“Issey Manor” 32 Carrington Street (1850s/1897)

Issey Manor was erected in two stages between the mid-nineteenth century and 1897. The original southern portion, a rectangular 1½-storey vertical board and batten clad building, was likely constructed between 1857 and 1862 for confectioner Burton Charles Lawrence; it was originally located on neighbouring Town Section 1039 (present 30 Carrington Street) and later relocated (probably in 1897) to its present site. The northern portion of the building, a larger wooden structure clad in horizontal weatherboard, was constructed for hotelier William Cottier in 1897.

The story of Issey Manor begins in September 1857, when Burton Charles Lawrence received the Crown Grant for Town Section 1039, and Samuel Putney the grant for sections 1040 and 1041. These grants were notified as ready for collection in January 1858. Burton Lawrence was born in London in 1816, married Emily Roberts at St Marylebone, Middlesex, in 1842, and the family emigrated to Taranaki on the Joseph Fletcher in 1853. Lawrence established a bakery and confectionery business in Brougham Street about 1857; utilising the skills he learnt whilst apprenticed to Queen Victoria’s Cook at Buckingham Palace. In early September 1862 Lawrence purchased the bakery business of Mr Black, and relocated to Black’s former business premises on the corner of Devon and Brougham Streets.

Later in September 1862, Lawrence advertised two properties for let; a “four-roomed dwelling in Brougham Street”, and "a five-roomed house in the Carrington Road, with immediate possession". As Lawrence is not thought to have owned any other land on Carrington Road in 1862, the advertisement for the five-roomed house on Carrington Road very likely refers to the original portion of Issey Manor, and seemingly dates the southern portion of the building to between late-1857 and mid-1862. Despite letting the property, Lawrence still seems to have used the land himself, as in May 1864 he offered a £5 reward for information on five pigs stolen from “my premises in the Carrington Road”. In August 1865, Lawrence again advertised the Carrington Road house to let. Putney on the other hand, doesn’t appear to have constructed any dwelling on sections 1040 or 1041 during his period of ownership, and both sections were purchased by Lawrence in 1865.

Pre-1875 view of Carrington Street. L-R at centre: Mace Cottage, unknown cottage, original portion of Issey Manor on original site, Fleetwood Cottage. Building at rear on hill is the Carrington Road Blockhouse. 

In 1866 Lawrence was elected a member of the Provincial Council. He was also a director of the Taranaki Building Society; director and later chairman of the short-lived Peoples Petroleum Company, which operated between 1866 and 1868; and a committee member of the Taranaki Institute. In 1867 he moved his bakery business back to Brougham Street, and then in 1871 to Waitara, where he opened his bakery business in a shop on West Quay. Lawrence retained ownership of the Carrington Street cottage until 1877, when it was purchased by Miss Mary Retford. Little is known about Miss Retford, but she operated a tobacconist shop on Devon Street until October 1882, at which time a sale was held by G. M. Brasch & Co in the “assigned estate of Miss M. Retford”. Although the deeds register in incomplete, it seems Retford retained ownership of the Carrington Street cottage until about early 1883. Miss Retford was an alcoholic who had a prohibition order against her, and she died at Auckland Hospital in 1884, aged just 30 years.

The southern portion of Issey Manor can be clearly seen on its original site in a circa 1870s’ (pre-1875) photograph of Lower Carrington Street. A structure on Town Section 1039, of similar proportions to the southern portion of Issey Manor, is also clearly marked on Skinner’s 1880 map of New Plymouth; whilst no significant structures are present on either Town Section 1040 or 1041.

All three sections were purchased in January 1883 by well-known New Plymouth citizen William Cottier, and as the Cottier's were hotel proprietors, the cottage is thought to have initially been rented. In May 1886, ownership of the property was transferred to William's wife, Mary Jane Cottier. In August 1897, noted local architect James Sanderson called for tenders for the erection of a residence for W. Cottier. Later the Taranaki Herald reported that "Boon Bros' tender, £520, has been accepted for the erection of a residence on Carrington Road for Mr W. Cottier". Boon Bros were established in 1895, and the northern portion of Issey Manor is one of the earliest known surviving buildings constructed by a firm who would become a dominant player in New Plymouth’s construction industry throughout the twentieth century. The original board and batten cottage was relocated to its present position adjacent to the new building at this time. 

In September 1897, the Cottier’s retired from hotel proprietorship, having run the Criterion Hotel on Devon Street for the previous sixteen years; the Herald noted that they are "having in the course of erection a large residence on the Carrington Road”. The Cottiers had run several New Plymouth hotels, including The Royal, The Taranaki, The Masonic, and finally the Criterion. Their proprietorship of the Criterion is probably best known, as it was the location of the botched robbery, and capture of notorious highwayman Robert Wallath in 1893.

Map showing original and current locations of original portion of Issey Manor

The new home was named "Mona", with this name in use from the late 1890s, and was apparently still in use well into the twentieth century. The house was first connected with the telephone exchange in November 1899, with the number being 104. The picturesque setting of the house lent itself towards an outdoor entertainment venue, with the Town Band holding a concert on the lawn in early December 1901. William died in 1905, and Mary Jane continued living there until her death in 1910. In May 1909 it was reported that a young woman named May Jenkins, who had been living with Cottier for the previous five or six months as a lady help, had forged a cheque from Mrs Cottier's chequebook for £1 6s, and cashed it at Teed's Chemist. The cheque was refused by the bank, the case went to court, where Jenkins pleaded guilty.

Upon Mary Jane Cottier's death, ownership of the property transferred to her son H. W. Cottier, owner of a well-known local drapery firm. It appears the home may have then been rented for a period and was also advertised as a boarding house under the ‘Mona’ name from late 1910. H. W. Cottier retained ownership until at least 1922, when the property title was issued under the Land Transfer Act.

Related items:

Draft Heritage Assessment, Issey Manor, 32 Carrington Street (Hamish Crimp).

A bit of ghost with your eggs, sir? (Taranaki Daily News 12 December 2016)