Maker: Jill Grooby

Panel number: 414

Petition sheet number: 503

Person honouring: Emma Dickins

Relationship to maker: Paternal great-grandmother – she adopted my grandfather

Emma Allen was born in 1850 in Beverley, Yorkshire, England. After her mother died she lived with her aunt and uncle until she married James Dickins, a farm worker, in 1872. 

Emma and James knew they had to leave if they wanted to purchase their own land, so sailed for New Zealand in 1876,  arriving in Napier with their young nephew. Under government regulations, they were eligible for 40 acres of bush-covered land, somewhere in the ‘back blocks’. Their land was alongside Napier Road, just north of Woodville.

Shortly after the family arrived in Woodville, the Victoria Small Farmers Association formed. The Dickins gained a 100-acre section in the 1878 ballot. This land was covered with standing bush, with a few rough tacks and mud roads, but two years later Emma, James, and young Alfred moved to their new homestead, Rosedale.

As some original settlers sold up and moved on, Emma and James purchased more sections; eventually Rosedale Farm covered about 1,000 acres.

“The settlers in the Victoria Valley were nearly all bachelors and Mrs Dickins’ home  was the rallying point for all and although life in those days was full of hardships, Mrs Dickins, never a strong woman, kept an ‘open house’, and her hospitality became a by-word – ‘the wonderful qualities of Mrs Dickins endeared her to everyone’ her death will be mourned all over the Dominion.”[Emma’s obituary 1925] 

Both Emma and James are buried in Woodville’s Old Gorge Cemetery.

Panel materials: Floral fabric for the background. I incorporated an old embroidered handkerchief and pieces of tatting and hand-made crochet kept by my aunty – a granddaughter of both Emma and Jessie. The photographs and cup/saucer were printed onto fabric and attached to the panel. The cup and saucer symbolise the generosity, kindness, and hospitality of Emma to all new residents to the district. The fabric used for the flowers in the bottom part of the panel came from a very old apron kept by my mother, also a granddaughter of Emma and Jessie.