Avondale’s Racecourse by the River Part 1: Origins and first years (1890-1922)

The set-up at the Wingate side of the course, 1890-1900, showing the main stand (centre) looking toward St Jude Street in the distance. 7-A7334 (1897), Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections.

See also: Avondale races, the early days

Whether you have the occasional betting “flutter” on the horses, or you come out these days emphatically opposed to horse racing on animal rights and gambling issues, one thing can’t be denied: for well over a century, since 1890, the Avondale Racecourse has come to be part of the landscape of Avondale both in heritage terms as well as in the reality of its existence. Avondale identified with the racecourse through most of the 20th century, and thoughts of its closure from time to time elicit sadness, and concern. Especially regarding the fate of the much more recent Avondale Sunday Markets there. 

But, back in 1889, it didn’t exist. What was there, in the main area of the course, was the land owned by Charles Burke, a mix of swampy ground, paddock and, right at the edge of the Whau River, a brickyard which he’d leased out to various entrepreneurs since the 1870s. In 1889, the business there could have been Kane’s, or even J J Craig’s yard before the latter took over the St Georges Road brickworks in the 1890s. It isn’t clear which as yet. 

Burke’s land had no access to the Great North Road, being completely surrounded on the landward side by other owners and their properties. It is likely that those who paid him to use part of the ground for a brickyard didn’t mind that – the river was their way of transporting what bricks were made at the small kilns out to market. The brickmakers there didn’t last long, however. There was a considerable turnover at the site, probably due to that lack of direct road connection. 

So when, in 1889, after a meeting that apparently took place in the brand new Avondale Hotel that August, a consortium approached Burke with an offer to lease his ground apart from the brickyard, he probably saw a great opportunity. The partnership was Moss Davis, Henry Henwood “Harry” Hayr and Michael Foley. 

Davis, through his firm Hancock & Co, rebuilt the Avondale Hotel after the previous building was destroyed by fire in 1888. Later in the 1890s this became the Captain Cook Brewery’s land. The company had the hotel’s land, and the adjoining strip fronting Great North Road including the site of today’s Town Square and the “Dale the Spider” installation. Moss Davis stepped away from the committee by 1899. 

Hayr, a sports promoter, was friends with Davis. He was appointed Secretary for the new club in 1889, and was one of the early handicappers at the first races (a conflict that was brought up when it was pointed out that he was the handicapper for races where his own horses were starters.) He took over the printing business of Cecil Gardner & Co, and turned it into the Scott Printing Company – which wound up with the concession to print and sell all the club’s programmes. To top it off, he ran a totalisator company, and as secretary of the club was the one to apply to the government for a licence to run a tote on the course. In later years, he passed that part of his enterprise over to his son.

Foley was another friend of Davis’, very involved with the hospitality industry, and was the second publican at the new hotel (after Daniel Arkell, who went on to found his own brewery in Newton). Foley remained connected with the club from that point on, including serving for a number of years as president up to his death in 1922. 

A right of way giving access for the brickyard tenants to the main road via Wingate Street may have been provided in the undocumented 1889 agreement between Burke and the three partners – it was certainly laid out clearly in writing twice in 1898 and once, on the second deed, as an illustration. “The Drive” as it became known for the brief time it existed ran eastward along the southern boundary of the racecourse, then took a right turn, swept out on a curve, before exiting into Wingate Street, possibly somewhere near the grassy strip that still remains attached to the racecourse land between 21 and 25 Wingate Street. The Drive became a legal grey area in terms of the gambling regulations, not because of the racecourse but because individuals sometimes used it on racedays as a place for illegal games of “two-up” – and would sprint into the adjacent Webb’s Paddock in Wingate Street to evade the police in pursuit. 

Up until 1901, the early racecourse was little more than a third of its present size. The 47 acres leased from Burke, with an irregular boundary toward the river, meant that the first track had to be egg-shaped rather than oval, and smaller than later versions. Up until 1921, the Jockey Club itself had a small membership, even by the standards of the clubs of the day. The land dealings for the club were, up to 1923, always in the names of three trustees, rather than the club as in incorporated body. These were Davis, Hayr and Foley up until Davis’ departure from the committee, when he was replaced by Robert Humphrey Duder. 

