William Winstone

Arrival in New Zealand

On 3 June 1859, William Winstone departed from Gravesend for New Zealand on the 805-tonne ship Spray of the Ocean.^[6] He left with thirty shillings to his name, and this was divided between him and a fellow emigrant while onboard. Winstone arrived in Auckland after 86 days at sea, on 1 September 1859.^[7][8] It was not a prosperous period in the fledgling Auckland city, with little work available.^[9] He quickly took a job planting potatoes. He left the city to work as a teamster for a year at a farm in Drury, south of Auckland. He worked with horses, ploughed and did other manual labour including drain digging.^[10] He continued working on South Auckland farms for the next few years, before moving back to the city.

New Zealand Wars

Upon the Waikato invasion of 1863 during the New Zealand Land Wars, Winstone was back in Auckland city trying to get into the "carrying trade", providing haulage by horse and cart.^[10] Able-bodied men in Auckland aged 16 to 60 were called up to join the local militia, which included the then twenty year old Winstone. He received military training and was part of the militia for six months, before being seconded to a new transportation posting carting supplies between Auckland and the Waikato River at Mercer.^[3][11] The convoy of horses and carts travelled through rough track in the bush over two days, first from Auckland to Drury, and the next day the team continued over the Razorback to Mercer. Winstone recounted transporting an iron screw steamer in 1863, the Gymnotus, with a team of 14 horses and a timber wagon. The vessel was the first privately owned steamer on the Waikato river, and transported cargo for the military during the Waikato action.^[12][11] During Winstone's time transporting goods for the militia, his wife Ellen and infant daughter Eliza Annie (who would be their only biological child) arrived in New Zealand.^[4]

W. & G. Winstone

George Winstone was the younger brother of William Winstone. Like William, he left England at a young age, and sailed on the ship Mangerton to Queensland when he was 13 to work at his cousin's Mr Foote's shop in Ipswitch.^[8][1] In 1869, after working as a storekeeper for 8 years in Australia, George took up an invitation by William to come to Auckland and join his carrying business.^[13] They formed a partnership shortly after George's arrival, creating W. & G. Winstone Limited with a pooled capital of £630. William started out with an eighty percent share to George's twenty percent, but it later shifted to a fifty-fifty split.^[2]

Quarry accident

William Winstone suffered severe injuries in a quarry accident on 22 February 1870, not long after George's arrival.^[14] Winstone was quarrying basalt at the Mount Eden quarry, intended for the Auckland Stock Exchange building on Queen Street, which would be one of the most impressive commercial buildings of late colonial Auckland.^[15] The accident happened when the blasting powder he and his employee, Benjamin Thomas, were using ignited unexpectedly, and they were caught in the resulting explosion.^[2][16] Winstone was closest to the explosives, and the explosive powder got in his face and eyes, his left hand and arm were injured, and his leg badly cut. Thomas was also severely injured, having received a blow to the head. Winstone was briefly presumed dead by the first responders. A doctor, Mr Pierce, quickly arrived on the scene and attended to the men's injuries. It was hoped Winstone would not lose his eyesight following the accident, but he became blind in one eye, and lost half his vision in the other.^[16][4]

It took two years for William to recover, nursed back to health by Ellen.^[2][4] Some sources suggest he travelled to England for specialist eye care in this period.^[5] William's involvement with the company's horses did not cease during his recovery, and he won first prize at the 1872 New Zealand Agricultural Society Show for his 5 and 6 year old team of heavy carting horses.^[17] That year, Ellen's 10-year-old nephew Frederick Brock Winstone arrived in New Zealand aboard the Caduceus, and William and Ellen adopted him as their son.^[2] Frederick would join the company in 1880 after leaving school, and worked his way up to managing director and secretary of the company in 1904.^[2][18]

The 1870s proved to be a profitable decade for W. & G. Winstone Ltd despite the flagging New Zealand economy. This was due in part to the company winning government carting contracts in Premier Julius Vogel's public works schemes, and supplying building materials.^[1] They provided haulage for the flattening and reclamation of Point Britomart.^[2][1] In 1874 William and George signed an 85 year lease for two Custom House Street properties and built a double-fronted two-storey company building divided by a public weigh bridge. They occupied the left half of the property, and leased the right half to grain merchants Gunson and Martin. That year, George Winstone married merchant Robert Martin's sister, Mary Elizabeth Martin.^[19]

Stables & Failand

In 1882, William Winstone bought a large block of Mount Albert land from Edward Allen.^[20] He would build and shift two homes on this land later in the decade, but likely used it for paddocks to rest the company horses before George set aside 8 hectares of his Mount Roskill farm for the purpose in 1900.^[2] William and George purchased land on upper Symonds Street after the stabling at William's Hayden Street home reached capacity, and built a much larger stable complex.

The main building of the stables was constructed in 1883, and featured concrete floors, a drainage system, and an upper floor to store horse feed.^[2] It was designed by architect Robert Watt.^[21] The building initially housed 30 Clydesdales, and the working complex was built around it, becoming home to around 200 horses. Six stablehands lived onsite at the rear of the stables, and William Winstone built his villa called 'Failand' in 1882, situated in front of the stables, facing out onto Symonds street.^[2] The stables were designed to match Failand's Italianate design.^[21] Failand was a two-storey weatherboard residence constructed in two sections screwed together in order for it to be relocatable.^[4] It was built with kauri, featuring a grand staircase and entry hall.^[22]

The Symonds Street complex continued to grow along with the business, and by 1895, stored 24 drays, 5 furniture vans, 4 spring top carts, 2 flat top trolleys, 1 timber wagon, jinker, and flat top cart, and stabled the associated horses.^[2]

Tyntesfield

Winstone moved his daughter Annie into Failand during her first marriage to Alfred Acey Stephenson, while William and Ellen moved into the newly constructed single-storey home called Tyntesfield for their retirement years.^[4][25][26]

The year 1904 was a time of great change in William Winstone's life. Ellen, his wife of forty-five years, died aged 73, on 22 October 1904. The partnership of W. & G. Winstone Ltd was dissolved, and a new company created, called Winstone Ltd. William and George senior were company directors, alongside Frederick Winstone and George's two sons Percy and George. A far cry from the financial situation the brother's partnership had begun with, Winstone Ltd started out with a capital of £20,000, and a yearly turnover of £56,000.^[2]

Final years

William Winstone remarried twelve years after the death of his wife Ellen, much to the family's surprise.^[4] On 7 June 1916, 73-year-old Winstone married 39-year-old Jane Robinson in a ceremony performed by Reverend C. H. Garland at Tyntesfield.^[27]

In April 1919, William's son Frederick Brock Winstone died suddenly of a heart attack.^[18] He had been acting manager of Winstone Ltd for several years.^[28]

William had suffered an illness prior to the event, but he was able to attend the Winstone Ltd Diamond Jubilee on 11 March 1924.^[3] The event was attended by management, Winstone family members, and employees past and present. William addressed the audience, saying he appreciated "the tributes to his business integrity and the kindness paid him by the staff".^[14] As a token of appreciation by his employees, Winstone was gifted the installation of wireless equipment in his home. He said attending the occasion had given him "the greatest pleasure of his life", thanked all the staff for helping make the business a success, and was pleased at the number of old employees in attendance.^[14]

William Winstone's health continued to decline following the Jubilee. He died at Tyntesfield on 23 June 1924, aged 81. He was eulogised in Auckland newspapers as a pioneer of business in the city, a man of strong character, and a "great horse lover".^[3]