Edward Bartley & Holy Trinity, Devonport, Auckland

The Anglican Church of Holy Trinity was constructed in 1865.  The congregation more than doubled during the next ten years. This phenomenon was general to the district. The population of Devonport increased during the 1870's to just under 1000 residents. The pressure to enlarge facilities was felt by all religious and social organisations in the community.

A decision was made in 1874 to enlarge the existing church by extending the nave and aisles by 9 feet. Edward Bartley prepared the plans which were executed by Henry Pitts. At this time Edward was still operating predominantly as a master builder. By 1877 when a meeting of the Vestry agreed that a larger church was urgently required, it was Edward Bartley, now a practising architect, who was asked to draw plans for a new church. It is likely that his later appointment as Diocesan Architect was facilitated by this early involvement with Holy Trinity.

It was another three years before these plans for the church were accepted as real financial constraints dictated the pace of development. There were other calls on any money available for building. Funds were needed to purchase the house being rented and used as a parsonage. The Sunday School was also seriously overcrowded. 

All these projects relied on subscriptions and donations from the community. Over £400 was found to buy the parsonage and extend the school room during 1878. At the same time residents were being called on to support other community projects for education and arts facilities, meeting spaces and infrastructure. Consider how this level of commitment by the community compares to the average rate of charitable donation today. 

The Programme for one of several fundraising concerts organised by Alf Bartley with his father Edward in 1886.
 Image BFA 2003

The whole community rallied around to support the project with a number of entertainments and fetes.  One of the most successful event was a week long Egyptian Fair held in 1886. The drill shed at Devonport was transformed into the ancient East.
Edward Bartley worked with his son Alfred to design the stalls as stage sets. He had the professional assistance of his nephew Theo Queree, a recent Jersey immigrant who was particularly skilled in operatic stage design. Devonport resident H. N. Williams provided his considerable artistic flair and the benefit of his extensive travels in the Middle East. Visitors entered the Temples of Isis and Osiris, passed between columns and past friezes faithfully imitating the ancient style. The triumph at the eastern end of the stall was a desert sunset. Purchasers responded generously, delighted to buy fancy work and preserves from the matrons and young ladies suitably attired in a chastely Victorian version of Egyptian costume.

During 1884 the parsonage property was sold at a profit and Edward was asked to design a new vicarage within the £600 realised. £860 was required to construct the chancel and transepts of the new church, which was builder William Philcox's lowest tender.  The temporary sections were to be plain, functional and cheap. New building began at eastern end of the old church, which served as the nave in the meantime. 

The temporary solution for Holy Trinity 1883 Image APL SGGSC

The next stage was erected over the old building during 1886. This old church was  taken away and reconstructed on a section behind the new one. There were still plans to add a further ten feet to the front of the new church, along with a tower, spire and south porch.

 View of Holy Trinity, Devonport and surrounds, showing the new church with the old on an adjacent section c 1887. Image BFA

 From the south window, with its elaborate gothic tracery, to the joinery of the seats and fittings, this Church fills with soft light and texture- a celebration of wood and worship. 

Interior view, Holy Trinity, Devonport, Auckland. Image BFA 2003

All of the fittings were supplied by the congregation. Edward designed a new pulpit in native timbers to complement the interior, which was placed in the Church in time for its completion.

Pulpit Holy Trinity, Devonport, Edward Bartley. Image APL SGGSC 5896

No asset or effort was wasted. The Sunday School had again outgrown the space available so the schoolroom was hoisted onto skids and moved down to be joined to the old church.

The next building project proceeded immediately with the construction of the new Vicarage in 1887. There was then a pause until the new hall was built in 1910. This was financed by a mortgage. Edward Bartley, along with Humphrey Duder and George Hunt were appointed trustees for the property until it became debt free. 

A 1929 view showing the vicarge in the centre and the hall to the left. A glimpse of the church can be seen on the right. Image Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 4-5899

Edward died in 1919 and Duder in 1927, after which the property was vested in the Diocese, marking an end to the establishment phase for Holy Trinity. Plans for the third and final phase of building the tower and spire and south porch were never realised. 

Image BFA 2003

Devonport, North Shore Auckland

The BARTLEY families in New Zealand all have a strong connection to Devonport, North Shore, Auckland. Edward BARTLEY settled there in 1872. He moved his growing family first to a rented house on the Strand, later building his own home in Victoria Road.

Edward participated energetically in local affairs, serving first on the Flagstaff District Highway Board and, with his friend William PHILCOX on the later Devonport Roads Board. Politics was a serious matter in Devonport in the early years. It was not unknown for animosity between factions to be expressed in both physical and verbal assaults, as the parties held to their firm opinions on the future development of the district. Progressing from the Roads Board to the inaugural Devonport Borough Council, Edward somehow managed to steer a path between opposing parties, exercising diplomacy as he went.

Professionally Edward's contribution to the built environment of his home suburb was considerable. His active involvement in the arts, photography,technical education and music involved his whole family and the Devonport community as a whole.