Still, with the proximity of the Avondale Hotel and the railway line, the Avondale Racecourse proceeded, the first meeting held on 26 April 1890. Architects Burrows and Mitchell designed the first grandstand (located possibly just north-west of the Wingate Reserve), the first programme was printed by Hayr’s Scott Printing Co. in time for the day, including the first Avondale Cup of 1¾ miles, for a purse of 55 sovereigns. Easy access from the railway station was advertised, which indicates to me that the Elm Street gate was possibly the first main entrance (later used as a members’ gate). “The Drive” from Wingate Street was a secondary entry, but one where those arriving could also purchase entry tickets. 

Tracking the early history of the Avondale Jockey Club isn’t easy. The press didn’t cover what went on at the annual general meetings until 1898. They worked in closely with the Metropolitan Club at Ellerslie (which considered approval for Avondale’s annual programmes), and allowed coursing, cricket teams (“Publicans” vs. “Sinners”) and polo clubs to use their grounds by 1892. Also in that year, the club auctioned off “privileges” or concessions to certain providers: Foley had the publican’s booth for £17, a Mrs Hunt paid £2 for refreshment stalls, the Scott Printing Co (Hayr) paid £5 for the right to sell racecards, Mr Quinn had the rights to charge for stabling for £1 10s, and Mr L Adams controlled the gates for £27. The racecourse was a business upon which other businesses relied, right from the start. 

The saddling paddock was on the eastern side of the property by at least the mid 1890s, backing onto what was until recently the Suburbs Rugby grounds, taking advantage of stabling available both on the properties between the future line of Racecourse Parade and what is now the Avondale Central Reserve, and Thomas’ Paddocks on the other side of Great North Road. 

Each year, the club needed to apply for a license to run the totalisator; in 1895, they experimented with doing without the tote, sticking just to bookmakers instead, and saw their attendance numbers drop sharply as a consequence. 

1898 saw the club finally gain a formal lease agreement of seven years from Burke, and the following year another from the Captain Cook Brewery (then owners of the Avondale Hotel) for two sections on Wingate Street (as well as an access agreement for “The Drive”). The club set to with enlarging their grandstand. In August 1898, the press reported on their annual general meeting. Michael Foley chaired the meeting, with John Bollard MHR voted as President, steward and judge, and Edwin Mitchelson Vice-President. Hayr as Secretary was tasked with drafting a set of rules for the club (which makes me wonder if they were operating for the first eight years without any rules at all).

As part of the improvements completed by September 1898, the whole course was encircled by white wooden rails (something it lacked up to that point.) The old grandstand had doubled in size to 82 foot long, designed to accommodate 1500. A box was placed on top, for stewards and press representatives. Underneath the stand was a “spacious” dining room. Two separate bars, one inside and one outside the paddock, catered for the thirsty. In 1899, the club members agreed to make a new roadway at the main (Elm Street) entrance, add new loose boxes, and enclosed the saddling paddock with a galvanised iron fence. By September 1899, the saddling paddock was now just west of the grandstand, alongside Webb’s Paddock near Wingate Street. A new totalisator house was built from 1899. 

At the club’s 1900 AGM, there was talk of purchasing part of the Captain Cook Brewery land, possibly leasing an acre of Webb’s Paddock, and considering John Bollard’s offer of 18 acres of his land fronting onto Ash Street. In May 1901, Hayr, Foley and Duder obtained title of that part of Bollard’s farm for £1100 (Bollard’s land at the time under action of sale through mortgage default by the Auckland Savings Bank). A section at the corner of Ash Street and Rosebank Road, including the Bollard homestead, was transferred back to Jane Bollard, and only returned to Jockey Club ownership in 1943. 

From the end of 1900 therefore, the club with its architect Edward Bartley started to make plans to shift the existing grandstand along with judge’s building and some fencing clear across to the other side of the track, on the additional space that the Bollard land purchase brought with it. This sparked threats of a lawsuit by Moss Davis, who claimed lease rights to the buildings and didn’t want them shifted. In the end, he withdrew, the club promised to leave the old “Drive” entrance gate off Wingate Street where it was, and the focus for the racecourse shifted away from the hotel which had led to its founding. 

