By Rhonda Bartle
 

An Oxford Road welcome

Pull into Des and Nola Corbett's driveway and you're met with a warm welcome. They stand on the steps and say gidday, while holding open the door.

The couple have lived in the Ōkato area for so long they're recommended as the first port of call if you're looking for anything regarding Ōkato history.

Des was born in Ōkato, but as Nola jokes, she's had to travel to get here. She was raised in Ōakura, not much more than a stone's throw away.

Nola has recorded her own genealogy in two fine books, and she helped set up the Ōkato Historical Society in 1989.

Originally farmers, the pair moved closer to the township to retire. Inside their house of 26 years, family photographs and well-loved paintings adorn the walls.

But dig a little deeper and you can find a veritable storeroom of Ōkato's past that's not always down on paper.

Ask them about William Digby Harrod, and they're happy to share their stories and a few facts.

Nola Corbett at home in Ōkato. Image Puke Ariki TS2006_1047.

A few facts and feelings

For a start, William Harrod is buried in the Corbett family cemetery plot, alongside Des's great-great-grandfather, and he remembered both the Corbett family and the Roebuck clan in his will.

Fred Roebuck and William Harrod were such good friends that Roebuck called his son Stephen Digby Roebuck.

And William championed the Corbett children when it was found they were being treated badly at school.

"They got whacked for being late, for not having a handkerchief. Harrod went down to the school and tried to sort it out," Des says.

"Sadly, by the time we took an interest in him, my grandmother and grandfather had died.

"But John O'Sullivan (a local man) knew him well, because he had to walk past him on the way to his house, and he said he was a well-read man, someone very keen on poetry."

Des tells a tale about how his grandfather saved William's life. "Yes, they do reckon he saved his life. Grandfather went over there, on a winter's night, and William was lying in the corral.

"A beast had bumped him, knocked him over, and they had to take him to town in a gig. I don't know how old he would have been, but he had to have a spell in hospital."

Trying to get closer to the truth

Nola hands over a volume of Harrods: The Store and the Legend, published in the distinctive Harrods green and gold. Written in 1981 by Tim Dale, it plots the rags-to-riches journey of founder Henry Charles Harrod, and his son Charles Digby Harrod.

When it comes to William, the pages shed no light at all; he's not even named. As Dale writes: "Charles Digby's customers found him 'so handsome, so honest and so obliging' that he soon built up a fine reputation for himself in the neighbourhood. He had a brother, who also worked in the business until 1866, before deciding to move on."

 "We were always told that Harrods was the biggest shop in the world," Des says. "It took up a whole block.

"We went and had a look at it when we were over in London, made a few enquiries and were given this book. I thought we might have got something…but that's the only mention he got."

Getting closer to the truth?

Des and Nola, too, would love to solve the mystery about why William would choose the small coastal settlement of Ōkato to live in.

"He came over with his Uncle John Digby, his mother's brother, and his eight children, on the David F.Fleming.

"That's where the Digby comes from, from his mother's maiden name. His uncle bought land in New Zealand, and William helped break it in."

Nola adds another couple of pieces to the ill-fitting puzzle. "His cousin Henry was punished for marrying an Irish dancehall singer, who was also Catholic, you see.

"So Henry Harrod and Maria Mitchell travelled out together from the States and stepped ashore in Auckland 3rd May, 1864."

Instinct tells her that having family in New Zealand could have been significant. She suggests another book to read though it contains little new information; Colonial Outcasts, by Nell Hartley, whom she's met.

"She's very good. Nell's very accurate."

Who was she?

And then there is the newspaper story of someone arriving in Ōkato, claiming to be a Harrod descendent. Though Nola searches for the newspaper clipping, it's in vain.

"There was this girl who came over in the 80s, who said she was related to William. There was a photograph taken of her standing by the gravestone.

"I took her down and showed her around. She seemed a bit of a strange person. I showed her where the house was.

She was French or Scandinavian, but she spoke good English. She was in her late 20s or early 30s, with long hair. I wish I could find the cutting."

So, does that mean the rumours could be true? That William fled England because of a disastrous affair with a French actress that resulted in a child? Or could the exotic girl have come from a different Harrod line?

Des and Nola Corbett shake their heads. The answer is simple. No one knows.