Nesta Margaret
Nesta Margaret Orr Barling, Snell (nee Mellsop)
Born 03 Sept 1912, Otaua
Died 06 Sept 2013, Auckland
Lionel & Margaret were living at Otaua, when their youngest and only daughter Nesta was born on 3rd September 1912. I don't remember anything of Dad, as I was not quite two years when he died, nor do I remember the Otaua home. The first recollections are of our new home on Pukekohe hill. Schooling began in 1917 at Pukekohe Primary School. I remember my first day at school when I was promoted to primer 2. Miss Hamlin, our teacher was testing primer 1 on the alphabet, my brothers had taught me well! We walked to school, over one and half miles, particularly enjoying the concrete culvert up the steep part of Kitchener Road on a wet day with the water rushing down it! Even in good weather the culvert was our footpath in preference to the rough gravel road. Our home was five minutes walk from our cousins, the James Potter family, whos home was a short distance further up Kitchener Road. Aunt Nettie (Mrs Potter) was mother's elder sister, and Jeanette; the youngest in the family was my best friend. We climbed the lovely big Magnolia trees her home, played dolls together, played tennis on their grass court, with her elder sister and my b!others. Another of my childhood memories is climbing the stile over the fence to the neighbours with a tiny jug of cream for Mr & Mrs Hubbard.
Mother and later brother Ken milked our cow and Mother made all our butter. How we kids enjoyed helping her roll the butter into balls.
The butter on the meal table was always in balls of fancy shapes. Besides our annual Sunday School picnics at Clarks Beach, Waiau Pa, I remember a family picnic at the sandbank on the Waikato river by the Tuakau Bridge. We drove there with the Potters in their farm wagon, drawn by two horses which were driven by a cousin of the Potters, Dick Bilkey, who was a real "wag" (a common name in those days for a fun person) and kept us entertained with his antics and patter. Miss (Evelyn) Hamlin, our primer classes teacher, was with us and she was the butt of much of Dick's good natured humour. At the picnic spot we were joined by our Pukekawa relatives (Orrs and Brewsters). That was an example of the simple but very effective form of entertainment in the pre-motor car days. A holiday not to be forgotten was the Christmas holidays of 1922. We went for the six weeks of the school holidays to stay on one of our uncles' farms at Waimatenui, a farming district in very rough hill country
southwest of Kaikohe. Today it is an easy four to five hour journey by car from Auckland, almost all the way on sealed roads, but then a major journey. There was no connecting railway between Auckland and Whangarei, so we travelled to Whangarei by boat, the S.S. Mania. Next morning, at Onerahi Wharf (suburb of Whangarei) we boarded the train for Kaikohe. From Kaikohe the taxi man drove us about half way to the farm to the Heu Heu river. There was no bridge over the river, so were met by Uncles Jack and Frank (Mother's brothers) who had a buggy (four wheeled passenger vehicle drawn by two horses) and proceed over a very rough, narrow, winding road to Uncle Frank's home. The farm paddocks were littered with large logs left from the bush felling of previous years. What excitement jumping the logs as I rode a horse with my Uncle. With bush close to the house, a stream in which to swim and catch eels, a sandy river bank on which to dig and play, we had a lovely holiday.
