Rambling at the Rusty Acre
The interesting thing about rural blocks is that nobody really knows what others get up to behind those macrocarpa hedges. Step through the little gate into the Rusty Acre at Mandeville and you’re taken into another world – with a touch of the Alice in Wonderland about it.
Words: Pattie Pegler Photography: Dorothy McLennan
Winding pathways lead through the green and shady garden. There are towering trees and splashes of floral colour and birds flit and fly through the canopy. In the trees and undergrowth figures and shapes sculpted from steel peer out at you. It feels cool and enchanting on a warm summer’s day and it’s hard to imagine this space any other way. But when Allan O’Loughlin and Andrea Wadsworth moved on to this 2-acre block back in 1993 it was a bare paddock.
Shortly afterwards they went overseas, spending a couple of years in the UK and came back with “lots of ideas” says Andrea.
So was there a master plan when they moved on to a bare paddock? “There were no plans,” laughs Allan, “Around here you need to get shelter belts up. So the only plan was for the easterly, the nor’wester and the southerly”.
An old shed made with big, sandy coloured bricks looks like something lifted out of an old English cottage garden; a unique formation of old gas bottles has been transformed into nesting boxes for wild birds and a formidable wooden gate with a huge rusted handle leads into the herb garden.
This was one of the first areas of the garden they developed and it is Andrea’s first love. “I love herbs and I’m always out picking flowers, often to press. We bottle all our beetroot and make jams and chutneys,” she says.
But centre stage in this garden are the sculptures. A long-legged man sits atop a penny farthing bike his scarf blowing in the wind; towering, willowy figures are scattered around the open lawn; an abstract shape of galvanised steel takes centre stage. But everywhere you look there is something to catch the eye - like the rusty fairy spreading her steel wings high in a tree.
Allan is the sculpting half of this partnership. “It’s just my hobby,” he shrugs. It feels like a serious understatement. The garden is filled with amazing steel sculptures of all shapes and sizes that he has created in his workshop. He uses steel which he buys new and ‘the odd bit of scrap’.
In fact the couple are both very creative in their own ways. While Allan is working away with his mig welder, Andrea can often be found in her own shed restoring an old vase with delicate hand painting or re-upholstering an old chair. “I love that sort of thing,” she says, “Mum always had an eye for colours and I just love titivating and reorganising my surroundings.” Many of the pieces that Andrea restores are now destined for her home décor shop which is an absolute treasure trove for those after something a little bit different.
The Rusty Acre opened to the public just over a year ago, but it was mainly driven by Andrea’s love of home décor. “It was the shop that came first. I just love home décor, quirky stuff and I wanted to do something here,” she explains. She continues to work part time as a theatre nurse, commuting into Christchurch and spends the rest of her time running her shop and events at The Rusty Acre while Allan is the sculptor and gardener of the organisation.
This talented couple might have started with “no plan” for their bare paddock – but what they have created is enchanting. A true testimony perhaps to the power of not planning.
The Rusty Acre is open from Friday to Sunday. For more details visit The Rusty Acre on Facebook.