Brooklands: A Gift from Newton King

One of New Plymouth's natural beauties was a gift from Newton King - in lieu of an unpaid bequest. When the Taranaki business giant died on 27 July 1927, he left £10,000 to parks and reserves in New Plymouth. But when his will was read and his estate studied, the trustees discovered he didn't have the cash to give to the city. That was because all of Newton King's money was tied up in his business, buildings and in land.

There were also other reasons. Granddaughter Adrienne says that not long before he died, the company had extended its reach into the Waikato. "It was a huge capital investment and that's when they were caught out, because the returns from the Waikato didn't work out."

Along with having a cash-strapped estate, the trustees also faced the problem of what to do with the 53 acre (21.5 hectare) Brooklands property. The land included a two-storey, five-bedroom home overlooking what was to become the Bowl of Brooklands. It had huge gardens, which needed up to five fulltime gardeners to care for them. The land was planted with flowerbeds, pristine lawn, English trees and also had glasshouses, filled with begonias and grapes.

Grandson Vivian King says Newton's five remaining adult children talked about the future of Brooklands. "They decided they wouldn't cut the property up for sections because they thought that my grandfather would have been upset, terribly, seeing as it was such beautiful grounds. It was offered to each of them separately if they would like to have it, but none of them could afford to run it because you had to have a minimum of three gardeners - they have had as many as five. One man used to cut the lawns every day." So the family decided to give the property and house to New Plymouth in lieu of the cash.

Vivian says the then New Plymouth Borough Council didn't immediately accept the gift, because it too was concerned about the upkeep of the house and land. The estate was finally handed over with much pomp and ceremony on 10 March 1934. "It was a big affair and they had all this temporary seating with everyone sitting on it" Vivian remembers.

When the council took ownership of Brooklands it faced a problem. "The question arose what was the council going to do with this big house?"

Vivian says it wasn't suitable for accommodation as it only had five bedrooms. "They [the council] didn't want to make it into an old people's home" he says. "They didn't want old people there being pushed around in wheelchairs etc. They didn't think it would work as a kiosk and they were horrified at the thought of turning it into a cabaret, because a cabaret went with all these bushes and the ghastly things that might be going on at night" Vivian alludes to possible hanky-panky. "So they thought, there's only one thing to do and that's to get rid of it."

Vivian shakes his head. "They offered it up for tender to be demolished and the tender they accepted was one from the New Plymouth bottle exchange, which was a funny old place up on Gill Street." The man who ran the bottle exchange offered £180 for it. "As office boy [of Newton King's] I had to deliver this invoice to him for 180 quid's worth. It's tragic really when I think my grandfather had paid something like £2000 to have it built pre-World War One."

Vivian remembers the house vividly because he lived there for a year, away from his family in Stratford. His father, Truby King (nephew of Sir Frederick Truby), was a solicitor in the central Taranaki town. He had been in partnership with Lieutenant Colonel William George Malone, but the leader of the Wellington Regiment had died at Gallipoli.

When Vivian was a nine-year-old, he suffered from badly bucked teeth so needed dental treatment in New Plymouth. Because he needed to be seen so often, it was decided that he should live with Mary and Newton King at Brooklands and attend Central School.

Vivian says the house was easily the grandest mansion in New Plymouth. An American architect designed the house, incorporating balconies on both storeys. The home was built overlooking the lake, later to mirror the Bowl of Brooklands stage.

The stained-glass front door opened on to a spacious atrium, which was home to a huge gong. This crashing instrument was used to scare New Plymouth Boys' High School students, who snuck down and took the Kings' boat for a spin on the lake.

"They didn't have any oars or anything, so they used to break off big flax poles and used to pole themselves round the lake. Grandmother used to see them and take this great big gong, which was an enormous affair on a stand, and she used to beat this on the front doorstep. It used to make such a noise, I'm sure you could hear it at the racecourse. And the boys obviously did, because they used to skedaddle smartly."

Past the gong was the dining room, which had a sliding window through to the kitchen so the Kings' ‘retainer’ or housekeeper, Annie, could pass the meals through without entering the room.

There was also a large sitting room with wooden folding doors that closed off a library, stacked floor to the 12 foot stud ceiling with books. Newton used to retire here every night to read newspapers, but Vivian doesn't think he ever read any of the literature he had collected. "Not unless it was a racing book."

Under the stairs was a dark place, where people could wash their hands, store oars and other sports gear, or use as a surprising passage to the outside balcony. Upstairs there were five large bedrooms. The master bedroom and the room of Vivian's Aunty Olive were the two biggest. These opened on to the top balcony, with views of the lake.

The bathroom used to fascinate Vivian, because its six foot-long bath was half enclosed with a shower, complete with control panel. In the early 1900s, this was a state-of-the-art bathing accessory, not found in most homes of the day.

As well as being a massive home, Brooklands was also ornate. Inside, the wooden kauri architraves and sweeping stairs were all carved with acorns and oak leaves.

Even though Brooklands was pulled down in 1936, all was not lost. "Boon Brothers bought a lot of the timber and with that they built the State Theatre" Vivian says. And the beautifully carved woodwork lives on in a house in McLean Street in Fitzroy.

Vivian says it took six months to pull down the wooden building, which also had thousands of bricks from the many chimneys.

The chimney place that stands in Brooklands Park is not from Newton King's home. That is the remains of Captain Henry King's house, which was burnt down by Māori in the First Taranaki War in 1860. Henry and Newton were distantly related.