Early Warkworth
Warkworth lies within the Mahurangi Purchase, a 100,000-acre coastal strip between Auckland and Te Arai, obtained by the Crown in April 1841. The purchase deed was signed by leaders of Ngati Paoa, Ngati Maru and Ngati Whanaunga, who had previously obtained the land by conquest. The area in which Warkworth was established was initially reserved for Parihoro of Ngatirongo, but sold in 1853 for £150. It was soon subdivided by the Crown and onsold to colonial settlers at a significant profit.
One of the purchasers was entrepreneur John Anderson Brown (?-1867), who formally established Warkworth with the sale of sections beside the Mahurangi River in 1854. Some years earlier Brown had erected a sawmill and workers' housing on the site, setting a precedent for Warkworth as a leading centre of technological activity in the district. The layout of the settlement followed a rectangular grid, which by 1864 contained a flour mill and store by the river at its northern end by the river, and a village green adjoining a public hall on higher ground to the south. It soon became the major settlement in Rodney County, fuelled not only by Brown's milling enterprise but also pioneering industries such as the nearby lime and cement works established by John and Nathaniel Wilson in the 1870s.
The town accordingly became the seat of early local government bodies in the area, including the Upper Mahurangi Highway Board (later Warkworth Road Board) in 1863-64 and the new Rodney County Council in the late 1870s, which encompassed much of modern Rodney District. By 1909, the settlement was sufficiently populous to merit becoming a separate town district administered by its own elected body - the Warkworth Town Board. This was facilitated by the passage of the Town Boards Act in 1908 as New Zealand sought to improve its local administration after becoming a British Dominion in 1907. In April 1912, the Warkworth Town Board became fully separate from county control.
Construction of the Town Hall (1911)
Warkworth Town District covered approximately 485 ha (1200 acres) and contained a population of about 750. Its initial electorate numbered 281 people, symptomatic of the small scale of local democratic bodies at the time. The new Board took over responsibilities for roading, sanitation and reserves, as well as the upkeep of the local public hall.
Constructed in 1864 in Bertram Street, the hall was at the centre of civic life having served variously as a library, school and general meeting place. In the early 1900s, it was used by organizations as disparate as the town band and the Rodney Mounted Rifles, but was in a state of significant disrepair. Discussions were held by its owners at the time, the Warkworth Road Board, to determine if a replacement building such as the local Masonic Lodge could be purchased, or if a special loan endorsed by ratepayers could be raised for a new structure elsewhere in the town. However, it was only with the institution of a Town Board in 1909 that action was taken.
Almost as soon as the Board was constituted, it sought authority through a poll to raise a loan of £1200 for a Town Hall. This was initially proposed to be either on the site of the old hall or on nearby land purchased in 1905, known as Section P. While the vote was carried, a further poll was undertaken in 1910 after a new site was made available on the corner of Neville and Alnwick Streets. Following approval, this land was purchased for £90. The new site was located close to the Rodney County Council office, in which the Town Board initially met. It also lay at the same road junction as a new post office under construction by the government. More centrally located than the previous hall, its proximity to these buildings helped to reinforce the existence of a civic nucleus to the settlement.
The section on which the new structure was to be erected had initially been purchased from John Anderson Brown by John Southgate in 1865, and after a spell of ownership by William and Isabella Bowen, store and boardinghouse keepers (1880-1894), it was held by trustees of the Methodist Church for fourteen years. Bought by Alfred Falwell, chemist, in 1908, the section was offered to the Town Board in July 1910 at a significant profit from Falwell's perspective.
The £1200 loan for construction was raised through the issue of debentures, purchased by Mildred Bennett and J. T. Wilson. Bennett was daughter of ex-Provincial Councillor John Shepherd, while James Wilson was a co-owner of John Wilson and Company, the town's main employer. The successful tender for the building exactly matched the loan amount, although only after an orchestra pit was removed from the specifications. A grant was also received from the government for an associated acetylene gas plant for lighting the hall.
The building's designer was A.B. Herrold, an Auckland-based architect who had previously been responsible for the Cambridge Town Hall (1909) and other structures. It appears that Herrold was invited to prepare a design for the new building in April 1910. The successful tenderer was T.E. Clark (1887-1964) of R.O. Clark Ltd, a pioneer in ceramic production in New Zealand. R.O. Clark Ltd. and their successors, the Amalgamated Brick and Tile Company Limited, were one of Auckland's major brick and ceramic producers, noted for their innovative approach to new products.
