Memories of Silverdale

Growing up in Silverdale in the 1940s, Elaine Butler Stoney remembers a very different township from today’s mix of retail shops and industrial area. The little school she attended, built in the 1870s (and now a Playcentre) had two teachers and she remembers cold winters when a pot belly stove supplied heat to the wooden building. Climbing the huge macrocarpa trees (some of whose stumps remain) was a favourite pastime for the children.

During the war there were frequent air raid practices. Elaine recalls that on these occasions a whistle was blown by the Chairman of the school committee and the children ran down the hill and across the road to where the St John’s Ambulance station is now situated and climbed into open trenches among the pine trees. Luckily there were no actual air raids, as there was no covering to the trenches. American convoys frequently drove past Elaine’s home and she and her brother always waved to the troops. When VJ Day was announced the children were sent home early from school. Elaine’s family dressed in their best clothes, drove to Northcote and went by ferry to Auckland where they found an excited throng in Queen Street, dodging toilet rolls hurled from windows.

New cars were almost non existent and most vehicles on the road were old and battered and often broke down on a hill near where Elaine lived. Her mother kindly provided the occupants with cups of tea and cakes and once sent Elaine and her brother off with a picnic basket of food to give to a couple stranded some way off.

In those days the main highway wound up from East Coast Bays Road, through Blanc Road, past the Wade Hotel, over the river and up Silverdale Street where there was a butcher, a grocer, a post office, a garage, Neville Bros. depot, the Silverdale Hall, the Presbyterian Churcha and various houses. The three gabled ‘Brunton’s Store’ was still standing but seemed to be a boarding house with people always sitting on the verandah. At the top of the street stood the Anglican Church and nearby the Wesleyan Chapel. There was another grocery store, and the Catholic Church near the Wade Hotel. The main road which now cuts Silverdale in two and is the cause of much frustration to locals was not built until the 1950s.

Museum news

Pioneer Village open Sat/Sun 10am–3pm. Wade to Silverdale photo exhibition. 1860s Chapel available for functions such as weddings and baby namings. • Friday, July 1, ‘Lone Female  on a Scottish Oil Rig’ talk by Angela King of BUPA at Pioneer Village, 15 Wainui Rd, 11am. Visitors welcome. • If anyone has photos or information about the three gabled Brunton’s Store please ph Ruth, 426 8778.