My secondary school years were spent boarding at Diocesan High school for Girls in Auckland from 1925 to 1930. I loved my boarding school
years. On 'exeat' Saturdays we were allowed to go out with parents or friends. These days saw me twice climb Rangitoto Mountain Auckland
Harbour and visit Auckland Zoo with Mother on many, many occasions. I was keen to be a Physical Education Teacher but there wasn't any recognised training for such a career in New Zealand then. The schools that had specialist "Phys Ed" teachers had mostly brought them from Great Britain. So during 1931 two of my school friends and I asked the "Phys Ed" teacher at "Dio" if she would train us and she and the headmistress agreed. We were trained by Eileen Gane, she also recommended that we do a Commercial Office course at Brains Commercial College, enabling us to eventually teach the two subjects. Eileen lectured us in Anatomy, Physiology, Hygiene, Remedial exercises and the mechanics of gymnastics and sports. We helped her with the gymnasium classes and coaching sport. I had free board at the school in return for helping Miss Elsie Vickers look after the primary school boarders in Cowie House. Elsie and I remained good friends until her death in her nineties. We were second cousins, Emma Heaton Vickers (nee Crispe) and my grandmother Charlotte Elisabeth Mellsop (nee Crispe) being sisters. After two years training I wrote to forty girls' schools in New Zealand seeking a position. I was successful in getting a temporary position
for one year at Hamilton High School, while the Phys; Ed instructor was on sick leave. I was also the School Secretary. It was there that I met a
good-looking bachelor, Ken Barling, who was to become my husband. Ken was teaching History and English. Ken was very popular with the pupils and staff so there was great interest when we were romantically linked. We announced our engagement in September of that year when Ken
took me to Palmerston North to meet his sisters and brothers; his parents had died not long before. I spent 1935 at home with Mother in
Pukekohe. There were still not many vacancies in schools for Sports Mistresses and in the 1930s one did not look around for other jobs, as you do now. In those days the husband was expected to provide the house and furnishings and the bride her trousseau of household linen and personal clothes. So I hemmed sheets, they could be bought ready hemmed but at a greater cost bought towels, embroidered linen tables -cloths, and sewed pretty underwear and nightwear for this all-important trousseau. Ken came to Pukekohe most weekends and in the school
holidays. We were married on 2nd January 1936 at Diocesan High School, the reception being held on the lawn in front of Cowie House. Ken hated anything military, he even would not help with the army cadet unit at school, and after the outbreak of World War Il he was very critical
of the way the war was being run by the Allies. He felt uneasy working in his garden (being a very keen gardener) while other men were going
overseas to fight for our Country, until he felt compelled to volunteer for military service. Noni was four years old, when her father left New Zealand. Peggy had died at three and half weeks in 1940, Kenwyn was born six months after Ken left New Zealand. She was one year old when he was killed on active service on 26 March 1943. What a godsend she and Noni were, they made life worth living. Mother came to live with us, and of course she was a tremendous help to me bringing up my two daughters and coping with a large garden. I had never been interested in gardening; I hated it on the rare occasions that I helped Mother in our large Pukekohe garden, but now, like it or not I was in charge! — I became a keen gardener in time. Most of our holidays until 1951 were spent in Taihape with brother, Ken and Shirley. Our Taihape holidays were very happy ones; Shirley and I became good friends and Mother enjoyed being with all her grandchildren. The only drawback was the long journey to get there. Sometimes we went by the Auckland to Wellington night express train arriving at Taihape in the middle of the night, two sleeping
children and a sleepless mother and granny! Other times we drove there in our little Morris 8 car, taking eight hours on the trip. (Hamilton-
Taihape). The only daylight train was a "goods rain" with one or two carriages attached and once we decided to travel on it. We left Taihape at 1am and arrived at Frankton Junction (Hamilton) at 8pm, thirteen hours! The train stopped at many small stations, sometimes for half an hour or more while railway wagons were off-loaded and other attached. The girls enjoyed standing on the station platforms watching the wagons being shunted. Afterwards they were very enthusiastic about the journey and said they had enjoyed the daylight train trip much better than the car because "it was much faster"! They were able to run about the carriage and get out at the stations. Mother and I enjoyed it too as the children were happy, we had our knitting, books, and even some letter writing. So time passed quickly. We had Shirley's nice sandwiches, and of course a cup of tea at "Taumarunui on the Main Trunk Line". (Renowned for its railway cups). During those years in Hamilton, twenty-seven in all, I participated in various community activities, Tennis, Plunket Society, teaching Sunday School, establishing a social club for young people of seventeen years upwards known as the St Aidan's Club, leader of the St Aidan's Young Wives Group. Later I was treasurer and then president of the Waikato Diocese Young Wives Groups. Twice I relieved as Physical Education teacher at H.H.S. but felt I could not do justice at the same time as bring up my girls. However I did work part-time as Fairfield School Secretary. After Fairfield Primary, Noni and Kenwyn went as boarders to the Diocesan High School in Auckland. Noni left school at the end of 1954, the year mother died, then lived at home with me for some years, taking courses in typing shorthand then practicing as a Speech and Drama teacher. Kenwyn was at home for one year' working in the Bank of New Zealand, until she reached the minimum age for training as physiotherapist in Dunedin. I was very busy working as Parish Secretary at St Aidans'
Claudelands, at this time.
