Newspaper Article 1998 – Home sweet home

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Weekend

Home sweet home

By Chris Mole

Cold showers twice a day, three-mile runs to and from school in bare feet and discipline with a wooden spoon for misbehaviour were part of daily life at the former France House boys’ home at Eskdale during the 1940s. About 35 former residents of the home are meeting this weekend for a reunion, and there’ll be plenty of fond reminiscing about old times.

Henry Danvers, who lived at France House from 1941 to 1947, said it was like a large happy family.

“We were more like brothers than many brothers are today,” he said.

Mr Danvers’ mother died when he was aged four and he went to France House after his father left to serve during World War 2.

After the war, his father was too sick to care for him and he stayed at the boys’ home until he was 16. At that time the home was run by Norman and Hazel Shaw who treated the 32 boys like their own children with a mixture of love and discipline, he said.

Boys began each day by hanging out their bed linen to air in the dormitory windows while they went for a cold shower. Then they made their beds and Mrs Shaw inspected them.

“If they weren’t made property we got hit on the backside with a wooden spoon,” Mr Danvers said.

Before breakfast there were chores such as milking the cows, feeding the pigs and hens, chopping firewood and other jobs on the farm, which provided the boys with most of their food. The home was self-sufficient apart from meat and a few grocery items.

“We were pretty well fed and got lots of exercise,” Mr Danvers said. “No one in the valley was fitter than us.” The daily trip to Eskdale School was made on foot and the boys used to race each other to and from school.

Before dinner there were more chores, including polishing the wooden floors by hand and cleaning the windows.

The boys all belonged to scouts and one highlight of the year was a summer camp at Lake Tutira where they ate freshly caught fish from the lake.

Former residents of the home are expected from all over New Zealand for the reunion.

They will be joined by a small number of ex-residents of the Randall House girls’ home on Napier Hill.

France House opened on January 1, 1924. It was badly damaged in the 1931 earthquake but was rebuilt and continued as France House until 1977, when its name was changed to Beck House.

The home closed in the early 1980s and became an army cadet academy in 1989. It has been a bed-and-breakfast for the past three years.

Photo captions –

LEFT: Boys read on their beds in the main dormitory at France House in the mid-1940s, Standards of discipline were high and if boys did not make their beds correctly they were disciplined with a wooden spoon. The boys hand-polished the wooden floors.

BELOW: Former residents of France House (from left) Norm Robertson, Henry Danvers, John Hird and Les Spicer reminisce about their days in the boys’ home in the 1940s.

ABOVE: France House, which since 1924 has been a boys’ home and a cadet academy, is now a privately-owned bed-and-breakfast establishment.

Pictures: Warren Buckland