My Essay

A little while ago I entered an essay in the J.T Diamond Essay Competition. I have not received the result yet. I have not been able to paste the family tree on to this post.


The Clark Family and their involvement in the pottery industry in West Auckland

Why is it called Limeburners Bay?

What makes Clark House special and the strange bricks that it is made out of?

Who built the little white church in Scott Road all those years ago and whose land was it built on?

How did the pottery tradition at Limeburners Bay begin and lead to Crown Lynn and Ceramco?

This is connected with the Clark Family history starting with: R.O Clark (1816-1896)

When Rice Owen Clark of Buckinghamshire arrived in Port Nicholson in 1840 he had already become a more than capable twenty-four year old having had a rather expensive education behind him plus some good commercial experience. He had thought that he should be doing better than earning just half a crown a day building roads. He moved with his wife Louisa and their small one year old daughter to Auckland after trying his hand at farming unsuccessfully in Wellington. Rice wanted to be a Farmer so he bought 139 acres of land off the Crown on the 3 July 1854 at Hobsonville. He transported his possessions over there and became the first white settler in the area. After he had made attempts to crop the land he decided the heavy clay needed to be drained. He made field tiles to drain his land. He was able to put them to good use and turned around 30 acres into a producing market garden and he took his produce across to the city in his cutter. His neighbours noticed what he had done and with the idea of getting some business he sent to England for a hand operated pipe making machine. The business was born!!! Being a deeply religious man he donated the land and most of the finances for the church that still stands on Scott Road.

He had four Children as the family tree shows. Two of sons got involved in the pottery trade. The children of his daughter Louisa also became involved in the trade.



Rice Owen Clark II developed his father’s pipe making business into something quite big. At one stage the pottery sprawled over two kilometres of land along the waterfront in Limeburners Bay. During his time at the head of the business he bought out another pottery of the area J&W Ockleston & Co which his brother Henry was a partner in. He put a Restraint of Trade on his younger brother for twenty years so he could not challenge his business. He was the inventor of the Ceramic building block which is seen in some of the older houses in Hobsonville including the house that he had built, Clark House (now in use by the Air Force).

Our Family Tree shows that he had three children Thomas Edwin, R.O Clark III and Gwendoline.

Thomas Edwin was certainly a major player in the industry during his time in charge of the company. At the start he got the company through the years when it wasn’t going so well after his brother had left to live in Canada. Another major thing he did while at the helm of the company was to close the Limeburners Bay pottery and moved most pieces of machinery and equipment to a new site in New Lynn. He bought Albert Crum’s business: New Zealand Brick, Tile and Pottery. He got the Clay industry people to form a consortium in which they would sell all their goods at they same price per item so that they all got a share of the cake and cream.

The family tree now shows that he had three children called Malcolm, Molly and Thomas Edwin (Sir Tom Clark).

Tom was pulled out of his schooling during the depression because of the expense. He was put into the family business which had started all those years ago when R.O Clark first made some Field tiles. The company was now known as Amalgamated Brick and Pipe. His brother, Malcolm, was also working in the company. It was during this time that the business started to make things such soup bowls and coffee mugs for the American forces that were in New Zealand during the course of WWII. Malcolm was put in charge of the heavy clay department, while Tom was put in with the fine earth side of things before their father died in 1964 when they were appointed joint managing directors, with each looking after their own respective divisions. When the war was over the company found a new name which was: Crown Lynn. Crown Lynn became an iconic West Auckland business situated in New Lynn and by 1959 the company had produced its one-hundred millionth article. In the 70’s tom consolidated Crown Lynn, Amalgamated Brick and Pipe and their parent company Consolidated Brick and Pipe Investments Ltd into Ceramco Limited. They did have their problems though because in the early days they developed a reputation for having the handles on the cups break off very easily. Tom was given a knighthood in 1986.

Those are the main pottery people in the Clark Family. There were some other relations that were also involved in the industry:

· Louisa (daughter of R.O Clark I)
· Gardner Brothers
· Briar Gardner
· Henry Clark (son of R.O Clark)
· Raymond Clark (son of Henry)
· Allan Clark (Raymond’s son)

Louisa Gardner was the daughter of the first R.O Clark and was the mother of four children who were involved in the pottery business. Her connection to the pottery industry was through this. She married a farmer called John Gardner who owned a farm at Glorit.

