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Erskine College, originally known as the Convent of the Sacred Heart was built in 1906. The four-story building was designed by architect John Sydney Swan and opened in 1906, serving as a Catholic girls' boarding school for nearly 80 years before its closure in 1985. The name was changed to Erskine College in the late 1960s.
History of Erskine College
History of Erskine College
Erskine was designed by the architect John Sydney Swan and built in 1905 opening in 1906. The first Superior was Mother Mary Dobson, with other members of the community being Mother Spadaccini, Mother Bourdeaux, Mother Lennon and Sister Cullen to run and teach at the Sacred Heart College.
For the first 28 years Mother Lennon was the principal. In 1967, the College was re-named Erskine College in honour of Superior General Reverend Mother Janet Erskine Stuart, who visited the College in 1914. Nearly 3,000 girls attended Erskine College from 1906-1985 when it closed. Students received a religious education focussed on music, drama and French culture, and an identity shaped by Sacré Coeur philosophy.
LEGO Erskine College Replica
LEGO Erskine College Replica
Model maker extraordinaire and show winner Frank Averes his winning exhibit of fomer Erskine College complete with chapel that once stood in Island Bay, Wellington.WARWICK SMITH / Stuff
There have been many tributes to the now-demolished Erskine College also known as the Convent of the Sacred Heart but perhaps none so unexpected as the labour of love of LEGO enthusiast Frank Avéres. He started playing with LEGO in the late 1960s when his family periodically received LEGO from relatives in Holland.
Frank Averes is a founding member of the Wellington LEGO User Group (WELL-LUG) and exhibitor at all their exhibitions to date
Frank worked from November 2017 - March 2018 to completed "Stage 1" which was the original 1906 Convent building, and from 2019 – March 2020 to complete "Stage 2" of the 1929 Chapel complex.
The overall model is 1.9m x 3.16m. "It is anyone’s guess how many LEGO elements it contains."
Masterly Embroidery at Erskine
Masterly Embroidery at Erskine
Gillian Ryrie
Gillian Ryrie
First published in Ngā Ākau ki te Tonga Southern Bays number 4 2008/2009
First published in Ngā Ākau ki te Tonga Southern Bays number 4 2008/2009
Throughout 1990, the art room at former Erskine College became again a centre of creativity, as New Zealand’s gift to the new Globe Theatre in London took shape.
This theatre is part of an educational and cultural resource complex fostering understanding of Shakespeare, and was instigated by Sam Wanamaker (actor, producer, director). The reconstructed open air theatre has been built close to the site of Shakespeare’s Globe playhouse which opened in 1599.
The gift from New Zealand comprised four large hangings 3.6 metres in height. Fifty metres of wool twill was donated by the New Zealand Wool Board as the base fabric for the embroidery, and nine and a half kilograms of wool/mohair yarn was supplied by Strand Natural Fibres Ltd, since embroiderers in Elizabethan times used woollen and silk threads.
Raymond Boyce, stage and theatre designer researched and worked for twelve months composing the designs for the hangings. Five hundred embroiderers from 54 Guilds around the country took part, using their flair and expertise in applying techniques and selecting fabrics best suited to portraying the rich theatrical quality required. As the completed sections were forwarded to the team at Erskine for assembly, they were then stitched into position on the base fabric and later finished by application of hand couching with wool/mohair yarn.
Dawn Sanders of the Wellington Shakespeare Society was the project manager, and Kath des Forges of Hamilton was appointed director of embroiderers.
The Hangings are designed as two pairs, the larger being 3.1 metres in width and the smaller 1.6 metres wide. The larger pair illustrates and interprets the story of Venus and Adonis, which is the subject of Shakespeare’s most famous poem, very popular with Elizabethans. The other pair features Hercules, and Atlas with his globe skillfully rotated to show New Zealand at the front. These characters were chosen because Shakespeare used them as logos for his theatre company “The King’s Men”.
Island Bay Resident Gill Williams embroidering a star
Sam Wanamaker had always been supportive of the project and visited New Zealand in 1990. The Hangings were officially unveiled by Dame Cath Tizard in April 1991 at the James Cook Hotel and then went on a ten city national tour followed by an overseas tour. Construction of the new Globe complex was accomplished in 1996. The Hangings adorned the back wall of the stage, known as the ‘frons scenae,” for the Gala opening by Her Majesty the Queen on June 12th 1997, with a performance of Henry V. They are now displayed as a prominent feature in the vast Under Globe exhibition room which is open daily, offering an engaging introduction to both the theatre and the London of Shakespeare’s time.
(Both Dawn and Kath were awarded a QSM in the 1992 New Year Honours. In 2006, Dawn was the recipient of the annual Sam Wanamaker award for her work with the Shakespeare Globe Centre in New Zealand.)
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