On 27th July 1963 Lewis Snell and I married in St Aidan's, he was an old friend from my Pukekohe days, where his father had been Headmaster of the primary school. Lew's wife, Dorothy had died in May 1961 leaving him with two children Glenda 12 years and Geoffrey 9 years. His sister, Shirley was married to my brother Ken. Lew was a Bank Officer in the Papakura branch of the Bank of New Zealand. Glenda and Geoff had inherited their mother's artistic ability, Glenda becoming an artist, and Geoff an actor. Our summer holidays were now spent at Kaikohe and Paihia. Ken and Shirley were now living in Kaikohe, having moved from Taihape in 1951. Kenwyn married fellow "Kiwi", Ross Campbell in Montreal, Canada, in December 1967, where they were both working, I went over for the wedding, and Noni who was then studying Speech and Drama in England joined me in Montreal to be Kenwyn's bridesmaid. The newlyweds after a brief honeymoon took time to show us around Montreal, Quebec, and their favourite ski slopes. Kenwyn and Ross have returned to various ski slopes on many occasions since. From Montreal, Ross and Kenwyn settled in Auckland then spent a year in Brisbane, returning to Howick, and then to Wellington, where they continued to raise their two daughters, Nicole and Rachel. Noni married, in December 1972 an English architect, and has lived there ever since, with annual visit to New Zealand, staying in their home at Hahei, on the Coromandel Peninsula. My life with Lew in Papakura, after Glenda and Geoff had left home, revolved mainly around the Church, particularly, with a friend, organizing an Opportunity Shop to help the Parish finances. It is a very successful venture staffed by eighty women volunteers on a roster system. With the profits we were able to help many worthwhile Parish and Diocesan projects and also some in the community. After more than twenty years of operation it is still going very strongly. After Lew retired there were several overseas holidays. On our second visit to Noni and Roger We were able to stay in the 200 year old house at Northleach, in the Cotswolds, which they bought in a fairly derelict condition and which Roger is restoring. We were able to help in restoring the garden.
In 1987 Lew and I sold our Papakura home and moved to Auckland to occupy the "flat" attached to Ken and Shirley's home in Mt Eden, The flat
was added in 1974 to look after Mrs Snell, then in her nineties. I forget many things but I should not forget the date we moved to Auckland — it
was my seventy-fifth birthday, an exhausting day spent cleaning the house and shed, packing last minute boxes! My later years were blessed by having, not only a caring husband, but also very friendly relations with my three son-in-laws and Liz my daughter- in-law. I always wanted four children and I've decided that acquiring them in two batches, nearly twenty years apart was a good idea, as I was able to correct some of the mistakes I had made in my younger days! Glenda and Geoff bore me no grudge if I was tough on them, even Geoff who really did want those winkle picker shoes in his teen years!! Now I am getting much joy from our seven grandchildren. In 1991 we, Ken and Shirley, were offered two
new "own-your-own" two bedroom units in Selwyn Village, at Pt Chevalier, Auckland. The large hillside garden at 25 St Leonards Rd, Mt Eden, had become too much for us, particularly as Lew had recently had one leg amputated, the final result of Ostomyelitis, contracted when he was eight, which had caused him a lot of inconvenience and some suffering over the years. So on accepting the Selwyn Village offer, we were fortunate to have two adjoining units, each with an attached garage. We arranged to have a connecting fireproof door between the garages. What a boom that door has been! Lew was improving in his walking with his artificial leg but unfortunately another trouble put him in Hospital (Christ's Hospital in Selwyn Village). I am pleased that I was so close that I was able to spend much of each day with him during his final months. He passed from this life on 26 August 1992. Now that I am alone I am fortunate to have Ken and Shirley so close, as well as being secure in a caring community. Glenda and Geoff and their families visited Lew in hospital often and other patients enjoyed seeing Geoff wheel his father to the dining room with baby Natassia sitting on his knee. My project is to make a new life for myself, getting to know more of the 500 residents in the Village and taking part in some of the many activities available. Summer holidays are spent at Hahei beach, with Noni and Roger and Kenwyn and Ross and family, along with the extended Mellsop/Snell families.
