A century of good old country living (or the archaeology of an old farm house)

In 1874 this modest two-storey farm house was built on the outskirts of Christchurch. It’s not the sort of house we normally see in Christchurch, in part because of its age, but also because it was built as a farm house, not as a town house (as it were). Fortunately for us, there had been very little modifications to the house since it was built, giving us a great insight into (farm) houses of this period.

North elevation

North elevation. The windows were installed in the 1970s, but retained the dimensions of the original double-pane sash windows. The porch over the front door was added during the late 1980s. Image: F. Bradley.

While the layout of the house was fairly typical of what we see from the 1880s on in Christchurch (the front door opened into a central hallway, which led to the parlour, master bedroom and kitchen), but the form of the dwelling was not – the house was a saltbox cottage, rather than a Victorian villa. This form of cottage was the norm in the earliest days of European settlement in Christchurch, but had evolved into the villa in the 1880s. The late 1860s and 1870s seem to represent a transitional period between the two styles, with both forms of house being built.

Inside, the house was as plain and simple as its exterior. The rooms were of modest dimensions and most of the downstairs rooms were lined with rough-sawn rimu boards and an exposed match-lined ceiling. The traditional moulded door architraves and skirting boards were much narrower than those found in villas, as were the skirting boards – and only the public rooms (the hall, parlour and the master bedroom) had moulded skirtings: the private rooms had skirting boards with a very rudimentary rectangular profile.

thumb_P9040179_1024

The back bedroom, showing the match-lined ceiling and narrow door architraves. Image: F. Bradley.

thumb_P9040212_1024

The rough-sawn timber boards lining the walls in the back bedroom. Image: F. Bradley.

Untitled-11

The skirting boards. Left: unusually narrow traditional skirtings in the hall. Right: rudimentary rectangular skirtings in the back bedroom. Image: F. Bradley.

Upstairs, the rooms economically occupied the roof space.

Cross-section

Cross-section of the dwelling, looking east. Image: F. Bradley.

Untitled-5

Dangerously steep staircase, leading to the upstairs bedrooms. Image: F. Bradley.

thumb_P9040366_1024

One of the bedrooms upstairs, showing the exposed rafters. Image: F. Bradley.

thumb_P9040371_1024

Earlier wallpaper discovered in one of the bedrooms upstairs. Image: F. Bradley.

We found a bunch of artefacts underneath the floorboards of three rooms – the kitchen and two of the original bedrooms – in the house. Underfloor deposits are always interesting and, at the same time, extremely frustrating. Because they accumulate over time, whether thrown or swept under the house from the outside or lost through the floorboards, these deposits often have longer date ranges than the rubbish pit assemblages we usually deal with. They also have better preservation than rubbish pit assemblages a lot of the time, which is cool. It means we get to see a lot of things we don’t normally see, like labelled cans and bottles, well-preserved footwear, fabric and paper and, of course, the odd mummified cat.

The frustrating thing, however, is that because of that long date range, it can be difficult and sometimes impossible to associate the objects we find under a house with the occupants of that house. If, as is the case with this site, the material ranges in date from the 1860s until the 1940s, we have no idea which of the people who lived in that house over that 80 year period might have owned and used them. There is also, thanks to that whole good preservation thing, a tonne of dust, bones with skin or tissue on them (gross) and other icky things. Underfloor deposits make me sneeze a lot. I definitely find this frustrating.

The under-floor deposit uncovered under the original kitchen. The area under this room contained the largest number of artefacts from the site. Image: F. Bradley.

Feature-4-metal-for-web

Some of the artefacts found under the kitchen, including an Edmond’s baking powder tin, a pot or kettle handle and two pennies, from 1945 and 1946. How many of you know that Edmond’s baking powder was created in 1879 in Christchurch? Good old Thomas John Edmonds. Image: J. Garland.