Now, on the Ash Street side, the club had a new grandstand built beside the older one they had shifted, the new building constructed by R R Ross for £1657. They also built a stewards stand and offices, also designed by Bartley, for £367. There were new horse stalls built, latrines installed, and new fencing, along with a drainage contract. The new layout proved attractive as a location for other events, such as local fruit and horticultural shows from 1902. The course also had its first telephone installed, with telephone poles and wires crossing the course through to at least the early 1930s.

In 1904, the main area of the racecourse, the land leased from Burke, was purchased outright by Hayr, Foley and Duder on behalf of the club for £2415 12s 6d, giving the club more firm footing in terms of land tenure. This was followed by purchase of the old brickyard site in 1906. 

In 1908, as a result of the Eden electorate going dry, the racecourse could no longer sell alcohol. Following on from that, the Avondale Hotel lost its licence in 1909 and closed in June 1910. I have heard stories though of jockeys secreting illicit stashes of beer and other alcohol under the stands in various nooks and crannies, until the liquor laws were relaxed in the 1960s. There were also instances of sly groggers operating on the course during race days, until they were caught. 

In 1909, the Jockey Club adopted new rules, which it retained through to the early 1920s. A new members stand was designed by Wade & Wade Architects in 1910. Around this time, the course started being used for military camps from time to time, right up to and including World War II. Tenders were discussed for a new totalisator building in 1911, and in 1913 the grandstand was extended. That year, the racecourse was used by Sandford and Miller for their aeroplane flights. A trainers stand was added in 1914. 

The 1920 Jockeys Strike was sparked off in Avondale at an April meeting. The dispute would come to affect other Auckland clubs, and involve even the local Railwaymen’s Union, before it ended three months later. 

A grand athletics carnival was held on the racecourse in May 1921, including motorcycle and bicycle racing, basketball, rugby, athletics, dancing, music, and lots of sweets to eat. Motorcylists would use the course in other events in the 1920s to 1930s, as would local harrier clubs. The Auckland Rugby Union, in particular, viewed the racecourse as a huge asset, with the burgeoning interest in the sport and the shortage of grounds on which to play. This support helped the Jockey Club face the most serious threat to its existence up to that point in 1921. 

In that year, a commission of inquiry recommended that Avondale Jockey Club be shut down. There were too many suburban racecourses in Auckland in the commission’s opinion. 

“Auckland at the present time has no less than five racecourses within a radius of ten miles from the Central Post-office, three for racing and two for trotting. Of what may be termed Auckland suburban clubs we have rejected the claims of two—viz., the Avondale Jockey Club and the Otahuhu Trotting Club. With reference to the Avondale Club, the position is most unusual. This club, from its inception, has had a remarkably small membership. It now has upon its roll twenty-nine members, of whom one has permanently left the Dominion.
“Of the remaining twenty-eight, no less than twenty-three are members of the Auckland Racing Club, and, according to the returns furnished, only twenty-one had paid the annual subscription. Of the sixteen members who fill positions on the committee and stewards, thirteen are members of the Auckland Racing Club. Not one of the members of this club lives in Avondale or its vicinity. The committee has obviously not welcomed new members, as is apparent from the fact that only thirteen have been elected during the last eight years, and the club has an exceedingly discouraging rule with regard to a change in the personnel of its committee.
“Little or no attention has been paid to the provision of training facilities, and it is therefore not surprising that there is but one small training-stable at Avondale. The totalizator was for many years worked for the club by the gentleman who was then, and is now, its secretary —under contract; but since a rule of racing prohibiting this came into operation the contract has been held by a firm comprising the son of the secretary and a partner- —the secretary himself, as we are assured, not being interested. This club is in a strong financial position, and has a very substantial surplus of assets over liabilities. The titles to the racecourse properties stand in the name of three persons, of whom the secretary is one. These persons were among the original promoters of the club. The rules of the club, adopted in 1909, provide that the properties of the club shall be vested in trustees. No declaration of trust could be produced. This club is unnecessary, and for that and other reasons indicated should not be permitted to hold down totalizator licenses, which are urgently desired by country and other clubs with infinitely better claims.” 

A vote to limit permits was lost in Parliament, Opposition member Michael Joseph Savage in particular remarking that “the report seemed to show a dead set against Avondale, though he was not sure the report contained anything in the way of evidence.” The Jockey Club received support from the new Avondale Borough Council, as well as the Auckland Rugby Union, and managed to weather the storm intact. However, the message had been received, and changes were made.

