N is for Nairn Street Cottage: a cottage museum in Wellington

A child's toy from the Nairn Street Cottage.. What a story it could tell.

I am so mindful of the era of settlers around the world in the early to mid 1800's given all the ancestral research I have been doing on both my 1820's English settler family as well as my 1850's Dutch family.

So we popped into Wellington's oldest cottage located along Nairn Street in Mt Cook. It was built in 1858, from a pre-cut kit, by the settlers William and Catherine Wallis. What makes it's story interesting is that the home stayed in the family for three generations. The grand-daughter of William then made an arrangement with the City to preserve the charming wooden cottage and its lovely ramshackle garden with herbs, vegies and fruit trees that would have sustained the family over the century.

I loved the toy, from the first generations of Wallis', on wheels, faded, worn and 'up-cycled' with braid offcuts - a sheep or a cat? Not sure.