Six generations of my family have lived in Broad Bay.  I’m fourth generation.

My grandparents, Lenard and Jesse, moved to 679 Portobello Road (on the corner of Matariki Street) from Naseby with their family and my great-grandparents. Years later, after the great-grandparents passed away, Lenard and Jesse moved to 2 King George Street where my mum, Noeline Jopson, lived until she left to marry Stuart Blacklow at the Catholic Church in Broad Bay.  Stuart was from Macandrew Bay.  They had their wedding reception at the Broad Bay Hall in Clearwater Street on 19th December 1959.

Noeline and Stuart bought their first home at 2 James Street (Clearwater Street) where I came along in September 1960. We lived there till I was seven and my brother Gaven was four.

Mum and Dad purchased a section at 37 Harbour Terrace (Waikana Street).  While they were building our family home, we lived at 19 John Street (Matariki Street).  Then we moved into our new house where I stayed until I was married in 1979 to Tony Obbeek.  Tony and I bought our first home together at 23 Moerangi Steet.  It was a very small place but we stayed there seven years until our first-born was on his way.  Then we sold and moved into 19 Frances Street two weeks before Tim arrived in 1986.  We raised our three children here – Tim, Rhys and Lisa.

They all left home, went flatting and moved on. Lisa made us grandparents in 2014 with a gorgeous granddaughter: Billie Ellison.  They moved back to Broad Bay, into 2 Cowel Street where Rhys and Jess had been living while they built their new home in Oxley Crescent.  It has been lovely having them back in the Bay close to us and my dad, who until January 2023 still lived in our family home.

Extended family in Broad Bay

My mother’s sisters moved to the Bay with their families.

Tiny and Jack Schriiffer with their two sons lived at 12 Harbour Terrace (Waikana Street).  Mum’s Aunty, Dorrie Watson (Jopson), lived for many years across from the Schriiffers in what was James Speights’s holiday home.

Then Mum’s other sister, Cath, and her husband, Georgie Weatherall, with their sons, John and Brian, came to live in Oxley Crescent.  John moved to town when he married, but Brian stayed in Broad Bay with his wife and their family, Angella and Roger.  They lived in three different houses in John Street (Matariki Street).  Then they built their home at 2 Matariki Steet where they lived until Brian had his accident and died.

It was too much for Margaret so she sold.  Angella lived in Oxley Crescent in two different places until she moved to town with her husband and daughter, Rebecca Webb, who went to Broad Bay School too.

Jesse Jopson (Nan)

When my Nan (Jesse Jopson) retired she moved from King George Street to 19 Solar Terrace.  She lived there for a few years till my Uncle, Jack Schriiffer, had a stroke.  Nan bought a caravan to put at Solar Terrace for herself so Tiny and Jack Schriiffer could live in the house.  It worked well for everyone and Jesse lived in the caravan until she passed in 1985.

Ok, so that was the Jopson side, and  now for the Blacklow side. My father’s father Fred Blacklow lived at Macandrew Bay, he was a baker. He and Mr Bewley had a bakery in the back of the Broad Bay shop, next door to the Broad Bay Hall, back in the early 1950s where they baked bread and pies.

Broad Bay was a great place to grow up with aunties, uncles and cousins around every corner.  And now Tony and I are about to move back into the old family home at 37 Waikana Street where we plan to stay as long as possible.

By Christine Obbeek (Née Blacklow)