A new set of rules were drawn up, and the Jockey Club incorporated on 29 April 1922 under the Incorporated Societies Act 1908. From May that year, the existing trustee titles were transferred over to the Avondale Jockey Club, and the Club would obtain titles in its own name from that point on. It had been, though, a very close call.

Michael Foley, one of the original promoters, died in October 1922, and Harry Hayr was to pass away in 1923. Their passing coincided with the shift to a new phase of development for the Avondale Racecourse as the Jockey Club entered its fourth decade.

Part two at this link.

The racecourse in the 1910s. 35-R158, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections

Two Avondale artists: W A Bollard and J W Ash

Once, there were two artists, both born in the late 1860s, both died in the 1940s, one was born in Avondale but would live elsewhere, the other born elsewhere but would live in Avondale. Today, they aren’t exactly household names but they were part of their respective artistic communities while they lived. 

The commercial artist

(Image below: Evening Star, 14 July 1941.)

William Allen Bollard was born, according to one family tree, 25 April 1869. His father was John Bollard, and his mother Jane née Ganley. John Bollard had an 86-acre farm on Rosebank beside the river leased from William Innes Taylor since 1863. As a boy, William would have attended the Whau School in the public hall opposite the Presbyterian Church. As a teenager, he developed a flair for the artistic, and was apprenticed to John Henderson in Wyndham Street in the City. Henderson’s “Decorative Establishment” boasted services in painting, glazing, paperhanging, artistic decorating, and sign-writing. But William also studied under the tutelage of artist Kennett Watkins, master of the Auckland Free School of Art in 1880, and president of the NZ Art Students Association in 1884. Watkins was known for his landscape paintings, and this would later be William Bollard’s main theme of work. 

At 18 years of age, two of William’s works, a view of J M Alexander’s Mt Albert residence, and John Henderson’s Ponsonby home, were put up on display in the window of Phillipps and Sons in Queen Street. They were described in the NZ Herald of 25 August 1888 as “equal in distinctness of lines to photographs.” By June the following year, aged 19, William entered into a partnership with signwriter and decorator Robert Henry Froude; “Bollard & Froude” began to advertise their business as “signwriters, decorators and gilders,” “paintings of New Zealand scenery always on hand. Pictures mounted and framed,” at 177 Queen Street. 

In 1891, William married Harriet Sankey, and the couple would have one son: John Henry Allen Bollard, born 22 June 1893. Sadly, Harriet passed away just weeks later, and was buried in Rosebank Cemetery. 

Bollard & Froude worked on the signwriting for commercial premises in central Auckland, and as a highlight were appointed the official signwriters for the Auckland Industrial Exhibition of 1896. In 1899 however, they parted ways, Froude buying William Bollard’s interest in the business. Froude carried on the business in his own name until he went bankrupt in 1913. 

William Bollard, however, became involved with the Auckland Society of Arts, exhibiting his work at their shows but also attracting criticism from the press such as “not as good as his work of several years back.” By 1904, he shifted to Dunedin, where he set up a studio. There, two of his paintings exhibited in the window of the Dresden Piano Company shop attracted much more favourable comment, said to “attract attention on account of their effective treatment and harmonious colouring.” By 1906, his work was exhibited and auctioned at McCormick & Pugh’s Art Gallery in the city.

In 1910 he married for the second time, to Emma Hawkins Meadowcroft. The couple would have two children, Margaret Jane Ganley Bollard in 1911, and Albert Ernest Bollard in 1912. Emma, though, died 14 June 1915, aged only 37. There was more sad news just over a year later – his first son John was killed by shellfire in action in France 25 September 1916. The shell blast flung John 60 feet into the air. When his body was recovered, it was described as badly mangled, with the clothes stripped away by the blast. John Henry Allen Bollard’s name is included on the marble roll of honour prepared by Avondale Primary as a past-pupil of the school. When William Bollard died in 1941, the Dunedin Evening Star printed a considerable obituary. 