Feature 4 glass 1

Some of the glass artefacts found underneath the kitchen. There’s a labelled hock or Rhine bottle at the top, which would have originally contained German wine. The wide mouth jar on the black background is from the Macleans Pickle and Preserving Company, another Christchurch-based producer. Macleans were established in 1882, formed out of the award winning pickle manufacturing business run by A. H. Maclean prior to that date. They made pickled walnuts. Pickled walnuts! Why would you do that to walnuts. The bottles at the bottom of the image are a labelled salad oil bottle, a Mellor and Co. worcestershire sauce bottle and a J. Whittington aerated water bottle. Whittington was another Christchurch-based manufacturer, with the bottle dating to the late 1890s. Image: J. Garland.

Feature 7 metal

More tins! These were found under one of the bedrooms and were identified from the labels as a tin of Poliflor wax (top two images) and an unidentified brand of cut cake tobacco (bottom image). Poliflor was a New Zealand-made product (lot of that in this assemblage), advertised in the 1920s as a polishing wax for furniture, floors, tiles and leather goods. Image: J. Garland.

for blog

Another small selection of artefacts found under one of the bedrooms. The large champagne looking bottle here is one of my favourites, because the label identifies it as a product of the Crown Brewery in Christchurch. The Crown Brewery is one of Christchurch earliest institutions, established in 1854 by William May. It changed hands several times over the decades, with this bottle probably dating to the period post-1870 .We almost never find examples of Christchurch, or even New Zealand, brewed beers in the archaeological record because the labels just don’t survive, so this one is an excellent find. The stoneware cap at the top is from a Kempthorne and Prosser New Zealand Drug Company jar or crock, referring to the well-known Dunedin firm, and the flask in the bottom right corner has a seal identifying it as Scotch Whisky, from the Distiller’s Company, Edinburgh, Scotland. Mmm, whisky. Image: J. Garland.

DSC_3551ed1

Presented without comment. Image: J. Garland.

Francesca Bradley and Jessie Garland

7 thoughts on “A century of good old country living (or the archaeology of an old farm house)

  1. You pickle walnuts because they taste fantastic! They’re great with cheese a nd cold meats, I highly recommend them!

  2. You people can be well pleased with yourselves in delving into this excellent location.
    What a great treasure~chest of finds. 🙂
    Shortly I’ll be emailing you with some questions concerning items in the photograph taken of the under-kitchen area.
    The “Presented without comment” image, I refer to as “Number Ten”.
    (As we all know, pussycatii only have nine lives.) 🙂
    Today I am restraining greatly from punning. Well here, anyway. 🙂

    • I found a skull on the port hills and thought I would try to research what I have found. The “presented without comment” image took my interest as I had no idea what creature it could have been. I knew it wasn’t a bird as it still had a few back teeth in the upper jaw. It is very small for a cat and the front teeth are flat topped teeth rather than sharp like a cats. The skull I found is still pretty similar to the one pictured so I was thinking a rabbit maybe…..This skull was sitting where a piece of bank had fallen away.

    • Hi Casey,

      We prefer not to give out the addresses of sites if we can help it, just in case there is surviving archaeological material that could be damaged (this does happen) and for the sake of the people who own the houses and properties. I can tell you that this one is on the outskirts of Christchurch, but that’s all, I’m afraid.

      Thanks,
      Jessie.

  3. Hi Jessie
    This is a wonderful blog. I came across this while researching for a book three of us are writing about T J Edmonds and the history around his baking powder, the factory and of course the very well loved cookery book! I am actually a descendant of Thomas Edmonds, a great, great grand daughter.
    Your Edmonds tin is a fabulous find for us, we knew there was an earlier tin label, but this is the very first time we have had any inkling at all of what it looked like. I would love to be able to take a closer look if that is at all possible? I am not sure where you are, but presume you did live or are living in Christchurch. I am coming to visit Christchurch, mid February. I am going to go to the Edmonds Gardens picnic on the 16 Feb. But I will be around for a few days to do some further research.
    If it is at all possible, please let me know if I can come visit at your convenience, of course.
    Kind regards
    Kate Parsonson

Leave a Reply to Jessie Garland Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.