Born 03 Sept 1912, Otaua
Died 06 Sept 2013, Auckland
Lionel & Margaret were living at Otaua, when their youngest and only daughter Nesta was born on 3rd September 1912. I don't remember anything of Dad, as I was not quite two years when he died, nor do I remember the Otaua home. The first recollections are of our new home on Pukekohe hill. Schooling began in 1917 at Pukekohe Primary School. I remember my first day at school when I was promoted to primer 2. Miss Hamlin, our teacher was testing primer 1 on the alphabet, my brothers had taught me well! We walked to school, over one and half miles, particularly enjoying the concrete culvert up the steep part of Kitchener Road on a wet day with the water rushing down it! Even in good weather the culvert was our footpath in preference to the rough gravel road. Our home was five minutes walk from our cousins, the James Potter family, whos home was a short distance further up Kitchener Road. Aunt Nettie (Mrs Potter) was mother's elder sister, and Jeanette; the youngest in the family was my best friend. We climbed the lovely big Magnolia trees her home, played dolls together, played tennis on their grass court, with her elder sister and my b!others. Another of my childhood memories is climbing the stile over the fence to the neighbours with a tiny jug of cream for Mr & Mrs Hubbard.
Mother and later brother Ken milked our cow and Mother made all our butter. How we kids enjoyed helping her roll the butter into balls.
The butter on the meal table was always in balls of fancy shapes. Besides our annual Sunday School picnics at Clarks Beach, Waiau Pa, I remember a family picnic at the sandbank on the Waikato river by the Tuakau Bridge. We drove there with the Potters in their farm wagon, drawn by two horses which were driven by a cousin of the Potters, Dick Bilkey, who was a real "wag" (a common name in those days for a fun person) and kept us entertained with his antics and patter. Miss (Evelyn) Hamlin, our primer classes teacher, was with us and she was the butt of much of Dick's good natured humour. At the picnic spot we were joined by our Pukekawa relatives (Orrs and Brewsters). That was an example of the simple but very effective form of entertainment in the pre-motor car days. A holiday not to be forgotten was the Christmas holidays of 1922. We went for the six weeks of the school holidays to stay on one of our uncles' farms at Waimatenui, a farming district in very rough hill country
southwest of Kaikohe. Today it is an easy four to five hour journey by car from Auckland, almost all the way on sealed roads, but then a major journey. There was no connecting railway between Auckland and Whangarei, so we travelled to Whangarei by boat, the S.S. Mania. Next morning, at Onerahi Wharf (suburb of Whangarei) we boarded the train for Kaikohe. From Kaikohe the taxi man drove us about half way to the farm to the Heu Heu river. There was no bridge over the river, so were met by Uncles Jack and Frank (Mother's brothers) who had a buggy (four wheeled passenger vehicle drawn by two horses) and proceed over a very rough, narrow, winding road to Uncle Frank's home. The farm paddocks were littered with large logs left from the bush felling of previous years. What excitement jumping the logs as I rode a horse with my Uncle. With bush close to the house, a stream in which to swim and catch eels, a sandy river bank on which to dig and play, we had a lovely holiday.