T.E. Clark erected the structure using his Patent Glazed Stoneware Hollow Building Blocks, an unusual and innovative product in Australasia and elsewhere in the British Empire. Patented in 1910, the stoneware block consisted of a large hollow rectangular brick with vertical dividers, of similar design and size to modern concrete block technology. The patent was accompanied by specifications for production, which involved extrusion and wire-cut methods. Development of the blocks was evidently influenced by hollow terra cotta precedents in the USA, which were used for whole building construction in the 1890s. The blocks, or their precursors, were first used by T.E. Clark's father, R.O. Clark II, for the construction of his family residence in 1897-1902 and other domestic structures near his large brick and ceramic works at Hobsonville. Following his death in 1905, however, it was T.E. Clark who sought to expand the use of this product as he endeavoured to rebuild the company after a period of falling revenue. He carried this out by registering new patents, creating a company to specifically handle production, and undertaking commissions such as that for Warkworth Town Hall. As produced, the blocks incorporated a salt glaze, generally mid to dark brown in colour, which made them both waterproof and distinctive in appearance.
In circa 1909, Clark's blocks were being advertised as 'artistic and everlasting', sound-absorbent, warm in summer and cool in winter, and free from dampness. They were also claimed to be clean and hygienic, and capable of being laid in a quarter of the time as bricks, saving considerable cost. The materials were touted as particularly suitable for places where sanitation was essential, such as hospitals and dairy factories, although also 'eminently suited for Gentlemen's Villas'.
The use of these blocks for the Warkworth Town Hall can be seen as a significant step in Clark's promotion of their value for building types other than residential housing. The first tender notice for the Warkworth Town Hall had specified that local lime and cement should be used, but the resulting quotes were considered too high, at £2376 and £2285. T.E. Clark subsequently stepped in to offer construction of a modified building at half of this cost. The resulting structure, built of Clark's blocks but on concrete foundations fused both ceramic and concrete technologies. Clark also gained a contract in 1911 to rebuild the adjacent Rodney County Council office in ceramic blocks at a cost of £440. Both buildings effectively advertised the value of his products, as well as promoting Warkworth as a centre for the application of technological expertise and innovation. The use of such materials appears to have built on an existing tradition of pioneering civic construction in Warkworth. The previous county office is reported to have been erected of fired clay, presumably similar to the innovative burnt clay and lime construction of Nathaniel Wilson's own home 'Riverina' in circa 1901. A post office at nearby Pohuehue is also believed to have been built of similar material.
By May 1911, the foundations of the new town hall were in place. The laying of a foundation stone on 22 June commemorated not only the new building, but also the coronation of King George V in London. Local celebrations included children saluting the flag and singing a 'Coronation Ode' at the local school in the morning, followed by a procession to the town hall, a rendition of the national anthem, and the unveiling of the hall's foundation stone. The latter was carried out by the Town Board's inaugural chairman Nathaniel Wilson (1836-1919), who had also been the first Chairman of the Rodney County Council. Wilson has been considered the 'father' of cement manufacture in New Zealand, being the driving force behind the development of Wilson's Cement, believed to be the first Portland cement produced in the Southern Hemisphere. The technological novelty of the building matched Wilson's own role at the forefront of major developments in construction fabric, and its commissioning under Wilson's guidance can be seen as an expression of interest in the effectiveness of Clark's products in relation to the development of hollow concrete block technology, which emerged in New Zealand at a similar time, and ultimately triumphed. At the foundation ceremony, Wilson promised a piano for use in the hall.
The building appears to have been finished by 14 October 1911, when it was officially opened. A contemporary photograph shows a structure of symmetrical, single-storey design incorporating a large front porch and flanking windows. Its glazed block finish is prominently displayed. The adjacent post office had also just been completed, and the buildings were together heralded as reflecting 'a rising Auckland country town' and 'progress in the Auckland country districts'. Internally, the hall contained a voluminous open space measuring 15m) x 12m (50' x 40'), with a 4.5m (15') stage at its southern end and two anterooms, each 4.5m x 3.7m (15' x 12') in size. The building was large in comparison with the town's population, and incorporated gas lighting installed by the Transcendent Acetylene Contracting Company. Other town halls in New Zealand were inaugurated as flagship buildings at a similar time, reflecting a desire to display effective civic leadership. The symbolic importance of the Warkworth hall to its community is demonstrated by the anniversary of its opening being commemorated for many years afterwards.
