1863: Pollok Settlement
May 29, 2019
By AHNZ
I stumbled upon the old Pollok School (est 1883) on my way to Manukau Heads. A grand old building putting out a pulsing forcefield of old New Zealand history so I had to double-back for a closer look. Closed down in 2005 as a school, it’s fairly well maintained as a vacant ground. A fine stop for a picnic with a better than average playground out the back for the boys.
Like Waipu in Northland, Pollok Settlement was founded by a group of the Caledonian Diaspora*. These ones hailed from Pollokshaws, a suburb of Glasgow, in 1863; Hence the town’s name.
The Waipu Scots ten years earlier were led by their charismatic puritanical Moses, Rev. McLeod. Likewise, Pollok had its “Brimstone Jimmy” in Rev. Smith. I wonder what these two populations thought of one another, if anything?
Smith’s flock was envisioned as a self-sufficient monotheistic intentional community; Sometimes called a cult. A bit like the famous example today, Gloriavale, which is deliberately isolated whereas pressure from neighbours eroded Pollok’s homogeneity with “diluting effect.” When fire consumed the old school/church in 1882 it was the end of that era; Rev. Smith threw in the towel.
This 1883 school we visited was the opening of a new chapter. What old ‘Brimstone’ did next I do not know but Heritage New Zealand say he died in 1888. It must be pretty confronting to reject the heathen world, traverse the globe, build God’s Town, be convinced you are the bastion of truth and redemption in the cosmos, and then surrender.
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* Is that a real term? It should be. Scottish folk back in the day had a massive spurt of emigration
Ref. https://www.sooty.nz/pollok.html
Ref. http://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/7780
2 thoughts on "1863: Pollok Settlement"
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Interesting. I know well my family history none were in Pollok.
But my late grandfather Macleod or McLeod Pollock is named after a Rev. McLeod.
Of course all Pollocks are descendents of Fulbert the Saxon.
I recently read that Pollock had a little civil war and split into two factions (another win for Schopenhauer’s social theory..)
There’s an interesting tale here to deepen about the the Caledonian Diaspora and how it marked New Zealand. If my MacNabs come into it then I’ll take an interest.