My secondary school years were spent boarding at Diocesan High school for Girls in Auckland from 1925 to 1930. I loved my boarding school
years. On 'exeat' Saturdays we were allowed to go out with parents or friends. These days saw me twice climb Rangitoto Mountain Auckland
Harbour and visit Auckland Zoo with Mother on many, many occasions. I was keen to be a Physical Education Teacher but there wasn't any recognised training for such a career in New Zealand then. The schools that had specialist "Phys Ed" teachers had mostly brought them from Great Britain. So during 1931 two of my school friends and I asked the "Phys Ed" teacher at "Dio" if she would train us and she and the headmistress agreed. We were trained by Eileen Gane, she also recommended that we do a Commercial Office course at Brains Commercial College, enabling us to eventually teach the two subjects. Eileen lectured us in Anatomy, Physiology, Hygiene, Remedial exercises and the mechanics of gymnastics and sports. We helped her with the gymnasium classes and coaching sport. I had free board at the school in return for helping Miss Elsie Vickers look after the primary school boarders in Cowie House. Elsie and I remained good friends until her death in her nineties. We were second cousins, Emma Heaton Vickers (nee Crispe) and my grandmother Charlotte Elisabeth Mellsop (nee Crispe) being sisters. After two years training I wrote to forty girls' schools in New Zealand seeking a position. I was successful in getting a temporary position
for one year at Hamilton High School, while the Phys; Ed instructor was on sick leave. I was also the School Secretary. It was there that I met a
good-looking bachelor, Ken Barling, who was to become my husband. Ken was teaching History and English. Ken was very popular with the pupils and staff so there was great interest when we were romantically linked. We announced our engagement in September of that year when Ken
took me to Palmerston North to meet his sisters and brothers; his parents had died not long before. I spent 1935 at home with Mother in
Pukekohe. There were still not many vacancies in schools for Sports Mistresses and in the 1930s one did not look around for other jobs, as you do now. In those days the husband was expected to provide the house and furnishings and the bride her trousseau of household linen and personal clothes. So I hemmed sheets, they could be bought ready hemmed but at a greater cost bought towels, embroidered linen tables -cloths, and sewed pretty underwear and nightwear for this all-important trousseau. Ken came to Pukekohe most weekends and in the school
holidays. We were married on 2nd January 1936 at Diocesan High School, the reception being held on the lawn in front of Cowie House. Ken hated anything military, he even would not help with the army cadet unit at school, and after the outbreak of World War Il he was very critical
of the way the war was being run by the Allies. He felt uneasy working in his garden (being a very keen gardener) while other men were going
overseas to fight for our Country, until he felt compelled to volunteer for military service. Noni was four years old, when her father left New Zealand. Peggy had died at three and half weeks in 1940, Kenwyn was born six months after Ken left New Zealand. She was one year old when he was killed on active service on 26 March 1943. What a godsend she and Noni were, they made life worth living. Mother came to live with us, and of course she was a tremendous help to me bringing up my two daughters and coping with a large garden. I had never been interested in gardening; I hated it on the rare occasions that I helped Mother in our large Pukekohe garden, but now, like it or not I was in charge! — I became a keen gardener in time. Most of our holidays until 1951 were spent in Taihape with brother, Ken and Shirley. Our Taihape holidays were very happy ones; Shirley and I became good friends and Mother enjoyed being with all her grandchildren. The only drawback was the long journey to get there. Sometimes we went by the Auckland to Wellington night express train arriving at Taihape in the middle of the night, two sleeping
children and a sleepless mother and granny! Other times we drove there in our little Morris 8 car, taking eight hours on the trip. (Hamilton-
Taihape). The only daylight train was a "goods rain" with one or two carriages attached and once we decided to travel on it. We left Taihape at 1am and arrived at Frankton Junction (Hamilton) at 8pm, thirteen hours! The train stopped at many small stations, sometimes for half an hour or more while railway wagons were off-loaded and other attached. The girls enjoyed standing on the station platforms watching the wagons being shunted. Afterwards they were very enthusiastic about the journey and said they had enjoyed the daylight train trip much better than the car because "it was much faster"! They were able to run about the carriage and get out at the stations. Mother and I enjoyed it too as the children were happy, we had our knitting, books, and even some letter writing. So time passed quickly. We had Shirley's nice sandwiches, and of course a cup of tea at "Taumarunui on the Main Trunk Line". (Renowned for its railway cups). During those years in Hamilton, twenty-seven in all, I participated in various community activities, Tennis, Plunket Society, teaching Sunday School, establishing a social club for young people of seventeen years upwards known as the St Aidan's Club, leader of the St Aidan's Young Wives Group. Later I was treasurer and then president of the Waikato Diocese Young Wives Groups. Twice I relieved as Physical Education teacher at H.H.S. but felt I could not do justice at the same time as bring up my girls. However I did work part-time as Fairfield School Secretary. After Fairfield Primary, Noni and Kenwyn went as boarders to the Diocesan High School in Auckland. Noni left school at the end of 1954, the year mother died, then lived at home with me for some years, taking courses in typing shorthand then practicing as a Speech and Drama teacher. Kenwyn was at home for one year' working in the Bank of New Zealand, until she reached the minimum age for training as physiotherapist in Dunedin. I was very busy working as Parish Secretary at St Aidans'
Claudelands, at this time.