Following construction of the new building, the old public hall was sold to local farmers.
Early use and modification (1911-1936)
The town hall served as a focal point for community activities, including recreation, public meetings and the celebration of civic occasions. From soon after its construction it was used for showing films, a new medium for supplying information and entertainment to rural communities. The first moving pictures were introduced to Warkworth by A. Rayner and F. Civil in 1913, apparently the only screenings in the district due to problems in transporting equipment to smaller venues. By 1931, 'talkies' were being shown.
In April 1914, Prime Minister William Massey (1856-1925) was entertained at a banquet in the hall after he had opened a new bridge over the Mahurangi at Warkworth, a structure commissioned by the Town Board. Massey was one of New Zealand's most significant politicians, founding the Reform Party in 1909 and serving as Prime Minister from July 1912 until his death in 1925. The bridge added to the Board's impressive list of improvements in its early years, as did the construction of a concrete-fronted library immediately east of the hall in 1913-1914. The public reading room of the library served as the Board's meeting chamber until a Board room was added to the town hall in 1937.
The hall also has close connections with the community's involvement in the First World War (1914-1918). After the outbreak of conflict, it is believed to have been used to farewell local troops, and to welcome them back on their return. Those who served were subsequently commemorated in a Roll of Honour, which hung inside the building until at least the 1950s. Later commemorations of ANZAC Day (25 April) are also said to have taken place in the hall in wet weather. Other events and receptions included the celebration of weddings, such as that between local identities Alice Ashton and Harold Leslie in 1925.
Public meetings held in the hall included those involving important decisions in the town's history. In 1918, Wilson's cement business amalgamated with other firms to form Wilson's (N.Z.) Portland Cement Co. Ltd, after which depopulation occurred as the company gradually deployed its workforce to a new base of operations at Portland, Whangarei. Within ten years, the Warkworth plant had closed down. As the local economy stagnated, townsfolk endeavoured to find ways to stimulate employment.
In May 1922, a public meeting was held in the hall to discuss the formation of a co-operative butter factory. This became a reality after a further gathering at the hall attended by 50 settlers in December 1924 appointed the first provisional directors of the Rodney Co-operative Dairy Co. Ltd. By August 1925, a factory had been built and had 66 suppliers, which doubled to 121 by the 1926-1927 season. After winning the Weddell Cup for the best quality butter produced in the Auckland region in 1928, the factory was able to expand. Dairying remained a mainstay of the local economy for a considerable period afterwards.
Depopulation exacerbated by the Great Depression appears to have had an impact on the hall. During the early 1920s, it is described as having had a seating capacity of 600 at a time when the town's population was approximately 750. By 1933, the capacity had been reduced to 420. This still remained a high proportion of the total population of 500, reflecting the ongoing importance of the building to the community. It is currently unclear what changes a reduction in capacity may have had on the physical fabric of the hall. Extensive modifications were, however, made soon after the Depression lifted, as Warkworth's economy began to improve.
1937 additions
During the mid 1930s, plans were hatched to include civic administration within the building. This followed the election of the first Labour Government of Joseph Michael Savage in 1935, which introduced a self-consciously progressive and 'modernising' approach to government along more egalitarian lines. In 1936, the Town Board raised a loan of £3300 to enable additions to the hall to be made, which would incorporate a clerk's office, a new meeting chamber for the Board, and a strong room. Prominently positioned to flank the hall's main public entrance from Alnwick Street, construction of the new rooms could be seen as bringing about a closer identification between civic government and other community activities carried out in the hall.
The architect chosen for the venture was Llewelyn Piper, who went on to design important structures of modern architectural style such as the Auckland Electric Power Board headquarters in Newmarket (1946-1951). Piper's design for the addition to Warkworth Town Hall was of self-consciously modern appearance, deliberately contrasting with the 1911 structure. Nationally, the new political ideas introduced by the first Labour Government were increasingly accompanied by the adoption of more contemporary forms of architecture such as Art Deco and Moderne for civic buildings, as shown by the Public Works Department's landmark designs for the Stout Street and Jean Batten Place Departmental Buildings in Wellington and Auckland respectively. Designed prior to December 1936, Piper's plans for the extension to Warkworth Town Hall can similarly be seen as projecting an association between civic administration and progressive thinking.