Louisa’s oldest three sons were R.O Gardner (Tonks), John and Charles of Gardner Bros. & Parker Ltd. They set up a business in New Lynn after running some brickworks up north. This challenged Mr J.J Craig’s dominace in the brickmaking scene but then Albert Crum’s business started to challenge not only those dominant in the brick industry but also the Clark dominance of the pipe-making industry. Their company joined the consortium that T.E Clark set up. Charles was also the first mayor of New Lynn.

Their sister’s name was Maria Louise Gardner but she was called Briar because her baby brother called her that as he could not say Maria properly (at least at that stage). She became an ornamental potter sometimes having a Queen St window display in Smith and Caugheys.

Henry Clark was one of the first R.O Clarks sons and was a part of the industry for a couple of segments in his life. He was a partner in J & W Ocklestons & Co, a pottery from out in the Hobsonville area which his brother R.O II bought out during his time in charge. His brother put a restraint of trade on Henry for twenty years. Once the twenty years were up in 1930, he, along with his sons, set up and ran Clark’s Potteries Ltd in opposition to Amalgamated Brick & Pipe.

Raymond Clark was one of the two inventive sons of Henry Clark. He worked with his brother to design their own machinery for use in making pipes and the fittings for pipes in the pottery plant they worked with their father in running. Raymond died tragically when he drowned in 1959 at Lake Rotoiti.

W.A Clark (Ted) was Raymond’s brother who helped him in designing the machinery for the family business. Ted’s major achievement was to invent a machine that made the amount of gully traps that were able to be made in a day increase by a fair amount.

Raymond Clark’s son Allan carried on the family business before eventually selling out to cousin Tom at Ceramco.

That is just an overview of the Clark family’s involvement in the pottery industry of West Auckland. There is also another message which should be told. It is that recently developers have damaged historic sites in Limeburners Bay area beyond Resource Consent and that four-wheel drivers have been damaging the former site of Clark’s original pottery. It would be a superb move if the council bought the site of the pottery off the developer who currently owns it and turned it into a Hobsonville Early Settlers Park commemorating the first families who settled in the area. I would be most willing to supervise this project for the council.

The Author would like to Thank: Nana and Poppa, Mum and Dad and my brother and sisters.

Do you enjoy reading the content of My Blog?

Do You? A few days ago I put on a poll with the above question on it, at the time of this post it has three days to run. Please vote and tell me what you think of it.

If you have some suggestions about what I should put on this blog please leave a comment.

Favorite Books - Top 20

This is a list of my favorite books and series (well, all the ones I can remember anyway). Probably after I have posted this I will remember plenty more!!!

Ranking Title Author

1. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
2. Crown and Covenant Series- Douglas Bond
3. Guns of Thunder* - Douglas Bond
4. The Narnia Series - Clive Staples (C.S) Lewis
5. Hardy Boys Series - Franklin W. Dixon
6. Nancy Drew Series - Carolyn Keene
7. The Biggles Series - Captain W.E Johns
8. Peter Blake~ Sailor, Adventurer~The story of a New Zealand Hero - Alan Sefton
9. In Old Mt Albert - Dick Scott
10. Dangerous Book For Boys**- Conn and Hal Iggulden
11. Fire on the Clay**- Dick Scott
12. Kingdom's Dawn - Chuck Black
13. Survive the Savage Sea - Can't remember the full name of author.
14. Digby Taylor's Outward Bound~ One Man's Dream - Alan Parker
15. Endeavor: Winning the Whitbread - Grant Dalton And Glen Sowry
16. Tintin Series - Herge
17. Asterix Series - Don't really know how to spell the author's name.

There are a few spots left for one that I don't remember the name of and some spots for books I remember afterwards.

* First book in the new series: Faith and Freedom Series. This series is the sequel series to the Crown and Covenant Series.

** Haven't fully read these books but they are very good books.

Competition Result Finally!!!

I had one reply to the Photo competition, but none of the guesses on the reply were quite correct. The answer is that on the camera I took the photo on, there is a special setting that allows the operator to take up to three photos and then stitches them together to create this type of photo.

Good guessing to the people that replied!!

New Blog!!!!

I have set up a new blog for a project I am working on. To find out what this project is please click here to find out more. I will be adding this to my link list so you can keep updated on the projects progress.