On 27th July 1963 Lewis Snell and I married in St Aidan's, he was an old friend from my Pukekohe days, where his father had been Headmaster of the primary school. Lew's wife, Dorothy had died in May 1961 leaving him with two children Glenda 12 years and Geoffrey 9 years. His sister, Shirley was married to my brother Ken. Lew was a Bank Officer in the Papakura branch of the Bank of New Zealand. Glenda and Geoff had inherited their mother's artistic ability, Glenda becoming an artist, and Geoff an actor. Our summer holidays were now spent at Kaikohe and Paihia. Ken and Shirley were now living in Kaikohe, having moved from Taihape in 1951. Kenwyn married fellow "Kiwi", Ross Campbell in Montreal, Canada, in December 1967, where they were both working, I went over for the wedding, and Noni who was then studying Speech and Drama in England joined me in Montreal to be Kenwyn's bridesmaid. The newlyweds after a brief honeymoon took time to show us around Montreal, Quebec, and their favourite ski slopes. Kenwyn and Ross have returned to various ski slopes on many occasions since. From Montreal, Ross and Kenwyn settled in Auckland then spent a year in Brisbane, returning to Howick, and then to Wellington, where they continued to raise their two daughters, Nicole and Rachel. Noni married, in December 1972 an English architect, and has lived there ever since, with annual visit to New Zealand, staying in their home at Hahei, on the Coromandel Peninsula. My life with Lew in Papakura, after Glenda and Geoff had left home, revolved mainly around the Church, particularly, with a friend, organizing an Opportunity Shop to help the Parish finances. It is a very successful venture staffed by eighty women volunteers on a roster system. With the profits we were able to help many worthwhile Parish and Diocesan projects and also some in the community. After more than twenty years of operation it is still going very strongly. After Lew retired there were several overseas holidays. On our second visit to Noni and Roger We were able to stay in the 200 year old house at Northleach, in the Cotswolds, which they bought in a fairly derelict condition and which Roger is restoring. We were able to help in restoring the garden.
In 1987 Lew and I sold our Papakura home and moved to Auckland to occupy the "flat" attached to Ken and Shirley's home in Mt Eden, The flat
was added in 1974 to look after Mrs Snell, then in her nineties. I forget many things but I should not forget the date we moved to Auckland — it
was my seventy-fifth birthday, an exhausting day spent cleaning the house and shed, packing last minute boxes! My later years were blessed by having, not only a caring husband, but also very friendly relations with my three son-in-laws and Liz my daughter- in-law. I always wanted four children and I've decided that acquiring them in two batches, nearly twenty years apart was a good idea, as I was able to correct some of the mistakes I had made in my younger days! Glenda and Geoff bore me no grudge if I was tough on them, even Geoff who really did want those winkle picker shoes in his teen years!! Now I am getting much joy from our seven grandchildren. In 1991 we, Ken and Shirley, were offered two
new "own-your-own" two bedroom units in Selwyn Village, at Pt Chevalier, Auckland. The large hillside garden at 25 St Leonards Rd, Mt Eden, had become too much for us, particularly as Lew had recently had one leg amputated, the final result of Ostomyelitis, contracted when he was eight, which had caused him a lot of inconvenience and some suffering over the years. So on accepting the Selwyn Village offer, we were fortunate to have two adjoining units, each with an attached garage. We arranged to have a connecting fireproof door between the garages. What a boom that door has been! Lew was improving in his walking with his artificial leg but unfortunately another trouble put him in Hospital (Christ's Hospital in Selwyn Village). I am pleased that I was so close that I was able to spend much of each day with him during his final months. He passed from this life on 26 August 1992. Now that I am alone I am fortunate to have Ken and Shirley so close, as well as being secure in a caring community. Glenda and Geoff and their families visited Lew in hospital often and other patients enjoyed seeing Geoff wheel his father to the dining room with baby Natassia sitting on his knee. My project is to make a new life for myself, getting to know more of the 500 residents in the Village and taking part in some of the many activities available. Summer holidays are spent at Hahei beach, with Noni and Roger and Kenwyn and Ross and family, along with the extended Mellsop/Snell families.
Nesta Snell.