New Zealand

Here is the headstone, and the grave, of Arthur b12 Dec 1874 in Wing, but baptised in Stanbridge. He married Sarah Jane Adams of Linslade and sailed to Wellington, NZ on 20 July 1911 on the ship Tainui from the Tilbury Docks, London. They were living with his sister, Ellen in Islington and had their 8yr old son, Frederic Arthur with them on the ship. Harry Blake, one of the Stanbridge cousins, had been to NZ and had come back to Wing with wonderful stories of sheep farming in the Nelson district of the South Island and had determined to go back there.

Headstone Arthur b12 Dec 1874 in Wing

Grave of Arthur b12 Dec 1874 in Wing

He married Levi’s daughter Ellen instead and became a London policeman. Arthur and Sadie tossed up whether to emigrate to Canada or NZ and I suppose Harry’s stories inspired them more. Besides, they said they were cold in London and NZ offered less of that.

In 1915 my father Frank was born in Hastings and in 1916, Arthur died, leaving Sadie to bring up the two boys. His memorial is in the Hastings cemetery. Arthur is of the branch John 1741.

Here is the historic photo of Harry Blake working on the sheep farm in Nelson. He is in the back row, fifth from the left.

Here are Arthur, Fred, Sadie and Frank in the garden of the company house in Hastings, NZ, probably 403 Arvedsen St, Hastings, which was renamed French St during WW1 because its name sounded too Germanic. Arthur and his family landed in Wellington in 1911 and Arthur got a job to deliver a car for the Hawkes Bay Fruitgrowers Association (which became Watties) in Hastings. The roads were so bad and the trip was so horrible, he vowed never to leave Hastings. He was a driver/mechanic for the company until he died, in 1916. Sadie then ran a guest house in Hastings and purchased a small section in Haumoana with £100 her brother sent her and farmed it with strawberries until Dad built the house on it, converted from an existing shed. She had a well dug from £80 that Levi sent her.

Arthur, Fred, Sadie and Frank in the garden of the company house in Hastings

When he was just 15yrs old, my father built his mother the cottage she lived in for the rest of her life, in Haumoana, near Hastings and close to the beach. The house is still there, in Hyla Rd.