"Llantwit Cottage", 35 Gilbert Street (1870s)

Although an exact construction date for this cottage has proved elusive, it was likely erected during the early-mid 1870s. Town Section 1054 was originally granted to Charles Ibbotson, purchased by ‘Richards’ in 1862, and then sold to Patrick John Houlahan in 1867. Whilst the present cottage doesn’t appear to be present in a circa 1870 photograph of the area, it may have been constructed by 1872, with Houlahan listed as residing in nearby ‘Liardet Street’ in the 1872-73 edition of Wises Post Office Directory.

Houlahan sold the property to Henry Smith Lee in March 1875, with Lee listed as residing in ‘Gilbert Street’ in the 1875-76 edition of Wises Post Office Directory. Lee didn’t own the property for long, and it was purchased by James Turner in July 1876. The New Plymouth Town Board Rating Book for 1875-76 notes a rateable valuation of £18, with the existence of a fire rate indicating a substantial structure, almost certainly the present cottage, was present on the section at this time.

On 19 January 1878, Turner mortgaged the property, and a month later, advertised to let “a five-roomed house in good repair, with good well of water, in Gilbert Street, near the entrance to the Botanical Gardens”, with interested persons requested to “apply to James Turner, on the premises”. In mid-late 1880, New Plymouth surveyor Thomas Kingwell Skinner produced a map of New Plymouth showing the locations of all dwellings. On this map, the present cottage, with both its front east-west gable and the western north-south gable, can be clearly distinguished.

In September 1880, the property was purchased by Margaret Sutton (nee Davies), a widow, whose second husband Charles had died in 1878. Mrs Sutton was living at the cottage in 1883, when she advertised her previous 7-roomed house in Barrett Street for sale or let; enquirers were to apply to “Mrs Sutton, Llantwit Cottage, Gilbert Street”. It’s unclear how long Mrs Sutton resided at the cottage, but she doesn’t appear in Street Directories for 1892 or 1893, and it seems likely she rented out the property for a short period before selling it. In August 1893, auctioneer Newton King advertised for sale Mrs Sutton’s “snug little property in Gilbert Street, being Sec No. 1054, with good 5-roomed cottage and garden, with water laid on”.   

The property didn’t immediately sell, and it wasn’t until April 1895 that it was purchased by Frederick Charles Boulton, an expressman. Boulton is listed as living in this location until the 1898 edition of Stone’s Street Directory. After which, Boulton seems to have rented the property to watchmaker William Roberts, who is still listed as the occupier when the property title was issued under the Land Transfer Act in late 1901. 

In 1902 the house was purchased by Annie E. Curline, with Annie’s father, groom James Curline, listed as the occupant in street directories from 1903 onwards. The Curline’s resided in the house until 1920, when it was purchased by gas works employee Henry William Melton, who resided in the house with his wife Mary Alice until his death on 7 July 1952.

See: Taranaki Land Deeds Index I1 page 352.

Related item:

Llantwit Cottage, 35 Gilbert Street New Plymouth, Draft Heritage Assessment (Hamish Crimp, 2019).