The Knowle (475 Glenfield Road)

Keith Timmins was an Englishman who moved to Glenfield and married Mabel Wheeler in 1926. He soon became a Waitematā steam ferry captain and purchased around five acres from the Chandler family in 1928. He hired Felix Mullions, a famed Arts and Crafts-style architect, to build his home, which he named The Knowle. Keith and Mabel’s daughter, Margaret, recalled spending an idyllic childhood there roaming the countryside and going to tennis games at her grandmother’s house nearby. When he retired in the 1950s, Keith grew violets and vegetables in his expansive garden and sold them in the city. Mabel died in 1939 and Keith remarried to Jessie Gregory. Her son Laurie eventually bought The Knowle and the Timmins moved into a cottage that Keith had built at the back of the property.

In the early 1960s, Timmins’ cottage was bought by a Mr Puckey, who enlarged the building and altered its style to match that of the times. In 1968, it was sold to Stan and Mary Woods. Stan was a well-respected artist of old buildings, scenes from early days, and native birds. Other sections from Timmins’ land were sold to the Goings and the Drinkrows. Both The Knowle—since renamed Earlswood—and the cottage remain today on Glenfield Road.

Continue along Glenfield Road.