“A familiar and popular figure to many Dunedin citizens passed away suddenly on Saturday in the person of Mr William Allen Bollard, the well-known landscape painter and teacher of art. Deceased, who was in his seventy-third year, was one of the best known artists not only in Dunedin, but also in many other parts of New Zealand, and landscapes from his brush are to be seen in many different parts of the country … 

“For the past 40 years he was a regular exhibitor at all the exhibitions of the Otago Art Society, and his landscapes, characteristic in their broad and colourful treatment, were always a source of interest to visitors. Mostly his subjects were local beauty spots, with which he had a very intimate acquaintance, and his style and manner on canvas became readily recognisable. Though he has left in pictorial record many charming views of Otago landscape, he was also fond of the picturesque country of the northern Maori, which he knew in earlier years, and sometimes used his brush effectively in such scenes. Mr Bollard possessed the individuality of the artist to a marked degree, and this was reflected in all his work, specimens of which will be greatly missed at future exhibitions of the Otago Art Society, with which he was connected for so long. In oil and water colour he was equally at home, using both, confidently and convincingly. Three of his pictures of Dominion scenes are hanging in New Zealand House, Loudon, and work from his brush is to be seen in hundreds of Dunedin homes. 

 “As a teacher of art he was also eminently successful, and he was always ready with advice and assistance to those seeking proficiency in the use of pencil or brush. Mr Bollard was a great believer in a sane outlook on art, and, while he did not condemn initiative, he was definitely opposed to the modernistic school. Even during the last few years, at an advanced age, he had as vigorous and colourful a brush as over, his exhibits being painted with characteristic freedom and attracting the eye with their admirable colour tones and atmosphere. In the community generally Mr Bollard had a host of friends who admired his genial nature and sense of humour. He was also a reader and a thinker, and one of his favourite authors, whom he quoted freely, was Charles Dickens, with whose numerous characters he had an intimate acquaintance.” 

He lies buried in Andersons Bay Cemetery.

“In Pensive Mood”: Albert E Bollard’s study of his father William Allen Bollard, from Otago Daily Times, 15 May 1936

The art teacher 

The other artist was one John Willsteed Ash, whose former residence at 88 New Windsor Road was recently put on the market and attracted some concern as to its fate in this era of property development and apartment blocks. 

Born in Hampshire, England in 1868, Ash’s father was a bank cashier, but apparently could also afford a servant in the family household, according to censuses. In 1898, Ash married Hannah Beauchamp Bellows in Wales, and they settled in Dudley, a market town in the West Midlands, 10 miles or so from Birmingham. His art training is said to have come from Leicester, Birmingham and South Kensington schools, according to his obituary. By 1900, Ash became assistant master at the Dudley School of Arts. The couple had four children: Christabel (c.1902), Norah Bellows (c.1904), Margaret Beryl (c.1905), and John Stanley (c.1908). The Ash family in Dudley also had a servant, so John W Ash was likely relatively well-to-do middle class. 

In 1907, when the Dudley school of art’s headmaster died, Ash was not chosen to be his replacement (the position worth a £250 per annum salary). He remained as the assistant for the new man, but it must have been a disappointment. In 1913 however, a new opportunity presented itself: he successfully applied for the position of arts master at the new Seddon Memorial Technical School in Auckland, New Zealand. The family packed up, waved goodbye to Dudley, and sailed from Plymouth aboard the Ruapehu for Wellington, travelling via Tenerife, Capetown and Hobart, Tasmania, on 15 March 1913. The Ruapehu had a few delays, but but arrived in Wellington on 3 May, just four days late. Ash was present at the opening of the new school at Wellesley Street on 4 June 1913. He would remain as the senior art master there for the next 27 years.

The Ash family started to live on New Windsor Road c.1916. At that stage, the property was a two-and-a-quarter acre section which was part of the Methuen Hamlet, and by 1914 was owned by Henry John Watkins. The house at 88 New Windsor was probably either built or moved onto the section around 1915, when a land agent named Robert Brown lived there. Ash bought the property outright from Watkins in 1920, and he retained ownership until his death in 1943. Hannah Ash died there on 12 July 1927, aged 58, and was cremated.

By 1931, Ash was on the committee of the Auckland Society of Arts. Some of his landscapes featured in exhibitions held at the Auckland Art Gallery. It may have been him who planted so many trees on his section that the 1940 aerial shows it simply packed as an almost solid canopy, with his house at the roadside corner where it is today. His “Study in Pines” may have had inspiration there. He may have had a friendship with Arthur Athelstan Currey of the tomato greenhouses fame on the other side of the road near Bollard Avenue – Currey was one of the witnesses to the signing of Ash’s will. 

