[ Return ]

Brightwater and its History

(February 23rd 2013)
Report by Coralie Smith

John Dearing

Twelve members sallied forth on a beautiful February morning to drive to Brightwater and be met by John Dearing, ex-drug squad policeman now turned historian.

John loves piecing together the coincidences that occur when studying history. For example, he talked about George Duppa, an early entrepeneur in Brightwater who declared he was here to make money not friends. One of the enterprises he got involved in was a company that issued shares.

John's father living in England found a share certificate in a boot car sale for George Duppa's company and sent it to John who took it into the Nelson Provincial Museum where they were able to bring out the share book and match the certificate to the stub after 150 years.

We heard many stories like this as we wandered along Ellis Street. How the Post Office was moved by traction engine down Charlotte Lane to its present site. Now a shop selling dinosaur teeth, fossils and such like, it is the present day entrepeneurial colour of Brightwater.

The Weslyan Church is a mystery. Now Vespers Cafe and a home for the cafe owners, it was in business from approximately 1880 to the 1950s and yet John can't find any record of anyone being baptised, married or buried there. Perhaps you have the record he is looking for.

St Pauls further down the road is a working parish although services seem to be taken in the newer hall at the back. Surrounded by gravestones, it has a slightly neglected feel to it.

St Michaels on Waimea West is better cared for. Did a statue stand on the giant plinth to one side under the macrocarpa tree? It is inscribed to Christopher Dillon but whatever was on top has long gone.

Brightwater can boast the first electricity in the Nelson region, thanks to an enterprising man the main street is named for - Ellis. His invention eventually resulted in the Waimea Electric Power Board that supplied power right through the province.

The Brightwater area was originally called Spring Grove. Alfred Saunders changed all that when he sang a little ditty as he went along "bright water, bright water" and it stuck. The local school was preparing for its gala day with their new water wheel taking pride of place.

Two Palmer families have populated Brightwater and Waimea West and neither family are related or ever intermarried. If that had happened it would be a genealogists nightmare.

No trip to Brightwater is complete without a visit to the Lord Rutherford memorial. It changes with the seasons and as the trees and bushes mature. The interactive display boards tell the story of another enterprising connection with Brightwater.

We had our picnic lunch at Snowdens Bush, away from the traffic noise in the shade of the only original lowland totara left standing on the Waimea Plains, and reflected on what we had learnt.

Today we take for granted electricity and never stop to think each time we flick on a switch - someone had to have invented this. Ellis got sick of having to switch over the power to his first customers who only got to use it at night, so he rigged up a system where when his chickens went to roost the power switched on and when they hopped off the roost at sunrise it switched off. Now how's that for enterprise!!

Vespers Cafe, formerly the Weslyan Church

Jennie, Coralie, Allan and Faye at the Lord Rutherford Memorial

 
[ Return ]