13 The Rectory

10 Pearse Street

Formerly ‘The Parsonage’, this cottage was built in 1843 for the recently arrived Church of England Minister, The Reverend Thomas Grigg, and his family.

As a rectory it was home to Anglican ministers serving Stanley and the surrounding area until 1983. Now a private residence, visitors are welcome at the art gallery housed in the original kitchen at the rear of the property.

In springtime, the Rectory garden has always been a picture, with English lavender hedgerows and cottage garden poppies, daisies and irises.

Meg kept a photograph from her teenage years, posing with friends in The Rectory garden, wearing ankle socks and a floral frock. There’s Marguerite (Meg) with Daphne and Iris. Their names inspired them to pose and title the picture ‘Three Flowers’ after a popular ladies’ fragrance of the day.

The walk continues downhill and rejoins Wharf Road where you can stroll along the edge of the bay. In summer you might spot the Rosa Felicity and Perpetua rose on the corner of Main Road and Cripp Street. The vigorous climber was brought here early in Stanley’s history, from a property called Rosebank in North Forest.

Meg wouldn’t have stopped to smell the roses here when she ran all the way home from school one day to hide under the kitchen table. Stories of London’s Jack The Ripper were rife at the time, and she thought she’d seen the infamous murderer, leaning against the school fence with ‘a sack of dead bodies’ over one shoulder. It turned out to be Max Hardy who had just come off the islands with a bag of muttonbirds on his back…