By the time of his death in December 1943, Ash was survived by his three daughters, and his son John who was an architect at the time. There were seven grandchildren. The Auckland Society of Arts held a memorial exhibition for him 31 August 1944. 

“His oil landscapes, carried out with careful attention to detail and texture in the trunks end of trees, and with a real feeling for New Zealand sunshine, were often to be seen in annual exhibitions of the Society of Arts. Among more exciting modern work they were apt to be overlooked by visitors, but the society recognised their merit in 1942 with an award of the Bledisloe Landscape Medal for a painting of rugged West Coast scenery. The special exhibition, which will be open to the public for three weeks, includes nearly 30 oils, loaned for the occasion, and showing the development of Mr Ash's art over half a century. There are almost as many watercolours, mostly executed in his earlier days, and two specimens of illumination.”

 (NZ Herald, 1 September 1944) 

The Auckland Star wrote much more about the man, and the memorial.

“One could see the artist walking across a field in England, along a country lane, or through a village street... perhaps he would stand on a clifftop, or on the rocks near a fishing village. He would be a quiet man and it would be hard to tell his thoughts. Then he would sketch out his idea for a painting, perhaps after some minutes of close concentration. He would not be the sort to go to work on a painting immediately. He would be very patient. And now, 54 years after that artist worked in a fishing village in Cumberland, or above the Tyne Valley, or in a valley above Devonshire village, or in the Waste Country of the Midlands, or in Ireland, or in Wales, the results of his work may be seen in a small room in Auckland, a long way from his birthplace … 

Many artists must have had similar training, must have painted much the same sort of subjects: "Fishing Boats, Calm Day, "Fishing Boats," "Cove With Boats, "Cart," "Cottage Near Waterford, and so on. But there is a difference with this artist, for somebody has written: "The art of New Zealand in general, and of Auckland in particular, is poorer by the death of John Willsteed Ash."

“That is a strong statement and the grounds for it must be found. His work in this country? It is the familiar material as far as subject matter is concerned. In 1914 he painted the Sugar Loaf Rock and Valley at Piha, in 1915 the Manukau Heads on a grey morning, in 1916 the Whau Creek, in 1918 Blockhouse Bay, in 1920 a scene near Mount Albert, and so on up to 1943, when he painted gums with the Waitemata in the distance. In 1943 he died. There is certainly nothing of a radical nature about his work in this period. One comment overheard at the present exhibition was: "Some of it's all right, but it's very Victorian, and some is worse than the rest. In fact, some of it's downright rotten." When one remembers the vigour of the work of the younger Auckland artists and their experiments, in line with world movements, that is possibly fair comment. It would be useless to deny that the greyness and quietness of the paintings of Ash are out of step with the modern way of things. But, for all that, there is the tribute paid to him in the society's catalogue and by those who knew him. And occasionally there are moments, when one views the exhibition, that arouse genuine admiration —"Study of Pines (Afternoon Light)," for example. There are fewer than half a dozen paintings, though, where the sunshine breaks through the gloom.

“It is in the teaching career of John Willsteed Ash while he was in this city that the value of his contribution to our art is to be found. He accepted the appointment of director of art at the Seddon Memorial Technical College in 1913 and remained there until 1940. He executed several fine back cloths for operas performed at the college. He was awarded the Auckland Society of Arts Bledisloe Medal for New Zealand landscape in 1942. The society's catalogue pays a final tribute: "Mr. John Ash was of a retiring nature who found his joy and satisfaction in the practice of arts and crafts. He was not greatly concerned with either popularity or applause." 

(Auckland Star, 9 September 1944)

The Ash family's home at 88 New Windsor Road in November 2015. Google streetview.

John and Hannah Ash’s cremains are in the Columbarium Niche Wall at Waikumete Cemetery. The trees are mostly long-gone, removed when the property was subdivided in the 1950s. Little remains of John W Ash’s time here except scattered mentions, and some works that appear for auction from time to time. 

But while Bollard and Ash are mere footnotes in the story of art in New Zealand, they are both connected to Avondale.