work out what the most important things to do are.”
Will and Laura have had landscape concept plans drawn up and an assessment done of all the property’s protected trees to ensure their survival through maintenance and pruning. The trees include a copper beech planted to mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, and a rhododendron bank that took two arborists five days to prune and mulch.
More than 800 tonnes of green waste, invasive trees and historically felled trees have been removed. In their place, the couple have planted almost 2000 trees, shrubs and other plants, and more than 1000 bulbs to restore the daffodil patch. They’ve also fixed broken pipes that were adding to a flooding problem that was affecting almost half a hectare of the property.
In 2017 Will’s parents had had Invercargill’s oldest macrocarpas felled because of concerns about their falling onto neighbouring houses. The timber was made into garden edging and a 640-kilogram outdoor table that seats more than 20 people.
Will and Laura have also digitised historical garden records detailing more than 600 plants in the garden that Patricia Hall-Jones, the wife of John Turnbull Thomson’s great-grandson, had inventoried, and have added what now remains in the garden to these records.
In 2022 they were awarded $13,000 from the National Heritage Preservation Incentive Fund to go towards researching the original garden plantings, developing a masterplan to conserve and manage surviving garden elements, and the practical management of protected trees and shrubs.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Conservation Advisor Susie Farminer says Will and Laura have produced a considerable amount of interesting and high-quality research and documentation on the original planting scheme.
“Through this work and the active tree management, a new appreciation of Lennel’s original garden development has emerged, alongside new insights that have come to light.
“The gardens at Lennel are an integral part of the story and the historical development of the original estate. The surviving portion of gardens owned by Will and Laura is a direct remnant of the original planting scheme laid out by the Thomson family, and as such holds as much historical significance as the house.”
Susie admits that the scale of Lennel meant it had been challenging to maintain and repair adequately through the years, and the house now requires further substantial repairs.
“This will ensure that Lennel can be securely retained and lovingly used as a home and possible community space going forward.”
Initially, the couple thought they’d have the work largely completed in two years, but they soon realised it would be more like 10. Will agrees that a lot of work lies ahead.
With so much already having been done outside, Will and Laura are now starting to work on the exterior of the house, with replacing the slate roof being the top priority.
“Every time it rains, the roof leaks, and sometimes the water pours into the house, so we are working to remedy this,” says Will.
They’ve also started restoring the front door, porch and entranceway, are planning to reinstate the turning circle in front of the house, and will soon begin replanting the orchard that was on the section until the 1960s.
“There is still a lot of work to do on the interior, but the main living rooms were restored by Dad, so the house isn’t as urgently in need of attention as the grounds,” says Will. “We can do a lot of the work in the gardens ourselves with the kids in tow.
“When you’re actually in it, it’s pretty full on and exhausting. Jobs are so much bigger than you think. But I really wanted to give it a go for my mother. It’s a way I can feel connected with her. She just loved Lennel.”
Many others retain connections to the property, and Laura has created a Facebook page dedicated to the project as a way to document and share its history.
“I’d really like to educate people on the heritage value and Lennel’s significant place in the history of Invercargill. And I think it’s working – I’ve probably had about 100 messages from people sharing photos and stories.”
Laura has also been in touch with many of John’s descendants, who have been generous in sharing their memories of the place because of their love of Lennel, and Laura says she’s enjoyed learning more about John.
The couple have also found many items left by previous inhabitants, including a series of letters written during World War I that had fallen behind an old fireplace. They would eventually like to have all these items on display in a museum room in the house.
The couple’s children have been making the most of the outdoor space at Lennel, climbing
trees, riding their scooters on the tennis courts, and finding bugs in the vast grounds. But indoors, the unusual layout keeps the many rooms largely separated.
“If I’m cooking, I have no idea what the kids are doing. The laundry is miles away and there is only one entrance to the house as the back door is not yet functional,” says Laura.
The house’s grand rooms with their tall ceilings, however, hold a lot of history, she says.
“Old homes are so sturdy; this is solid. I love how they just took any excuse to make something beautiful. We really don’t do that in the same way now – but it does mean it’s an absolute nightmare to clean,” she laughs.
For now, the couple have not just one vision for the property but three, depending on how money and life works out.
“Ultimately, we’d love to live elsewhere and have Lennel as a heritage site. We’d love to host weddings and have heritage tours,” says Laura.
“I’d love to have a hands-on experience for kids – involving playing croquet perhaps – to help them understand what life used to be like and provide an educational experience for them in learning about their local history.
“That’s the dream – albeit an expensive one.”
To see more of Lennel, view our video story here: youtube.com/ HeritageNewZealand PouhereTaonga
JOHN TURNBULL THOMPSON
John Turnbull Thomson had surveyed many areas, including Singapore and the jungles of Penang, before he was appointed Chief Surveyor of Otago Province in 1856.
His first priority in the role was to choose a site for the proposed town of Invercargill, where his subsequent plans included making the main streets twice the width of those in other towns. He purchased several plots of land in the area, including the 159.5 hectares on which he would later build.
In 1880, following his retirement, he wound up his affairs in Wellington (where he had been Surveyor-General), moved to Invercargill and had Lennel built. The house was similar to Glororum Farmhouse in Northumbria, where he had been born, and he lived at Lennel until he died in 1884.