The Battle of Passchendaele October 12, 1917

It was our worst day on the battlefield ever, even worse than the blunders of Gallipoli. On the 12th October 1917, near Ypres in Belgium, 1084 New Zealand soldiers either died or received deadly wounds. As October went on the number of dead reached 3700. Each year on Anzac Day we remember the many who died at Gallipoli, but do we remember those who fought and died at Passchendale which included the 1905 "Originals" captain Dave Gallaher? The 90th anniversary of the battle will be held in two days time. It is a day were we can remember all those who fought so that we could live in the freedom we enjoy today. You might have seen the supplement (pictured) in the Herald a little while ago. If you have it still you might like to spend a few moments having a look at it.

This is a little story I wrote......

This is a story that I wrote for History Class at Homeschool Group. It is set in The Battle of Britain.

A CHAP'S DIARY
Diary Of Conrad Fletcher
WWII

6 June 1940
Before I begin writing about my life and thoughts I am going to write a quick listed profile about myself:

NAME: Conrad Fletcher
DOB: 18 January 1926
ADDRESS: 43 Stamford Lane, Tilbury
HOBBIES: Stamp Collecting, Football

My mother made this diary for my 14th birthday in January but I thought back then “What was the use of writing about my life?”

Two nights ago, my father (whom I might add has always been firmly against the war) slammed down his newspaper and said rather loudly “I can’t bear the thought of it”
“The thought of what?” said Mum.
“The thought of all my mates fighting and giving up their lives to save Britain while I sit here twiddling my thumbs? I am going to sign up to the Air Force!”
Mum gasped and stared horrified at Dad.
“You are joking aren’t you, Dad?” I said.
But sure enough the next day he went and signed up. He was given orders to report to an air-base in Dover on July 19. This made me think that I could use this diary to record my private thoughts and views on things that are happening in this world.

18 June 1940
I wish Dad wasn’t going off to war like this. I am now going to have to do all the jobs that Dad does now. I’m going to miss him terribly. Dad’s business (helpfully, it seems now) closed down a couple of weeks ago because it went bankrupt so at least Dad won’t be unemployed for that long. Winston Churchill will be making one of his stirring speeches over the wireless tonight. I suppose that I need to write in the Diary sometime, about school. It is not really that interesting except for when Chappy, Ronny and I play tricks on our teacher, such as putting a spider on our teacher’s chair and a frog in her inkwell. We are actually studying the Treaty of Versailles and how Hitler has broken it, in History lessons at the moment.

19 June 1940
Churchill’s speech last night was amazing. He is a great leader in this time of trouble. Here are three parts of the speech that I can remember: ………the Battle of France is over and I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin……..; the whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad sunlit uplands. Let us, therefore, brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say “This was their finest hour”.

27 June 1940

We went to Church this morning. The Reverend preached an interesting sermon.

Dad started to build an air-raid shelter for Mum and I to use if we need it, when Dad goes away. The whole area has been given orders to build an air-raid shelter. As soon as you hear the air-raid sirens go off you have to go and get into it.

Mum, Dad and I are going out to the Pictures for our last outing together before Dad leaves, so I have to leave this now.

4 July 1940

Tuesday night was awful. There was a Dogfight in the skies above, between one of the Jerries and one of our boys in the RAF. It started at 1.30am and woke us all up. We raced out to our air-shelter, which Dad had finished on Monday, and waited the fight out. The next day we found out that our boy got shot down into a field outside of town and had burst into flames killing the pilot. The pilot was actually Chappy’s Dad. The next day Ronny and I made Chappy a paper model Spitfire to cheer him up and picked a bunch of wild flowers for his Mum. We took them around to his house and said how sorry we were about what had happened. We have been woken up by air-raid sirens every night since then but we haven’t seen anymore bombers or fighters from our air-raid shelter.

10 July 1940

There have been continued Dogfights up above us, over the past few nights. I am going to try and get some extra sleep now.

16 July 1940

Mum and Dad gave me such a surprise tonight. I am to go with Dad to Dover so I can bring the car back after Dad has finished with it! Dad has made a portable air-raid shelter that we can set up in a ditch to protect ourselves. Adolf Hitler is being very indiscriminate. He will never occupy Britain. He will lose half his army before he captures one part of our mighty country. I have heard the drone of planes every night from our air shelter.

18 July 1940

Leaving for Dover in about half and hour.


18 September 1940

A note from Conrad’s Mother:
I am going to write in this Diary what happened on Conrad’s trip:

The night after they left they were staying in the house of a friend of my husband. During a part of the night the Luftwaffe carried out a bombing raid on London. It was a stormy night, the searchlights were activated, looking for enemy aircraft. The house was bombed leaving no survivors. This Diary survived the blast and was delivered with the awful news. So now all who read this Diary will know why so many pages are left unfilled.