Foreshore with Mt Cambria behind approx mid 1870s

Boat building on the foreshore approx mid 1870's

Devonport about 1880 taken from a position above the Calliope Rd intersection

In 1880 a fund was started to cover the costs of a larger church of Holy Trinity at Devonport. Fundraising was very much a community affair involving any number of entertainments and fetes. The eldest Bartley children were now young adults and willing musical performers. With their Hannken cousins, Edward's eldest sons formed a popular string orchestra which was much in demand.

Cover of programme Fund Raising Concert September 1880

Programme inner, pages 2 and 3 September 1880





May 1880 Swainson contract

Henry PITTS was a well known builder in Devonport. He worked with Edward on the Holy Trinity Church. Here he lists specifications for amendments to the standard contract to erect a small villa for Mr SWAINSON.

Devonport had the greatest concentration of Bartley designed family homes in Auckland, with the possible exception of Surrey Hills subdivision. Some of these are his simple "copy book" cottages and small villas for working people. These were constructed in multiples during the boom years of the 1880s.

"copy book" workers cottage in Devonport

The most basic were kauri construction with two or four rooms under a hipped roof. The simplicity was often relieved by features such as decorative mouldings at the top of verandah posts. 

In the next price bracket came the single storey villa, of timber usually but also produced in concrete and brick. The interior was dissected by a passageway from front door to back. Two rooms either side of the passage provided the basic living and sleeping quarters. These homes were easily extended with the addition of a lean-to at the back as the need arose. Some sported a filigree valance on the front verandah, with decorative eaves brackets which were picked out in a light colour to enhance the shadow pattern effect.

By the 1880s the bay villa was the last word in modern housing. The basic villa was now modified by the addition of a projection forward- a bay- in one or both of the front rooms. The verandah now protected a smaller porch and the decorative potential of the street frontage was considerably enhanced by the opportunity to include decorative fretwork, bargeboards, finials, brackets and more. This elaborate ornamentation was increasinly emphasised by dark colour such as maroon or green against a lighter weatherboard colour. The verandah roof was often fashionably finished in multi-coloured stripes to match.

At the other end of the market Edward was designing large residence for professionals and the well to do, such a Judge MacDonald's home at Devonport in 1883. The Bartley home was built in 1879 on a lower storey of concrete construction and upper storey of kauri. It was sparsely decorated, as compared to the prevailing fashion, with the enclosing verandah offering the only ornamental feature on the Victoria Road frontage. On the seaward side a single bay extended two storeys, with the verandah returning to allow the best of the views from the elevated site.

Bartley Home corner Calliope and Victoria Road. Image 1879

Premises of R & R Duder corner Church St & King Edward Parade Devonport

The Duder brothers were long term associates of Edward Bartley. They shared a common interest, amongst others, in developing concrete technology in Auckland. The first concrete lighthouse was completed at La Corbiere, Jersey in the Channel Islands in 1873. Local pioneer lime cement was produced at Mahurangi by Wilson and Co. Edward had used their product to erect three concrete villas by 1880. Wilson's agents on the North Shore were the Duder brothers.

Some public projects for which Edward Bartley was commissioned as architect were never constructed, for various reasons.

Edward Bartley's 1902 design for Devonport Borough Council incorporating Post & Telegraph Offices, library and council offices is one such case. 

At a special meeting of council in September 1902 Mayor Ewen ALISON and councillors signed and approved the design shown here. It provided for two storey brick council chambers, incorporating post office, telephone exchange and public library in a T shaped plan.

The building plans were then sent to Wellington with the condition and terms of leasing the reserve vested in the Council for the erection of public builidngs. The Council needed to move quickly to have the Government determine the rent before the final parliamentary session in October. The postal authorities also had some say in the final design of their facilities.

By July 1903 Ewen Alison was in Wellington visiting the Postmaster General and looking for a final decision. There was also local and regional opposition to the principal of a Borough Council seizing a recreational reserve for building purposes.

The plans for the civic centre were never realised, nor was the Post Office successful in its alternative plan of acquiring part of the reserve for its own use. When funding finally came for new postal facilities in Devonport it was for comparatively moderate premises in Victoria Road.

1902 Devonport Council Buildings with Post and Telegraph Office

In 1913 a Stanley bay resident Mr A Lloyd brought his proposal for swimming baths before the Devonport Borough Council. The complex he proposed was designed by Edward Bartley. He offered to personally subscribe one third of the cost and suggested a public share issue to raise the balance. A site near the Esplanade was most favoured. 

The idea was scuttled by the old issues of cost and site. There was no position available on the foreshore which would not interfere with the established uses of commercial and leisure craft.

Proposed Devonport Baths 1913

Interior plan of Devonport Baths proposal

The original plan for both men's and womens baths of equal size has been amended to a larger pool for men, leaving the architect with that difficult space "for Future Expansion". This reworking more accurately reflected the sensibilities of the majority of adults of the time. Sixteen private bathing cubicles were provided for each gender for those uncomfortable with communal bathing. Lloyd had visions of completing the complex in time for the Auckland Exhibition opening in December 1913.