As well as providing municipal rooms, plans for the two-storey plastered brick addition involved demolition of the previous porch and incorporation of a ticket box, foyer, stall shop and toilets at downstairs level. Stairs in the foyer led to a new upstairs gallery and projection box, improving the room and facilities available in the hall. The gallery was to hold 217 people, bringing the total capacity to 779. The internal appearance of the hall was further modernised by redecoration and the removal of earlier columns, although other elements such as ornamental pressed metal screens either side of the stage were retained.
As part of the modernisation process, the refurbished building was to incorporate electric fixtures and fittings, including internal power points designed to have a decorative as well as functional effect. The arrival of mains electricity in Warkworth had been commemorated by a ceremony in the Town Hall on 10th December 1936, a week before tenders were due to be received for construction work. Rural electrification was itself symbolic of the progress made under the first Labour government to deliver practical improvements to outlying communities. It also allowed the integration of an increasingly large and prosperous rural area into the Auckland economy. The official opening for the modified building took place on 17 September 1937.
Activities carried out in the remodeled hall were similarly affected by policies introduced by the first Labour government, which placed a greater emphasis on cultural issues and education. The government renewed funding to the Workers' Education Association (WEA), whose programme led directly to the formation of the Warkworth Playreading Club prior to 1938. The Club regularly used the hall for practice and shows and, as the Warkworth Players, still produced plays into at least the 1950s. Other groups founded at a similar time included the Warkworth Junior Players, who won the British Drama League's Cup in Auckland and went on to present a wide variety of children's plays.
Use during the Second World War and later modifications (1939-current)
The onset of the Second World War (1939-1945) had a considerable impact on Warkworth, especially from May 1942 when the settlement became a base for the Hauraki Regiment. From November 1943 to May 1944, Warkworth was also a stationing post for a large number of American troops until the Japanese campaign in the Pacific had been reversed. At this time, the hall was at the hub of the community's social life, with dances and daily showings of films for the troops. A temporary hospital was also created in a marquee next to the hall in order to treat wounded from the Hauraki Regiment. As a result of the influx, further extensions were evidently proposed.
Immediately after the war, formation of the Adult Education Centre in Auckland (1946) led to the direct sponsorship of Community Arts Centres in rural communities. In Warkworth, a committee was formed to bring more music, art and drama to the town. Visiting artists included internationally-acclaimed pianists such as Lili Kraus (1903-1986) and the New Zealander Richard Farrell (1926-1958), while touring companies performed drama as diverse as Shakesperian plays and marionette shows. Sports were also encouraged. In 1948, a badminton club was formed.
Films, however, remained a mainstay, with some screenings such as a feature about the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1953, drawing nearly 700 people. The popularity of the Queen was demonstrated when she visited Warkworth in December 1953, shortly after her coronation, at which time the town hall was decorated with coloured lights for the occasion. In 1954, the town hall was described as 'civic centre, picture theatre, dance hall, concert chamber-it has for more than 40 years been of the greatest value to the community'. It was also employed for other occasions, as diverse as flower shows held by the Warkworth Beautifying Society and polling booths on election night. In the same year (1954), the Town Board was reconstituted as the Warkworth Town Council.
A small concrete block extension to the east of the council offices was added in the mid 1960s, to a design by Rodney Design Service. In 1971, a brick-clad supper room or kitchen was added onto the southern side of the hall in order to enable greater funds to be gathered from social events held in the hall such as weddings. This was designed by Brooker and Whitmore on a tender of $5150. In 1976, the Town Council became the Warkworth District Community Council. Council activities were taken over by the Rodney District Council ten years later, since when the municipal offices have been used for other purposes.
The town hall currently remains in use for community events with a restriction on use of the stage and on audience size to a maximum of 75 persons. In March 2003, the venue was employed for the finals of the Northern Golden Shears sheep-shearing competition. Spaces at the front of the building, including the former municipal office, are occupied by tenants. These include a unisex hairdresser and a Womens' Resource Centre. The building remains in the ownership of Rodney District Council.
